On Saturday night, while most basketball fans were watching the Final Four, the NBA playoffs got under way. Not officially, of course. That doesn’t happen until April 16. But for the Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and other teams fighting for the bottom of the brackets, the postseason already has started. Detroit’s 94-90 victory at Chicago on Saturday wasn’t quite a Game Seven. The Pistons aren’t quite home free just yet, and the Bulls aren’t quite dead. But it sure looked an awful
11. Indiana Pacers – Kelly Oubre, SF, Kansas Like many Jayhawks prospects, Oubre should be even better in an NBA system where he’ll have more scoring opportunities. As a rookie, Oubre should be able to hit open jumpers, and if he develops his ball-handling skills to create his own scoring opportunities, he could be very good. He averaged 9.3 points and 5 rebounds in just 21 minutes per game for Kansas, and went 15-for-19 from the foul line in a late-season victory over
Have you been watching the Knicks and Lakers this season? Yes, it’s hard. Two of the NBA’s biggest spenders in the league’s two biggest markets are playing awful basketball, and it doesn’t look like either one has the personnel or the sense of purpose to turn things around. Both teams will miss the playoffs and land in the draft lottery, again. There’s good news for the Knicks. They were somehow smart enough to keep their first-round pick and should have a chance
The trade deadline is behind us, and now almost half the league _ and half of the league’s fan base _ starts looking forward to the draft. By now, we have heard plenty about the much hyped draft class of 2014. Riggin for Wiggins, Sorry for Jabari, Mishandle for Randle and I’m sure there are many more terms out there acting as synonyms for Tankapalooza. It’s without doubt the most eagerly anticipated class since 2003, and whether or not it lives up
Mid-October is not synonymous with the NBA draft. Basketball fans are usually starting to notice the NBA preseason and getting ready for the start of college ball. But unlike past years, there has been a greater focus on the 2014 NBA draft and the overwhelming star power it has. That is why “Tankapalooza” is already part of basketball lexicon. For a long time, this next draft has been called the Andrew Wiggins Lottery, and one year prior to the 2014 draft, the
The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is pure mayhem; games begin and end simultaneously, buzzers sound from TV’s, iPads, iPhones, and computers, celebrations are loud … and defeat is inevitable for more than three-quarters of the field… Which brings us to these next four days of college basketball: Games are fewer than the week before, but the stakes continue to rise as the Sweet Sixteen turns into the Elite Eight, and, eventually the Final Four. [Read more…]