The team that passed on Stephen Curry oh so many years ago got beaten in the NCAA championship game by what else? A 3-pointer. You have to believe the folks at Davidson, especially one particular ex-student, took a little extra gratification from Kris Jenkins’ title-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer that lifted Villanova over North Carolina. Because it was Davidson, you may recall, that benefited most from the decisions by North Carolina and Duke to take a pass on the player who
Ah, the All-Star break. It’s like spring break for ballers, except it’s too damn cold unless you do what the non-All-Stars do and head to the tropics while the NBA takes a week-long break that really isn’t a break – not with the trade deadline coming Thursday. Imagine you were a college student and you were spending several days drinking Natty Lights, watching wet T-shirt contests, throwing up and using your best “Feel the Bern” lines to piss off Gloria Steinem
Stephen Curry is at the forefront of the NBA’s statistical efficiency revolution. SC30’s ability to pull-up off the bounce (from anywhere on the court, at any time, with above-average efficiency) has transformed what it means to be a point guard in the modern NBA. When you combine his shooting and playmaking abilities with a Golden State Warriors team that is hellbent on efficiency at the offensive end, you are left with a player (and team) that might be entering their primes. [Read
After an extended vacation along with a visit to Team USA camp in Las Vegas alongside Sheridan over the summer, my NBA gambling column is back. We absolutely NAILED last year’s NBA Championship winner (at 14-1, too, I might add) and I’m excited to be back on deck for the 2015-16 season. I’m going to kick things off with a series of preseason gambling predictions. We’ll cover all the major awards, division winners and even find where the value lies in the NBA Championship and conference winner markets.
Each time the Rockets play the Thunder, four names immediately come to mind: Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, Steven Adams and Mitch McGary. With all draft picks now liquidated, those players make up the return Oklahoma City received for James Harden in October 2012. Martin left the Thunder in free agency after one season off the bench, and the others all score fewer than eight points per game. That’s it. Lamb, who was supposedly the trade’s crown jewel as the No. 12 pick in 2012, isn’t
A few things are certain regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder this season: First, OKC’s best bet to make the playoffs rests solely on the shoulders of All-Star guard Russell Westbrook. Second, Westbrook’s string of triple-doubles makes him the team’s best candidate for the NBA MVP award, which Kevin Durant won last year. Finally, any success that the Thunder have this season will be without Durant, who will undergo his third foot surgery in less than six months, thus ending his season,
Rudy Gobert had a coming out party for the NBA during the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge with 18 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks for the World Team. The Utah Jazz eventually traded Enes Kanter at the deadline, which promoted Gobert into a full-time starting role. Since then, Gobert has averaged 10.5 points, 14.1 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 57 percent from the field. Another big man who’s played well lately has been New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony
BROOKLYN – You know the MVP race is something special when the player leading the NBA in PER (31.4), blocks per game (2.8) and field goals made per game (9.5) isn’t running away with the award. In fact, Anthony Davis is in a five-man cluster on the MVP leaderboard along with – in no particular order – Stephen Curry, LeBron James, James Harden and Russell Westbrook. But when most people are forced to pick one and only one name, you rarely hear