It’s been just over three weeks since the NBA trade deadline and 10 days since the March 1 buyout deadline that saw numerous players joining playoff contenders. So which acquisitions are soaring and which are flailing? We’re going to look at 15 players who were recently acquired via trade or signing and sort them into three categories: Good, Bad and Obscure. The good players are making positive impacts on their teams, the bad players just haven’t been faring very well on their new
No matter whom you like in the race for NBA Rookie of the Year, one thing is certain: Both Karl-Anthony Towns and Kristaps Porzingis will be watching the playoffs on TV. That’s no dig at either player. It is usually what happens to high draft picks during their first couple of seasons. You have to go back to Derrick Rose in 2008 to find a top overall pick who reached the playoffs in his rookie season. In fact, among the last 40
By now, the Golden State Warriors should be accustomed to the scrutiny produced by their championship last season and their pursuit of 73 victories this season. Everything they do is magnified, which was evident again on Sunday. Their bizarre loss to the woeful Los Angeles Lakers generated great debate throughout the sports world. On ABC, it was announced that no NBA team with 55 victories had ever lost to a team with 51 losses. So that is the biggest regular season upset
In the brave new world of basketball analytics, trends and modules, a simpler stat surfaced this week that was utterly inexplicable. Two teams have lost 10 games this season in which they led after three quarters. One is the league-worst Philadelphia 76ers, who have no one on their roster who knows how to win a game. The other is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have two of the supposed best closers in the game in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. [Read more…]
Welcome back for the first post All-Star break edition of the Gambling Guru column Speaking of All-Star weekend, was Aaron Gordon not absolutely ripped off in the dunk contest? I might be speaking from my wallet but that looked like daylight robbery to me! Greener pastures for Joe-Jesus As predicted in this very column earlier in the season – Joe Johnson found his way onto a contender. Surprisingly to me though, Joe chose a very marginal contender. As it stands, there are only four teams
Of all the superlatives that have been used to describe Stephen Curry this season, the best may have come from Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who in late December compared Curry to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. “They changed our everyday life,” Carlisle said. “Steph Curry is changing the way our game will be played in the future.” Two months later, Carlisle had proof when Mark Cuban, his boss, said it is time to begin considering change. “It’s not long before the discussion
After losing four starters and their sixth man over the summer, it seems so unlikely insane that the Portland Trail Blazers are currently tied for the sixth seed in the Western Conference. The reason why Portland is the hottest team in the league aside from Golden State is the play of its backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, which has quickly become one of the league’s elite guard pairings. The Blazers have now won 10 of their last 12 and
I hope Oscar Robertson was watching Saturday night. I hope he saw Stephen Curry answer his ridiculous, attention-starved musings as definitively as possible. I hope he wasn’t too jaded to see Curry handle the ball in a way Robertson only wished he could. I hope his eyesight still works well enough to see from where Curry was launching – and making – his shots. And I hope Robertson and a number of NBA stars from bygone eras will just shut up and