It’s go time. The NBA season finally opens up tonight and it has snuck up on me more than any season I can remember. Anyway, here are my over/under picks for the win totals for each team based on the numbers set at Pinnacle Sports. Atlanta Hawks, 49.5 wins: UNDER This team was simply lights out against the spread last season, and they’ll be a solid team again, but I’m projecting them to fall slightly under 49 wins. Boston Celtics, 45.5 wins: UNDER I love Brad
There was a train wreck at Penn Station last season. It was known as the New York Knicks, who endured the worst season in franchise history. It happened under the watch of Phil Jackson, one of the franchise’s heroes and a name synonymous with winning in the NBA. Jackson and the Knicks went to work this offseason in the draft and in free agency to get the team back on track. Despite concerns from fans about drafting the next Frederic Weis, the
It’s not easy to take an 11-hour flight, but that’s what former NBA player and current Maccabi Tel Aviv point guard Jordan Farmar was getting ready for on Sunday afternoon as he slowly got dressed in the locker room inside Madison Square Garden. After a two-city tour in NBA arenas, Farmar and his teammates were about to head back to Israel, traveling even further away from his native Los Angeles. Farmar, 28, was born in Los Angeles and went to high
In the past, a handful of players have come over from Europe and made a big impact in their rookie seasons in the NBA. Pau Gasol came from Spain to win NBA Rookie of the Year with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2002. Coming off two straight Italian League MVP awards, Manu Ginobili gave the San Antonio Spurs the extra push off the bench they needed to win the NBA title in 2003. Luis Scola and Juan Carlos Navarro were immediate contributors as
As I said recently on NBC Sports Radio and in my previous free agent rankings — there are still bargains to be had on the free agent market. Just ask the New York Knicks, who landed Kevin Seraphin on a one-year, $2.8 million deal. Seraphin was No. 1 on our previous free agency rankings. Seraphin turned down several significant offers for a better chance at playing time with the prospect of cashing when the salary cap spikes next summer. [Read more…]
The problem with giving midsummer report cards is that they’re like a “progress report” from your kid’s school. “So-and-so is in danger of getting a D in math,” one such report from my youngest son’s school said. He ended up with a B-plus. Being halfway through the summer means a lot of things (halfway toward a supertan, a month closer to a second straight golf-free year), but it does not mean you can give an entirely accurate reading of a team’s offseason.
Amar’e Stoudemire moved into very exclusive company this summer. By accepting the veteran’s minimum of $1.5 million in signing as a free agent with the Miami Heat, Stoudemire became just the second player in NBA history to take a $20 million pay cut. Last season, Stoudemire was on the books for $23,410,000, the final season of the five-year deal worth about $100 million he signed with the New York Knicks in 2010. That was the summer that the Knicks tried to position
Free agency shopping at the end of July is similar to waiting all month for the giant coupon booklet from your neighborhood grocery store. With that in mind, which players will be this year’s bargains on the clearance shelf? Can you find a scoring guard and a big man off the bench with a $2.8 million mid-level exception? Yes, that is somewhat akin to a two-for-one deal on soon-to-expire potato chips at your favorite grocery store. Some of the unrestricted free agents in