As much as I enjoy the NBA, there is a tedium to the preseason that only makes me feel dissatisfied. I’m that much closer to regular season basketball, but yet I don’t quite have it, kind of like Al Pacino and his retirement in The Godfather 3. Nonetheless, as we enter a new season, I’m always looking for players who will emerge as stars. I also look at who has a realistic chance of getting traded. And then I like to
By now you’ve probably heard that the Thunder dealt last season’s NBA Sixth Man of the Year, James Harden, to the Rockets for three draft picks, rookie Jeremy Lamb, and guard Kevin Martin. It’s a bold move for rebuilding Houston, now banking on Harden becoming a franchise cornerstone, and a bit of a questionable one for the Thunder, who will still battle for a title this season, but will find that more difficult without Harden. The move comes after the Thunder
This is the final night of exhibition games, and kicks off a huge weekend for fantasy basketball drafts. We hope the last six weeks of lists, opinions and advice has helped you prepare and that there’s a championship in your future. My draft tonight is in a 20-team keeper league, where I was able to collect three “extra” draft picks in trades last season. Each team keeps four players, so the draft begins in the fifth round, and Anthony Davis will
Have you ever read the book “When the Game Was Ours”? It’s about the rise, rivalry and friendship of two of the finest players in the history of the NBA in Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and how their love and passion for the game of basketball helped shape the NBA into what it is today. What you also find out in the book is the role of one David Stern, who wasn’t always hated and booed at every basketball event he
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) Portland Trail Blazers fans had to endure one of the franchise’s worst meltdowns in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. Following an epic sell-off and housecleaning, the Blazers enter this season with a new
Draft Planning & Auction Strategies In Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this series, I introduced you to the Fantasy Basketball Primer, reviewed Head-to-Head, Rotisserie and Keeper League strategies, shared strategies for certain league customizations and showed you how to find sleepers. Today, we look at transforming that information into a draft plan for snake-style drafts and some basic auction draft strategies. The goal of your draft is to accumulate as much talent as possible while building a diverse and balanced roster. You can’t win your league at the
One day after the NBA implemented a new anti-flop rule to penalize players with fines for flopping, there were plenty of reactions around the league, from happy campers to those that weren’t quite sure if it was the best of ideas. See what was said around the league about the change along with other news around the league on Thursday: Blake Griffin thinks the flopping rule is a great way for the league to make money on, from Marc J. Spears
