Over the last two weeks, Doc Rivers the coach has done a fantastic job of covering for Doc Rivers the GM. The Los Angeles Clippers have won nine straight games, the last eight without superstar forward Blake Griffin, who – in case you hadn’t noticed over the past couple of seasons – has overtaken Chris Paul as the team’s best player. When Griffin got hurt, the Clippers appeared to be in trouble. They had just lost three straight games to San Antonio,
First, a disclaimer: I like Billy King. He has always treated me well, has always been friendly and helpful, and he was truly one of the NBA’s most gracious men. But now let’s get to the heart of the matter: Billy King was a terrible, terrible general manager. One of the worst in league history. His temporary replacement — an empty chair — will do a better job than King did. And his eventual successor will need one essential qualification — masochist
When asked recently about the trade value of Brooklyn Nets guard Joe Johnson, one Western Conference scout summed it up in six brutally painful words: “He makes a lot of money.” After 15 NBA seasons and seven All-Star appearances, the 34-year-old Johnson has turned from a very good basketball player into just another contract a team can’t wait to get off its books. Mercifully for Brooklyn, Johnson’s contract expires at the end of this season. When it’s all said and done in Brooklyn—
If you are like many Americans – middle-class, middle-aged males not unlike myself – and watched your first NBA games this season on Christmas, then you probably think the Chicago Bulls are just fine. If you have watched at any other time this season, then you know otherwise. On Christmas, the Bulls played perhaps their best game of the season. They went into Loud City without injured emotional leader Joakim Noah and never trailed against the Thunder, leaving with a convincing 105-96
We’re a quarter of the way through the regular season and the NBA landscape has shifted dramatically. Kobe Bryant is retiring after this season and wants to be remembered as a “talented overachiever” when it’s all said and done. Meanwhile, Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers (3-15) trail only the Philadelphia 76ers (1-19) for the league’s worst record. With every loss, the Lakers grow closer to keeping their top-three protected draft pick and potentially land top prospect Ben Simmons. On the flip side, the Golden
The Los Angeles Clippers entered Wednesday’s contest against the Golden State Warriors with a perfect 4-0 record and had plenty to be optimistic about how their season has gone so far. Optimism has a way of going out the window when you lose, though, and that’s what happened to the Clippers after falling to Stephen Curry and the Warriors 112-108. The contest went down to the wire for the Clippers despite taking a 10-point lead half way through a momentum-shifting fourth quarter. Blake
BROOKLYN — If there was such thing as NBA purgatory, that would be where the Brooklyn Nets franchise is currently situated. At 0-4 with no first round pick next June (and no control of any first round pick until 2019), no hope for a real superstar on the roster until at least the summer and a lack of talent to compete in the Eastern Conference, it looks more likely by the day that this will be a painful lost season for
Congratulations if you expected the Knicks to score 122 on the road and used bargains like Derrick Williams $3200, Kyle O’Quinn $3700, Sasha Vujacic $3000 and Langston Galloway $4200 in your lineups at DraftKings. [Read more…]