It is too early in the season to start ranking the MVP candidates. Or is it? Hey, how many chances to you get to say the Grizzlies and Raptors are on course to meet in the NBA Finals? It would be like one big Canadian reunion. There will be Vancouver nostalgia columns run amok. (The Grizzlies moved from Vancouver to Memphis in 2001). Well, if that is going to be the case, we may as well beat everyone to the punch. My
So … how was your summer? In the quiet of late September, it’s easy to forget how totally nutty things got after the San Antonio Spurs ended the Miami Heat Era (even if nobody quite knew it yet). Transformative free agent maneuvering. Blockbuster trades. Courtroom drama. Spectacularly damaging internal memos uncovered in the wake of wildly inappropriate scouting reports. Now that it’s over, the pillars of power in the NBA have shifted. Some of them, at least. It’s easy to see where the
It’s been a brutal season for the Milwaukee Bucks. As of this writing, they’re sitting on 14 wins and 63 losses, a league-worst clip despite the Sixers’ recent 26-game losing streak. But unlike Philadelphia, which began this season with a nakedly obvious quest to bottom out, Milwaukee actually chased the playoffs. They (rather questionably) signed O.J. Mayo and Zaza Pachulia and traded for Wisconsin native Caron Butler, who is the only player in NBA history ever excited about getting shipped to
Let’s see … the sky was gray this morning … again. The temperature was in the 30s … again. The forecast calls for more chilly weather … again. Kevin Durant is going to be No. 1 on this list … again. What is going to make today different? These are the things you ponder while getting the kids ready for school — plus the thought of what the heck was the local school board thinking when they decided that school would begin
It’s been a while since the Western Conference wasn’t jam-packed with high-end teams, and this season is no exception. If anything, it’s been even more absurdly competitive. Five teams will almost certainly finish with 50 wins, and at least one team with a win total in the mid-40s is guaranteed to miss the playoffs. We know this because as of this writing, the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies own the 7-9 seeds with identical 43-30 records. Last I checked,
It’s not necessarily that things are getting tighter atop the standings – Indiana and Miami remain a country mile ahead of their Eastern Conference brethren – but with less than a month to go before the playoffs, things are growing a whole lot more competitive. Once an affront to James Naismith, Massachusetts, and peach baskets, the bottom 3/4ths of the playoff ladder has taken on a totally new look since the All-Star break. Specifically: Records since the circus left New Orleans: [Read
In the eyes of many, the unbridled mess that is the New York Knicks just received the most drastic makeover this side of Ally Sheedy in “The Breakfast Club” upon hiring Phil Jackson as team president and Zen Master Extraordinaire. Hopes are high in the Big Apple, but plenty of question marks linger, even for a man with 11 rings. It remains to be seen whether Jackson’s arrival provides enough confidence and stability to convince Carmelo Anthony to re-up. (A cynic,
Thanks to all those who voted in our poll last week asking whether Kevin Durant or LeBron James is the stronger MVP candidate. The final results were astonishingly close, with Durant taking over Tuesday night as he was scoring 42 points against Houston and winning the poll with 47.10 percent of the vote to James’ 46.33. Is this a preview of what the actual voting will be like? It probably was, and the challenge for the NBA front office in late April and