It’s the Larry Sanders Show. Not the old HBO sitcom starring Garry Shandling, which I never really found to be that funny but ultimately paved the way for similar real-life parody vehicles such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. No, this is neither parody nor sitcom. It’s more of a reality show, and its star appears as serious as a heart attack about becoming a permanent resident of our Most Improved Player Rankings. [Read more…]
I’m filling in for our peerless, fearless editor-in-chief for this week’s edition – – which means these will be our Most Improved Rankings in more ways than one. This is perhaps the most difficult award for media members, because every season there are dozens of candidates and almost as many parameters for what constitutes improved. A case in point came last season, when the media clearly voted for the wrong guy. [Read more…]
One night, both of last year’s NBA Finalists competing, both NBA Finalists going down. The Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Clippers turned in two of the top performances of the young 2012-13 NBA season, as they beat the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat by 10 and 7 points, respectively, though the point differential isn’t an indicator of how well either team played: [Read more…]
How could the Thunder possibly think that signing Serge Ibaka was a higher priority than James Harden?!? Well, we have recent evidence. If you’ve heard the phrase “Defense wins championships,” then you might have some idea as to why the Thunder decided to re-sign Ibaka to a four-year, $48 million deal that helped to ensure James Harden was shipped out of town to the Houston Rockets. ‘Defense’ is the word that helps people to understand Ibaka’s value to the Thunder, but his work
It’s getting hard to keep up with all the injuries and illnesses. Every NBA team has to deal with them, but let’s consider just one, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their star Kyrie Irving played (quite well) through a bout of food poisoning on Wednesday. Anderson Varejao has a sore knee, though we expect both in the lineup this evening. Rookie Dion Waiters has a deep thigh bruise, while fellow freshman Tyler Zeller, who has a fractured face, is being fitted for
Despite only a handful of games the opening week of the NBA season wasn’t short of headlines. First there was the James Harden trade, then were some controversial extension decisions, the Lakers have started 0-3 and Danny Granger and Eric Gordon were shut down. Every Saturday afternoon, we’ll examine the Week That Was, then review our Depth Chart Updates, the Upcoming Schedule and our picks for Sits and Starts. The Week That Was Lesson #1: The James Harden trade In my Northwest Division preview,
There are a lot of factors to balance in trying to determine what fantasy players to target during drafts, and it does sometimes feel like juggling cats. One of the markers that is sometimes unremarked, but that is helpful to use when studying players for drafting in fantasy is to look at what players did in the second half of the year before. This is particularly useful in predicting performance in the upcoming season for three reasons: players are likely to
(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) The Oklahoma City Thunder were one of the league’s most talked-about teams last season, and it seemed that they were destined to meet with the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. It