The NBA has been considering, or at least entertaining the idea of finding ways for the regular season to be shorter in some way to help prevent its valuable players from being too worn out. So in Sunday’s upcoming preseason contest between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets, the league will try out a 44-minute game for the first time ever just as a simple sample to evaluate. Here are the details, from ESPN: The contest will be four minutes shorter than
If you were to create the most perfect basketball player, who would it be and what skills would that player have? That probably depends on whether you ask a small or a big man. If you asked a big man, they’d probably say something like Yao Ming’s height with Shaquille O’Neal’s strength, along with Wilt Chamberlain’s offense and Bill Russell’s defense. If he can also shoot like Dirk Nowitzki? Forget about it. Ask a more guard-oriented person and they might tell you a
There are probably a list of reasons that could have been used to question why LeBron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he has assured us that the coach wasn’t one of them. Now that the pre-season has officially begun and James has finally started competing with Cleveland again, we are able to see how well he meshes with this roster under rookie NBA coach, David Blatt. [Read more…]
What backcourt is considered the best in the NBA heading into the upcoming season? That’s the question in the minds of many this week, including the players themselves. For example, John Wall and Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards openly stated that they are the best backcourt duo in the league on Tuesday. Dion Waiters of the Cleveland Cavaliers disagreed, word got back to Wall, and then the fun back and forth ensued between the two. Waiters got the final word,
If you’re wondering where Derrick Rose ranks among the NBA’s top 10 point guards, he doesn’t. Neither does Deron Williams. Or Kemba Walker. Or Kyle Lowry. Point guard is the most demanding position in the NBA. And in ranking the top floor generals, we have demanding criteria. Is your favorite point guard an All-Star? How long has he been at that level? Is his current career track pointing upward or downward? Where does he rank among scorers at the position? Assists? Does he
BARCELONA — If the gold medal match was being played Sunday, Team USA would not beat Spain. It wouldn’t even be close. But the gold medal game is not this Sunday. It is next Sunday. And a lot can change in a week. So the burden is on coach Mike Krzyzewski: Figure out who is going to give you the best chance to beat the host nation, start shortening up the rotation, and hope that in one week you can achieve what it
Team USA had nothing to play for, and it showed. The Americans already had clinched Group C at the FIBA World Cup by winning their first four games. While other countries jockeyed to get into the knockout stage – or avoid certain opponents – Team USA was on cruise control in Friday’s game vs. war-torn Ukraine. The United States was playing for the fifth time in six nights and had a start time four hours earlier than Thursday. The combination of apathy
In a day where all 24 teams played in the FIBA World Cup leading up to Thursday’s frenetic first round finish, it was The Manimal who again stood out in another Team USA victory. After a closely contested first quarter, Kenneth Faried helped the Americans (4-0), once again propelled by their big men, take the second and third quarters by a combined 26 points and defeat the Dominican Republic (2-2) 106-71 to advance to 4-0 and clinch the best record in