Each time the Rockets play the Thunder, four names immediately come to mind: Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, Steven Adams and Mitch McGary. With all draft picks now liquidated, those players make up the return Oklahoma City received for James Harden in October 2012. Martin left the Thunder in free agency after one season off the bench, and the others all score fewer than eight points per game. That’s it. Lamb, who was supposedly the trade’s crown jewel as the No. 12 pick in 2012, isn’t
If you’re the general manager of the Golden State Warriors, how should you feel about the state of the team now that they have been removed from postseason action? Pretty damn confident, if you ask me. Lets put things into perspective here: The Bad: They were 23-43 just a season ago, good for third worst in the Western Conference. Brandon Rush, arguably the team’s best perimeter defender and slasher, was lost for the season two games into the season. Andrew Bogut missed 50 games and
Once upon a time, Terrence Williams was a promising draft pick with multiple skill sets to take over as an eventual starting shooting guard for the New Jersey Nets. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite pan out that way for Williams, who has become a relatively unwanted commodity around the league. He has been on four different teams in four seasons, and was picked up by the Boston Celtics this season to play a limited role for the team. If he’s in the
The 15-day, 24 hour barrage of firecrackers that start on chun jie (Chinese New Year) ended two nights ago to the relief of this now nearly deaf blogger as China celebrated the final night of the Lunar Festival, yuan xiao (Lantern Festival). Marking the 15th day and first full moon of the new year, the festival is the official end of the Spring Festival period… and of all of the loud firecrackers that are lit off in every corner of Beijing
The Minnesota Timberwolves made some serious roster adjustments over the summer, all for the better. The most notable move was the acquisition of a revitalized Brandon Roy, but they also got a huge upgrade at small forward by obtaining Andrei Kirilenko and signed the likes of Chase Budinger, Alexey Shved, Greg Stiemsma and Dante Cunningham. As Kevin Love would tell you though, the real best part may have been “cleaning out the bad blood in the locker room”, and he
We are down to the bargain bin of free agency. Reduced for clearance! Everything must go! Up to 90 percent off! Yes, we know Mickael Pietrus and Derek Fisher aren’t exactly scrap heap material. Both were key players for playoff teams last season, as were Leandro Barbosa and Kenyon Martin. But most of what is left falls into three categories: Olympians, amnesty victims and veterans too proud to take minimum deals. There is some variety remaining at both forward spots and shooting guard but
There are 7 NBA games tonight on Tuesday April 3, 2012. NEWS Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat will not play Tuesday night against the 76ers due to a sore left knee. Eric Gordon of the Hornet is expected to play Wednesday night against the Nuggets. Rookie Kyrie Irving will be back in the lineup Tuesday night after missing one game with a sprained right shoulder. NOTES With the Phoenix Suns clinging to their playoff lives in the Western Conference, star point guard Steve Nash insists that
You have to admire the Rockets. They came out fast, then had a horrible second quarter and could easily have given up. Instead, they won the second half by 17 points behind the unlikely Big Three of Goran Dragic (21), Luis Scola (18) and Marcus Camby (12 PTS, 11 REB.) Chicago, which hadn’t lost two in a row all season, got 24 from Luol Deng and 16 from Carlos Boozer, but their guards were disappointing. Richard Hamilton played 20 minutes