Last season, the Atlanta Hawks were one of the NBA’s best regular-season stories, winning 60 games. This season, they needed almost 60 games to remember what winning is. After their best season since moving to Atlanta nearly 50 years ago, the Hawks have spent most of this season spurting and sputtering. They got off to a 7-1 start, which many took as a good sign considering they were a measly 7-6 out of the gate last season. There was a six-game
Some people perform best when there’s not as much pressure. You know, like when they’re not hearing their name and educational history shouted by an overzealous announcer in front of thousands of screaming fans. When they aren’t expected to “dab” or “quan-quan” as they greet their teammates after said introductions. Or when they don’t have to high-five the mascot on their way out to the center court, dap up their homies on the opposing team and listen to confrontational non-sequitors from Joey Crawford before tip-off. Don’t start
It’s a busy Saturday in the NBA, with two matinees and nine evening games. [Read more…]
On New Year’s Eve, we wish all readers a safe, happy celebration. It’s also our last chance of 2015 to win big in daily fantasy tournaments. There are six games in the NBA, two of them beginning at 6:00 Eastern. [Read more…]
This may become one of the most entertaining seasons in Utah Jazz history. The prospect of Quin Snyder coaching a talented young core led by growing stars Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert has elicited quiet whispers about making the playoffs. Will the Jazz’s supporting cast lift them up or let them down? What is GM Dennis Lindsey doing, and will his risks pay off in the long term? Basketball enthusiasts should watch the Jazz this season just to see how
With the NCAA Tourament upon us, it seems like as good a time as any to remind everyone that there is a canyon between coaching in college and coaching in the NBA. There is more than a generation of evidence which clearly illustrates that any NBA team hiring a head coach directly from college is making a huge mistake. P.J. Carlesimo. Tim Floyd. Leonard Hamilton. Lon Kruger. Mike Montgomery. Jerry Tarkanian. Rick Pitino, who failed twice. Even John Calipari, who is
Once a year, we take a break from evaluating rookies and examine how second-year players are doing. This seemed like a good week to do that. Because our Rookie Rankings run every Friday, this week’s cycle saw just two actual games played due to the extended All-Star break. And no rookies from our most recent rankings played in those games. Yes, we knew the trading deadline also was this week. But we didn’t think that would impact our rankings of sophomores. I mean,
In today’s NBA, the formula for winning in recent years was simple: Accumulate as many maximum-salary stars as you can without breaking the bank. But when you start piling up eight-figure salaries against the luxury tax, the bank breaks pretty quickly. So teams fill out their rosters with minimum-salary veterans. And if you look at the top of the NBA standings right now, many teams are getting very productive seasons from veterans signed to minimum-salary deals. The Chicago Bulls added Pau Gasol to Jimmy