If Sam Presti does not hire a coach that Kevin Durant is happy with, chances are Durant will leave Oklahoma City as an unrestricted free agent in July, 2016. That is a fact. Kevin Durant likes Kevin Ollie. That is a fact, too. And Kevin Ollie is Presti’s No. 1 choice for the job. That fact was first reported by respected colleague Adam Zagoria, and it is 100 percent on the money. So what to make of Ollie’s statement today, tactfully written in
LAS VEGAS- Shabazz Napier has a set of skills you all know about; the slick handle, the pick-your-pocket defense and the winning pedigree with UConn’s national championship in April as Napier’s collegiate capstone. The other skills he needs to pick up as his rookie season approaches will help determine how well the Miami Heat can fare in South Florida’s post-LeBron James era. With James gone, Napier is now a much more important part of the team than Miami management imagined. [Read
Big wins are nice. They make players feel great, and they make fans happy. Big losses? Those are the things that stick in players’ heads for years and years and years. That truism comes from ex-player Danny Schayes, whose column this week deals with Kentucky’s loss in the NCAA championship game and how it will impact those five freshmen going forward. As Schayes notes, the games and the moments that stick out in his mind the most are games in which he ended
This is not David Stern’s NBA anymore. The old commissioner is out of sight and out of mind, but his successor has been keeping a relatively low profile. Sooner or later, Adam Silver is going to put his imprint on the NBA … it is just a matter of when. [Read more…]
As it often does, the NCAA Tournament provided a wild first weekend. Mercer saved Warren Buffett $1 billion, Dayton won the state of Ohio and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in 30 years, Stanford sent Andrew Wiggins and Kansas packing, and the young Kentucky Wildcats ended Wichita State’s dream season. So out of the 32 second and third-round games won by the 16 teams still in contention for the national championship, what statistical trends and insights can we gain