In all their years in the NBA, the Boston Celtics had only put together six seasons worse than the one they muddled through in 2013-14. The shattered remains of their former glory were cobbled into a team built to lose games and win ping pong balls in a draft allegedly top-heavy with potential franchise players. But 25 wins and the sixth pick later, the Celtics are setting forth on the slow journey upward. Their coach, Brad Stevens, having suffered through the
Day two of the 2014 Brazil World Cup may have had the most anticipated match of the group round. Spain, winners of the 2010 World Cup, had been selected to Group B with Chile, Australia and the Netherlands—the team they defeated 1-0 in the finals four years ago. That match was 0-0 through 90 minutes before the Spanish got the go-ahead goal in extra time. Their first match in this year’s World Cup? A rematch of the 2010 final against Netherlands. This matchup
With the midway point of the regular season approaching, we thought it would be a good idea to give the rookies a break and rank the sophomores for two reasons. 1. It is a nice change of pace and gives the reader something new. 2. This rookie class is god-awful and we are running out of ways to describe how bad it is. At the end of the season, NBA coaches are asked to vote for five players for an All-Rookie Team. We
Last season, our Rookie Rankings were a Who’s Who. This season, it’s more like a Who’s That? Just two weeks into the season, we are startled by the number of lower picks who have played their way into the rankings – or, more accurately, the number of high picks on the outside looking in. Just to make sure our imagination wasn’t playing tricks on us, we went back to the second week of the 2012-13 rankings to see the breakdown of low picks
For the last decade, the 11th pick in the NBA draft has been a crapshoot. In 2011, the Golden State Warriors rolled a “yo” with Klay Thompson, who has shown All-Star potential. The previous year, however, the New Orleans Hornets selected Cole Aldrich, who has shown D-League potential. For every Jerryd Bayless, there’s an Acie Law. For every J.J. Redick, there’s a Terrence Williams. And let’s not forget the immortal Fran Vasquez, who wants to come to the United States about as
I’m a diehard Baltimore Orioles fan. Before the last two years, we got about one week of the season to ponder contention before all speculation turned to who would be traded, what for, and when. For several NBA teams, it’s almost that time already. [Read more…]
On a night in which 13 games transpired, three players managed to rise above the rest as the stars of the evening: Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans, Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers and Vitor Faverani of the Boston Celtics. Davis, Faverani and Griffin may not be the first names to come to mind when it comes to elite statistical production, but each of those rising big men found a way to dominate on Day 4 of the
BROOKLYN– Brad Stevens is new to the NBA, and the Boston Celtics have had to grow familiar with his brand of coaching over the course of training camp and the preseason. With just about two weeks before the start of the season – and a new era for the franchise – the Celtics seem pleased with the progress the team is making under Stevens’ early stewardship. If general manager Danny Ainge’s plan for the franchise is for the rookie coach to grow