The 2012-13 season was a tale of two beings for the Denver Nuggets. The first being was the regular season, where they won an NBA franchise-record 57 games. The other was the playoffs, where they were abruptly taken out by the Golden State Warriors in six games. This offseason was a shocking one for many Nuggets fans. GM Masai Ujiri, the NBA Executive of the Year, walked away and was replaced by Tim Connelly. Long-time coach George Karl was fired and
Times flies. And things change. The Houston Rockets are Exhibit A. One year ago, the Houston Rockets headed into training camp seemingly empty-handed after a summer spent chasing Dwight Howard via a trade with Orlando. Gone were Luis Scola, Goran Dragic, Kyle Lowry, Samuel Dalembert, Courtney Lee and countless others, and in were the unproven Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik. It was a seemingly disappointing offseason, but just before the season was set to start, GM Daryl Morey changed all of that,
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Everyone is familiar with that old cliché. It’s one the Grizzlies understand well after the 2012-13 season. Over the past year, there has been a complete changing of the guard in the Bluff City. An ownership swap was the first domino to fall when Michael Heisley officially completed the sale of the team to tech mogul Robert Pera right before the regular season began. From there, the rest of the hierarchy was
Shoulda, coulda, woulda. We all remember Game 6 of the NBA Finals, correct? And we all remember Game 7, and the way Tim Duncan looked afterward — like he was at a funeral. The Big Fundamental had been spoiled, winning every previous time he had advanced to the Finals. So the question to ask going into 2013-14 — will this be Spurs Motivation 2.0? [Read more…]
For the first time in what feels like forever, there is legitimate optimism and unabated excitement over this season’s Sacramento Kings. For one, they stayed. I wish I were more excited about the basketball moves that the Kings made over the offseason, but make no mistake about it; Sacramento had a better offseason than any other NBA city. It wasn’t easy. A lot of very smart people put a lot of time and energy (and funds) into keeping this team out of
A lot can change in just under five months. Just ask the basketball fans of New Orleans. They really needed change after what went on last season. The 2012-2013 season was dark and gloomy for NOLA hoops. The team finished 14th in the Western Conference at 27-55, with an 11-30 road record that was also 14th in the conference. The team had trouble scoring (more on that later) and winning intraconference games. Its record against West teams was 15-37, good for
Kevin Durant is a great player. He deserves a great owner. Durant may not know it yet, but he is becoming this generation’s Jerry West: a fantastic talent and class act whose career was marked by finishing second. In 14 seasons, West twice finished second in scoring (also winning once). He never won an MVP award, finishing third once and second a record four times. And he lost the NBA Finals seven times before finally winning in his 13th season. In six seasons,
The 2012-13 season was not a kind one to the Portland Trail Blazers. Forget the NBA Rookie of the Year Award given unanimously for only the fourth time in history to Damian Lillard. Forget, too, the second straight All-Star nod for LaMarcus Aldridge. Also forget that Aldridge, Lillard, Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews comprised the top four-man lineup in the league. Portland finished the campaign on a franchise-worst 13-game losing streak and wasn’t competitive in a game for more than a month. This season is shaping