How will the Oklahoma City Thunder do without Kevin Durant for the first six to eight weeks of the season? It’s extremely hard to tell, considering Durant has missed a total of 16 regular season games over the course of his seven-year career, including just two over the last two seasons. Durant’s lone absence last season came on Jan. 24 in a 101-83 win over Boston in which Russell Westbrook did not play, either. With Durant sidelined by a Jones fracture in
Things have changed in Rip City. For the Portland Trail Blazers, the 2013-14 season not only represented a return to the playoffs, it ended a drought of not making the second round that had lasted longer than a decade. Yes, the Trail Blazers got taken to the woodshed by the San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals, doing just enough against the eventual champions to avoid a sweep. But plenty of other teams got whooped by the Spurs, too. Winning against the Houston
NBA MVP Kevin Durant is out indefinitely with a foot fracture. The Oklahoma City Thunder announced Sunday in a news release that their superstar forward has a Jones fracture in his right foot and that the typical course of action is surgery that requires six to eight weeks of recovery. However, the release also said that Durant and the team had yet to decide on a specific course of action and cannot yet provide a timetable. Here’s what Thunder GM Sam Presti had
The Denver Nuggets head into the 2014-15 season with ambitious goals. The Nuggets are built around a young core that won a franchise-record 57 games only two seasons ago, only to be derailed by injuries and eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. That early exit precipitated the departure of their GM and coach. Last season, the injuries kept coming and the Nuggets missed the playoffs for the first time since 2003, the year they drafted Carmelo Anthony. The core is
At this point last season, the feeling surrounding the New Orleans Pelicans was one of hope. The team had just gone through a rebranding, acquired Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday in the offseason and was ready for Anthony Davis to take his first step towards stardom after an up-and-down rookie season. Unfortunately for the Pelicans, all that hope ended quickly when the injury bug bit the team early and often and eventually cost the team any hope they had at the
At this time last year, the vibe surrounding the Sacramento Kings was overly positive. The Sacramento community had just found out that Vivek Ranadive was purchasing the team with intent to keep it in Sacramento, essentially saving the franchise from moving to Seattle. This all happened in the span of a couple of months, and when the fight to keep the team was finally won, basketball decisions had to be made. The ownership group, front office and coaching staff were assembled
Perhaps no team in the NBA has moved on from its past and looked toward its future more than the Utah Jazz. Virtually all of the ties to the great Jazz teams of the 1990s are gone. In their place are a rookie coach and a starting lineup that figures to have no one older than 24. The Jazz won’t be much better than last season, when they lost 57 games, their most since arriving in Salt Lake City from New Orleans
When Danilo Gallinari tore his left ACL at the end of the 2012-13 season, the Denver Nuggets’ hopes of a deep playoff run were essentially ended. Gallinari suffered the injury during a late season matchup with Dallas, and without its leading sharpshooter, Denver was upset in the first round by Golden State. After being diagnosed as an ACL tear, it was yet to be seen whether Gallo would be ready for any of the 2013-14 season after he underwent surgery. In