Just because there hasn’t been any hoops in the past few days doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to talk about before you get your lineup in tonight. It’s a tough week for those with questionable players. There are so many banged up players that there is limited information on because most players don’t report back to their squads until today or even tomorrow. Here is what we know and our suggestions for who to start and/or pick up.

Gerald Wallace – Wallace is expected back but you may want to wait a week before you give him the start. I expect the Bobcats to ease him back into his minutes.

Chris Kaman – Whether or not Kaman comes back this week or next, Kaman is on the way back to the lineup and should be picked up in all leagues now if he is out there. Read More »

In an interesting article by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, they brought up the fact that LeBron James might be switching his number in the near future. I know what you’re thinking. It’s not because the Knicks have already retired a No. 23, because they haven’t. But after an amazing gold medal campaign, LBJ has grown to love No. 6. So much so in fact, that during a game in late December, James warmed up for a Cavs game wearing a jersey with No. 6 and later wore it on the bench during the game. Read More »

What do the Spurs need if they’re going to one-up the Lakers and represent the West in the Finals?

Tim Duncan doesn’t think that Vince Carter is that missing piece.

“No offense to Vince, obviously he’s an excellent player,” Duncan said. “We’d love to have him. But to give up most of our team to add one guy, I don’t think that’s the way you want to go. It’s a long season and we have a lot of guys who have been here a long time and understand the way we want to play. Just to insert one new piece and try to teach him in half a season the way we want to play isn’t the way that we work.”

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Although this happened during the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night festivities, I just had to post it and get people’s thoughts on where this ranks up there in all-time dunk contest dunks.

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From what we were hearing on the ground down in Phoenix and seeing here via our DimeMag.com readers, “rigged” was the word of the weekend for the 2009 All-Star festivities. From the conveniently entertaining Nate Robinson vs. Dwight Howard dunk contest finals to last night’s storybook ending Kobe/Shaq All-Star co-MVP, a lot of people were calling shenanigans. But really, you can’t argue too hard against Kobe’s game-high 27 points plus four boards, four dimes and four steals. And while Shaq’s 17-point, 5-board stat line wasn’t as impressive as Chris Paul (14 pts, 14 asts, 7 rebs, 3 stls), Shaq owned the night from beginning to end from an entertainment standpoint. And if we learned nothing else from the dunk contest, All-Star is as much about entertainment as it is about basketball … The game was actually close for a half before the West blew it open. As far as in-game highlights, Tony Parker‘s alley-oop to CP and CP’s two-hand dunk finish might have been the play of the game when it was still competitive, or Shaq’s dunk off a give-and-go with CP. Read More »

Shaq + Jabbawockeez = Shaqawockeez. Amazing.

Everybody’s favorite story line

PRE-GAME * U.S. Airways Center, Phoenix — The clock on the scoreboard says we’re 37 minutes away from … something. It can’t be the countdown to tip-off, because the arena isn’t even half-full right now and I know the intros alone are gonna take about 20 minutes. Dwight Howard is on the court shooting jumpers in between the free throw line and the dotted, joined on the East side by Danny Granger and Devin Harris launching threes, and Rashard Lewis working on his mid-range J’s. Tim Duncan was out on the West side earlier taking some jumpers, but as of right now that end of the court is unoccupied. I’ve got my Nate Robinson wallpaper on the laptop, I’ve erased any leftover Michael Rapaport imagery, I’ve got my gum and my water and I’m ready to go … Read More »

You could say Dwight Howard grossly exceeded the 2-minute prep time by having another basket wheeled out during last night’s Dunk Contest. You could say that, between him having a phone booth built and brought in, he clearly spends WAY too much time thinking about these kind of things. But we can tell you this much: When Dwight had that hoop raised to 11-whatever feet (they never told us the exact number in the arena; maybe they did on TV) and stepped out of the booth, EVERYONE in the building was standing up to see what he was gonna do. We could already hear Magic Johnson screaming “THE DUNK CONTEST IS BACK!!” for the fifth year in a row … But Dwight took the upset L, stepping aside for Nate Robinson. How did Nate do it? Here’s the recap … FIRST ROUND: J.R. Smith didn’t dunk once during warmups, spending the entire time shooting 35-footers. You wouldn’t have known it, though, ’cause his opening-dunk windmill off two bounces was pretty sick … Rudy Fernandez passed it behind his back off the glass and crammed a one-hander, which the U.S. Airways Center crowd loved, but the judges gave him a 42. For what it’s worth, Rudy didn’t get that high on the dunk … Read More »

I’m not gonna lie; the much talked-about H-O-R-S-E game between Kevin Durant, Joe Johnson and O.J. Mayo was supposed to have happened hours ago, and I haven’t heard one word about the outcome. The NBA didn’t really hype it up at all during this All-Star Weekend; presumably they wanted to play it low-key and see how the first one turned out before getting a lot of people to watch a disaster show. I’m telling you this because as I post these leftover quotes from Friday’s Rookie/Sophomore media session, I have no idea whether or not Durant’s H-O-R-S-E strategy worked out for him. That said, here are the young’uns:

KEVIN DURANT * On his game plan for H-O-R-S-E: “I haven’t thought of any trick shots yet. I know for sure I’ma shoot a couple deep ones, maybe some behind-the-backboard stuff. We play (H-O-R-S-E) after practice all the time. The only difference is the cameras will be on this time.”

* On hitting his stride as a top-flight scorer in the League: “I think that I’m trying to establish myself as more than a scorer, but an all-around player, a guy that can get his teammates involved, a guy that can get rebounds. I’d like to make that my identity as a player.” Read More »

All-Star Saturday Night is cool and everything, but only us chosen media folk get a chance to experience All-Star Friday Morning. This year, my ASFM media pass got me in a 9:30 a.m. sit-down with Tony Parker at a downtown Phoenix Subway. TP was on-hand to shoot around with some local kids and talk about his role in Subway’s 3-Point Play contest, where one fan (and three guests) can win a paid trip to San Antonio to attend a Spurs practice, shoot around with TP, then go to a game. (As well as win a free year of DirectTV service and an Xbox 360.) For more details on the contest, go to www.subwayfreshbuzz.com.

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