Who do you want your offense to run through with everything on the line? Counting down 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…

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#9: CHRIS PAUL, Hornets

Whether it’s the Western Conference standings, fantasy drafts, NBA Drafts — really everything but the realm of media hype and endorsement deals — Chris Paul is never too far away from Deron Williams. On this list, CP3 sits one spot ahead of D-Will for a trio of reasons: Read More »

Martell Webster is finding himself in an unfamiliar position heading into the upcoming season. The former Seattle Prep star and Blazer starter from ’07-’08 is playing catch-up in Portland.

Webster’s foot injury, which kept him from seeing the floor for all but five minutes last season, is ready and cleared for action. Still, Webster is stuck in a logjam of small forwards vying for the starting nod. Read More »

You should never read too much into stats when it comes to the preseason. Because coaches haven’t figured out rotations yet, players aren’t getting their normal minutes and quite frankly, they aren’t playing at 100 percent even when they do get in games. But there are still signs you can pick up by watching teams and players during the preseason. So far, the Raptors have been average at best coming out of the gates. Toronto is 2-3 in the preseason and have already displayed a couple areas of concern. Read More »

“I’m not a fan of Kobe. I’m not somebody who looks up to him. I’m a grown man myself. So when I go out there and play the game, I play the game.”

While most NBA two guards won’t come out and say it as publicly, I believe they’d agree with Stephen Jackson. Because as any competitor knows, to truly be the best you can’t be afraid of anybody. Read More »

Damon Jones is the definition of a journeyman. In fact, other than playing with the Cavs from 2005-2008, he has never played for the same team for more than one season (10 in total with the Bucks twice). But rather than try and add another NBA jersey to his collection, Jones has signed a one-year deal with NSB Napoli in Italy’s top division. Read More »

Who do you want your offense to run through with everything on the line? Counting down 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…

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#10: DERON WILLIAMS, Utah Jazz

It takes a special point guard to hold down the dual responsibility of being his team’s on-court quarterback and its go-to scorer. And in this new golden era of PG’s, Deron is built to handle both jobs better than just about anyone. Read More »

Big things are expected out of the Lakers and Celtics this season. Obviously, with the addition of Ron Artest there are high expectations for the Lakers to two-peat. There’s even talk of the Lakers challenging the ’95-96 Bulls’ 72-win season. For the Celtics, as long as Garnett, Pierce and Allen are healthy, they’re always going to have a legitimate chance at a chip. They won one in ’08, but caught a bad break last year when KG went down and missed the entire playoffs. Now that KG is back and healthy again, the Celtics are expected to give Orlando a good run for the East’s top spot. Come June, we may very well see a rematch of the 2008 Finals between Boston and L.A. Read More »

In case you haven’t read last month’s issue, Kevin Durant has been on a tear lately, and Joel Anthony got a mouthful of it last night. During the first quarter of the Heat-Thunder game, which Oklahoma City won 96-91, Kyle Weaver delivered the ball to a streaking Durant for one of the best in-game slams that I’ve ever seen him throw down. Durant looked more like Velvet Hoop with some “Shameless Showtime” with this dunk (see below). Durant finished the game with 30 points.

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I’m trying to be a man of the people this season, so per a reader’s request, here are the results of a mock draft I participated in recently. It was for a 12-team, head-to-head format league with the standard nine categories and 10 starting spots (PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util).

I’ll list each round (with my picks in bold) followed by brief comments and will list my final team from this mock draft at the bottom. Here we go. Read More »

Imagine the disappointment that swept across the NBA TV studios when they found out LeBron was sick and going to miss last night’s big preseason game between the Cavs and Wizards. No tense ‘Bron/DeShawn encounters, no real reason for highlight montages of LBJ taking Washington’s heart in the playoffs, no smooth segues to talk about Mike Miller wearing LeBron’s signature shoes. And to top it off, starting in LBJ’s place was Jawad Williams, who scored 21 points (4 threes) in his last Smack mention of the season, a Cleveland loss … Gilbert Arenas put up 18 points for the Wiz, while Miller scored 24 (5 threes) and Randy Foye scored 21. However, Antawn Jamison hurt his shoulder in the first quarter and didn’t return. Read More »