A few days ago, Dime’s Patrick Cassidy wrote an article about how the Raptors acquired Reggie Evans to help toughen up Andrea Bargnani. Toronto won’t need to implement that same strategy with their starting power forward because Chris Bosh came into camp looking swole. The Toronto Star is reporting that CB4 added 15-20 of muscle over the summer and his weight now stands at 250 pounds.

Source: The Toronto Star

Today the Associated Press posted this video of Chris Paul making an amazing trick shot. CP3 throws the ball off a beam on the ceiling, which bounces off the floor to bank in. The shot is very reminiscent of the old Larry Bird and Michael Jordan McDonald’s commercials. With shots like this, let’s hope that the NBA invites Paul to compete in the H-O-R-S-E comptetiton at next year’s All-Star Weekend in Dallas.

Harrison Barnes, a 6-6 wing out of Ames, Iowa, is the best high school ballplayer in the country. As he navigates through the hectic recruiting process, Barnes agreed to chronicle his thoughts for us during each of his five official visits. First up is North Carolina, where Barnes visited on Sept. 3. Here’s an excerpt:

… At about noon, I got a tour of campus on a golf cart and got to see where the dorms were, where the Dean Smith Center was, and I saw a few classes and walked around a little bit.

After that I had lunch with Coach (Roy) Williams, and then I got to see the North Carolina museum. Read More »

Andrew Bynum’s game has come so far since he entered the league out of high school in 2005. When healthy, Bynum can throw up numbers that are on par with almost any center in the league. He averaged a career high 14.3 ppg to go along with 8 rpg and 1.8 bpg. This season, he’s looking to make a bigger impact as the Lakers work towards winning back-to-back championships. Bynum took some time after yesterday’s training camp session to talk to Dime on the phone. Read More »

The NBA preseason is underway, meaning it’s time again for Dime’s team-by-team season previews. Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceilings and basements for each team. In other words, what is the realistic best-case and worst-case scenario for the 2009-10 campaign?

Added: Jamal Crawford, Joe Smith, Jeff Teague, Juan Dixon, Courtney Sims Read More »

Thanks to some sloppy play by the Nuggets and that same ol’ sharp execution by the Jazz, there wasn’t much excitement left by the end of last night’s NBA preseason opener. Deron Williams (16 pts, 6 asts) and C.J. Miles (16 pts, 3 stls) led Utah as they teased a 20-piecing before halftime, allowed Denver to cut it to single-digits by the break, but pulled away in the second half to win 103-87. Carmelo (13 pts, 4-11 FG) and James White (13 pts) led the Nuggets, who had 27 turnovers as a team … Carlos Boozer started at PF and finished with seven points and seven boards in 20 minutes, while Paul Millsap came off the bench for seven points and three rebounds in 18 minutes. Boozer somehow didn’t get resoundingly booed by the home fans, but he didn’t exactly get a hero’s welcome, either. Read More »

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ quest to win an NBA championship has not started off on the right foot with all the drama surrounding Delonte West. On top of being arrested on weapons charges a few weeks ago, West has been absent from the first two days of training camp. Coach Mike Brown has called the absences unexcused but stressed West was in Cleveland and has been in contact with Cavs GM Danny Ferry over the past few days. West finally rejoined the team for today’s practice sessions.

Will Delonte West continue to be a distraction over the season?

First there was the Electric Slide, than the Macarena, than the Superman, then the Stanky Leg, now there’s the Jason Terry? The Dallas based rap group Trilli Trill have jumped onto the song-and-dance-combo-gimmick with their new single “Do Tha Jason Terry” in honor of Mavericks guard Jason “the Jet” Terry. Read More »

If your boss offered you a $100k to shed a few lbs., you would be damn sure you figured out a way to make that happen, right? No doubt you’d be working out in the a.m. before work, after work, during your lunch break, eating only asparagus, ordering crazy exercise machines from late-night infomercials, whatever it takes.

Apparently the Sacramento Kings had an incentive clause put in Sean May‘s contract that would automatically pay him $100,000 if he made a certain weight by yesterday. Read More »

Two teams that are going to force a lot of people to buy league passes this season are the Thunder and the Grizzlies. I can’t say for sure whether either will be playoff teams (most likely neither), but I can promise that they will both be exciting to watch. Even though Memphis and OKC stole franchises from the beautiful northwest (my former stomping grounds), you better believe I’ll be strapped to the tube watching those teams all season long.

Both squads have talented young cores that have improved themselves over the offseason. Last season they both had almost identical records. Oklahoma City went 23-59, while Memphis finished at 24-58. My question is: which team will have a better record this time around? Read More »