The Utah Jazz are currently accepting applications. After shipping rookie point guard Eric Maynor to the Thunder last week, there’s a vacancy for a point guard to back up Deron Williams. Right now, the team only has Ronnie Price (3.3 ppg and 1.5 apg) holding down the fort as Williams’ main reserve and are looking for an upgrade. Read More »

There’s no doubt that the heavy media scrutiny surrounding Vinny Del Negro and his job status is starting to take its toll on everyone on the team, from the players to management to especially, Del Negro himself. With fans calling for his head, there’s intense pressure for the Bulls coach to be flawless in his performance. On top of every mistake and bad decision being magnified, he also has to deal with addressing rumors about his firing every practice, shoot around and pregame and postgame interview. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. New Jersey Nets (2-29) Last week: Lost to Minnesota; lost to Houston; lost to Oklahoma City. Back in the lineup after missing almost two whole months, Yi Jianlian averaged 22.7 points and 7.0 rebounds last week, including a career-high 29 points against OKC. Not that Yi’s return has translated into any W’s, but it’s something.

29. Indiana Pacers (9-20) Last week: Lost at Boston; lost to Atlanta; lost at Miami. Six losses in a row have raised questions about Jim O’Brien’s job security, although Larry Bird says O’Brien isn’t going anywhere. From top to bottom, does any division in the League have worse coaches than the Central? Mike Brown ain’t exactly Lenny Wilkens, and he’s at the top of a group that consists of Scott Skiles, Vinny Del Negro, O’Brien and John Kuester. In a related story, four of the Central’s five teams are playing sub-.500 basketball. Read More »

Sometimes it’s simple and plain, and last night the Lakers simply got a plain ol’ meat-slapping from the Suns. After Robo-Kobe cut a double-digit lead in the second quarter to six by halftime, the Suns came out shooting like a bunch of Steve Alford clones, quickly pushing it back to double digits on jumpers by Channing Frye, Amar’e (26 pts), Grant Hill and Steve Nash (16 pts, 13 asts). The Lakers never really challenged them after that, and midway through the fourth, Phil Jackson officially waved the white flag by taking Kobe out … Read More »

Almost every time an NBA coach gets fired, somebody asks me, “Why don’t they fire the players?” My answer as always: “It just doesn’t work that way.”

Apparently Larry Bird is willing to challenge the norm. With the Indiana Pacers struggling at 9-20 (last place in the Central Division), some have been calling for coach Jim O’Brien to get fired. Bird, the team president, doesn’t approve. From the Indianapolis Star: Read More »

Four months after Stephen Jackson was fined $25,000 by the NBA for requesting a trade publicly, Nate Robinson was given the same penalty today. Only in Robinson’s case, he didn’t even say it. His Seattle-based agent, Aaron Goodwin, had told reporters that he asked the Knicks to move Robinson – who hasn’t played in 12 consecutive games. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: Kobe Bryant delivered two nice presents to his fantasy owners this past holiday weekend, averaging 36.5 points, 2.5 threes, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 4.5 turnovers. He shot 44 percent from the field and 100 percent from the line in those two games. Kobe played a whopping 96 minutes in those two contests, thanks to a double overtime game on Saturday. Read More »

With Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings dominating the headlines, it’s easy to see how James Harden’s name has gotten lost in the shuffle. While the Thunder rookie is far from being labeled “a bust”, there’s no doubt people are questioning OKC’s decision to draft Harden (the third overall pick) over Evans (fourth) and Jennings (10th). Read More »

Watching the Suns-Clipper game on Christmas Night was interesting to say the least. As the Suns pulled away the announcers went on a number of tangents and were obviously annoyed by every timeout. The announcers just wanted to get home for Christmas and watching Steve Nash dissect the Clippers was keeping them from that. During one of their many 4th quarter side comments one of the announcers began talking about how Nash is not only a great point guard but a great break dancer too. The ESPN research department dug up this video from the summer of 2008 produced by Steve Nash and Baron Davis (aka Boom-Nasty Productions) to back up his statement.

In case you missed it over the holidays, one of the best dunks of the year was unleashed by the T-Wolves Ryan Hollins(!) on an unsuspecting Andray Blatche.