In one of the NBA’s most recent – and unnoticed – moves, the Golden State Warriors signed forward Cartier Martin to a 10-day contract; making him the fifth Gatorade call-up from the D-League this season. Cartier, who had spent some time with the Charlotte Bobcats last season, was averaging just over 14 points and four boards a game for the Iowa Energy. Not only does Martin bring some much-needed relief to the injury-ridden Warriors, he has a chance to catch on for the remainder of the season. Read More »

Whether it’s because he’s from Duke or because he’s had injuries in his past, people have labeled Carlos Boozer “soft” for years. After dunking right over Udonis Haslam in last night’s Jazz/Heat game, there’s no way you can call Boozer soft now. At least for the rest of the week.

Every year, several international players that you’ve probably never heard of get selected in the NBA Draft. Unless you watch or follow European leagues religiously, then your knowledge of those players is probably just limited to the 60-second grainy highlight tape that they show at the draft packaged with the Fran Fraschilla analysis. That is why when guys like Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili make immediate splashes in the League, you stop and ask yourself: Where the hell did they come from? Read More »

The Game is no stranger to basketball. From name dropping Kobe and the Lakers in damn near every song, to making Baron Davis the godfather of his son, it’s safe to say The Game has some…game. However, a video surfaced over the past weekend of Mr. Jayceon Taylor getting dunked on in an ABA game on December 20th. In case you didn’t know, game plays for the Los Angeles Slam and got dunked on when trying to block by San Diego Surf member “Sonny” Alston Smith III. The footage isn’t great, but you can see someone trying to go up to block a dunk and someone else getting dunked on. Game is the latter of the two. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. New Jersey Nets (3-34) Last week: Lost to Milwaukee; lost at Atlanta; lost at New Orleans; lost at San Antonio. There’s no good reason to bury Terrence Williams on the bench right now. T-Will’s minutes began declining sharply in mid-December, and this month he’s been clocking only five minutes a night. The Nets aren’t going anywhere anytime soon; forget Trenton Hassell and Jarvis Hayes and get the rookie some experience.

29. Detroit Pistons (11-25) Last week: Lost at Dallas; lost at San Antonio; lost to Philadelphia; lost at Chicago. The 13-game losing streak is clearly making the Pistons’ announcers go crazy. During Monday’s loss to the Bulls, Greg Kelser described a basic one-hander by Chris Wilcox as “dunking history.” Read More »

Remember when everybody looked at the Celtics’ roster last summer and realized that between KG, ‘Sheed, Pierce, Perk, Eddie House, Scalabrine and Rondo, this could be the most unlikeable NBA team of all-time? As it turns out, those guys have been fine; if anything, the main reason Boston is hard to root for remains good ol’ Tommy Heinsohn … If you turned to NBA TV last night hoping to catch a simple Celtics/Hawks game between two of the best teams in the League, we’re sorry you had to be subjected to Heinsohn’s act. Late in the third, after Doc Rivers had been ejected (stemming from an admittedly weak flagrant call on Big Baby) and the Hawks had cut a double-digit lead down to three, Heinsohn growled, “The officials have officially given this Atlanta team the game.” Never mind that Boston kept leaving Jamal Crawford wide open, they couldn’t do a thing with Joe Johnson (36 pts, 5 threes), and they couldn’t stop turning the ball over. Read More »

Over the weekend, Yahoo! Sports reported a trade discussion in which Minnesota GM David Kahn allegedly offered Al Jefferson to the Pacers for Danny Granger, (pretty much) straight-up. According to the story, Larry Bird immediately said “No,” and that was the end of that:

While Pacers president Larry Bird remains determined to build around Granger, sources say Kahn has become increasingly dubious on making Jefferson a cornerstone for the Timberwolves. Read More »

This morning, we listed several D-League prospects that we thought had good chances of being called up soon. One person who was not on our list was Mario West of the Maine Red Claws. Today, the 6-5 guard signed a 10-day contract with the Hawks, the team he spent the last two seasons playing with. A day after the Warriors signed Cartier Martin, West becomes the sixth D-League call up for the season. Read More »

Although things weren’t looking to hot for Michael Redd last week, things just got a whole lot worse. According to The Journal Sentinel, a basketball source has confirmed that Redd suffered a torn ACL and torn MCL in his left knee on Sunday night in Los Angeles, sidelining him for the rest of the season. Read More »

Sometimes he’s the enforcer. Sometimes he’s the fullback. Sometimes he’s the safety outlet. Sometimes he’s the emotional center. Whatever you want to call him, he’s usually not the star of the team; he’s the guy the star can’t win without.

The NBA is set up for each team to have its superstar (or two), who is then surrounded by role players. And truth be told, there isn’t that much difference between the superstars — Kobe and Brandon Roy can go shot-for-shot on any given night, same goes for Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki, and so on — but what separates stars with rings to stars without are the role players. Read More »