This is how badly the Hornets need cap relief. After developing for the past four seasons in New Orleans, the Hornets shipped 6-11 Hilton Armstrong (the 12th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft) to the Kings in exchange for a conditional 2016 second round pick and cash considerations. Read More »

Gilbert Arenas’ locker may have been cleaned out and his gigantic billboard outside the Verizon Center may have been taken down, but Arenas is still the top focus in the world of the Washington Wizards. Not only does the team have to play without their best player for awhile, they’re going through hell having to deal with the media scrutiny and having to also answer to law enforcement officials regarding the locker room gun incident. Read More »

Is it just me, or does it seem like a different Chris Bosh trade rumor pops up on the internet every other day? In the past weeks, the Raptors’ All-Star forward has been talked about being traded in blogs and articles to everywhere from Chicago to Golden State to Houston. The latest rumor has CB4 heading to Tinseltown, where he would apparently be traded to the Lakers for Andrew Bynum. Read More »

Other than his days at Oklahoma, Eduardo Najera has never been as good a basketball player as he was during his days in Dallas. But at 34 years old, the 6-8 forward (who’s been playing for the Nets the past two seasons) is headed back to the Mavericks in exchange for forwards Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams. Read More »

Beast of the Night: LeBron James averaged 38 points, 8 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 0.5 steals and 2.5 threes in two games this weekend. He shot 53 percent from the field and 78 percent from the line but also averaged 5.5 turnovers, which wasn’t enough to overshadow his other numbers. Read More »

Before this weekend, it was between Dwyane Wade‘s dunk on Anderson Varejao and Corey Brewer‘s humiliation of Derek Fisher for dunk of the year. Georgia’s Travis Leslie changed all that, after he stole the soul of Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins.

Judging by his occasional theatrics after hitting big three-pointers, you would think J.R. Smith could tell the difference between a made shot and an airball. But in the Nuggets’ 102-100 loss to the Kings on Saturday night, Smith was completely fooled by Tyreke Evans’ airball. After the rookie sensation got nothing but the outside of the net, J.R. inbounded the ball like it was a swish and was called for out of bounds.

Last week at the Dime office, the topic of the D-League came up. A lot of the staff were surprised to hear that guys in the NBA’s minor league were only bringing in around $20K a season. The main argument was: Why would someone play in the D-League for peanuts when the possibility to make six figures is just an ocean away? The answer: Sundiata Gaines. Last Tuesday, the Utah Jazz signed the former Idaho Stampede guard to a 10-day contract. Read More »

Perhaps you hadn’t noticed, but the Raptors are the hottest team in the NBA. (Except when they play the Celtics, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) Having won eight of their last 10 games, one of the reasons for Toronto’s turnaround is their defense; historically soft but currently pretty solid. In the eight W’s during this stretch, the Raps have given up 93 points per night. But when they’ve come across the Celtics, the Raps still can’t get over the hump. Chris Bosh and crew’s only two losses since Dec. 16 have been to Boston, who gave them 114 points and another L yesterday. “They hit shots as soon as the game started,” Jarrett Jack said afterward. “It’s not as though we were just giving them layup after layup and it was like the Globetrotters.” … Read More »

The way things are playing out, Tyreke Evans is going to be the next Deron Williams. How’s that? Because as nasty as he is, due to all the talent in the Western Conference, ‘Reke might have to wait 2-3 years later than he should to make his All-Star debut. By all means, Tyreke is having an All-Star season right now. He’s one of only three players in the League averaging at least 20 points, five boards and five assists (along with LeBron and D-Wade), he has the Kings playing better than anybody expected, and he’s getting it done as a crunch-time performer. Read More »