Elton Brand was a beast at Duke, and has been a 20-10 guy for most of his NBA career. But an Achilles injury in the 2007-08 season has had a big effect on his time with the Sixers and the five-year, $82 million man hasn’t worked out quite as planned. But with new coach Doug Collinsand the No. 2 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, watch out for a rejuvenated Brand and Sixers team next year. It’s time to create some buzz. Read More »
After getting fired today following five seasons at the helm of the Cavaliers, where does Mike Brown go from here? Brown will have options this summer either with another head coaching position or a team looking to hire a defensive-minded assistant coach who can fill a Tom Thibodeau or Ron Adams-like role on a staff, but where will he end up? Read More »
Once the regular season ended, 16 NBA GMs had their minds set on the NBA Playoffs. But for those teams that have been counting ping pong balls instead of playoff victories, the upcoming NBA Draft has many intriguing prospects that need to be recognized. So with March Madness over, Dime contributor Lucas Shapiro continues profiling players and giving them a team that would best fit their talent. Last week was Kentucky’s Eric Bledsoe, so now we’re on to Cincinnati’s Lance Stephenson. Read More »
With the LeBron countdown in full-swing at this point, and suitors lining up their proposals for the Cavs superstar, most of the teams in the hunt (including the Cavs) have no head coach at the moment. While some people think winning the LeBron sweepstakes is as easy as hiring John Calipari away from Kentucky or letting LeBron handpick his coach once he signs with said team, both of these ideas are terrible. Read More »
When my buddy Nils Wagner from Hoopmixtape says that a dunk is one of the craziest he’s ever seen, that statement carries some weight. Check out Missouri-bound guard Phil Pressey (who we featured in Dime #49) dunk on his future college teammate Tony Mitchell at the TABC All-Star Game in San Antonio. Did we mention that Pressey is listed at 5-10 and Mitchell at 6-8? Crazy!
Who didn’t see this coming? After five season in Cleveland (with no NBA titles to show for it), Danny Ferry announced today that the Cavs have relieved Mike Brown of his duties as head coach. Makes sense, considering the Cavs had a midnight deadline Sunday night to fire him or pay him his full $4.5 million salary for next season. Read More »
Sure this happened on Saturday, but it was too pretty not to post on the site. As we said in Smack, until further notice, the play where Rajon Rondo dove full-out to snag a loose ball from White Chocolate, then scrambled to his feet to shake J-Will and finish the layup will be the defining play of his career.
Say what you want about Amar’e Stoudemire — can’t play D, won’t rebound, doesn’t lead under pressure — but you can’t downplay the fact that he stepped up last night and carried the Phoenix Suns when their backs were against a wall. In a must-win Game 3, Amar’e dumped 42 points (14-22 FG, 14-18 FT) and 11 boards on the Lakers as the Suns attacked L.A.’s defense throughout the night (take notes, Orlando), finally won the frontcourt battle, and simply executed better down the stretch … You want to know why Amar’e is gonna make max or damn-near max money this summer? Check the play in the fourth quarter where he had Pau Gasol 1-on-1, gave him a shoulder fake and blew past him on the baseline, then dropped in an up-and-under reverse layup. Not many 6-10 dudes in the League can pull off that kind of move, and then the next time down the court dunk on your whole team … Read More »
You didn’t even have to look at the score. If you happened to flip by last night’s Celtics/Magic game during the fourth quarter and saw Nate Robinson and Brandon Bass on the court at the same time, you knew somebody was getting smashed … In the one game where they absolutely had to show some fire, Orlando played like it was a mid-January, last-day-of-a-road-trip snoozer against a Lottery team. Magic Johnson put it best at halftime when the Celtics were already working on a 20-piecing: If Orlando was simply getting outplayed it’d be one thing, but they were getting out-hustled. Read More »
One of two things will happen when the Celtics and Magic face off in Boston tonight (8:30 p.m. EST, ESPN): Kevin Garnett and his guys will deliver a staggering blow to Orlando’s season to set up the inevitable TKO, or Dwight Howard and his guys will show their championship heart for the first time in these playoffs and make the conference finals interesting again … All the pressure is on Orlando, and the guy under the biggest microscope is Vince Carter. The Magic got him for games like this, facing a tough defense in front of a hostile crowd and needing somebody to get buckets that won’t be easy to come by. Whether it’s a wire-to-wire barrage of buckets, just a big fourth quarter, or just one clutch shot, Vince has to step up. Read More »
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