With the NBA preseason underway and three weeks left until the regular season begins, now’s the time when coaches start to decide which players will earn a starting spot or be moved to the bench. Throughout the League, there have been a lot of position battles — most notably Caron Butler vs. Shawn Marion in Dallas, the three-way fight for SG in Minnesota, and most recently, Andrei Kirilenko vs. Paul Millsap in Utah. Read More »
While the Boston Celtics have an embarrassment of riches on their roster, the Philadelphia 76ers … well, they might just be embarrassing. During last night’s Celtics’ blowout win, Philly rookie Evan Turner had a tough time cracking the code to Boston’s defense, as displayed by his 1-for-8 shooting and this theft via Rajon Rondo. As Dime’s Pat Cassidy put it, “That was like me taking something from my 2-year-old son.”
While the Phoenix Suns are largely being written off as serious contenders now that Amar’e Stoudemire is gone, the fact that they have an ’09 Lottery pick who could potentially replace STAT has been overlooked. Earl Clark has the raw talent and size to make his mark in Stoudemire’s absence, but his preseason didn’t get off to a good start. During Phoenix’s 51-point flogging at the hands of the Raptors, Clark got his first baptism of the new year courtesy Joey Dorsey…
Every year the NBA takes a survey of its 30 GMs, asking them to forecast the upcoming season. This year, the 28 GMs who responded to the survey gave the majority vote to the L.A. Lakers to pull off the three-peat, and Kevin Durant to win MVP.
The Lakers got 63 percent of the vote when GMs were asked who would win the 2011 championship, while Miami got 33 percent. The Celtics got the remaining 4 percent. Read More »
AL HORFORD (by Jaimie Canterbury)
Earlier this week, Joakim Noah signed a 5-year, $60 million contract extension with the Bulls. Well-deserved, seeing as there are only a handful of workhorses like Noah left in the League at the center position. There is no argument that the Bulls need Noah. But frankly, if they had the opportunity to swap Noah for Al Horford, they would do it. Noah is a great defender and rebounder, but the fact of the matter is that Horford does all of that and more. Read More »
When Sheldon Bailey grew up playing basketball in Hope Mills, N.C., he was trying to make it to the NBA. A four-year starter while attending local South View High School (1997-00) and Mount Zion Christian Academy (2000-01) – where he was teammates with Amar’e Stoudemire and Jarrett Jack – Bailey was a member of two conference championship squads and averaged 13 points and 10 rebounds per game over his prep career. But luckily the honor student was also a member of the Thespian Society, because now 27 years old, Bailey’s talents are being used off the court. Read More »
We dropped the news yesterday: Kevin Durant is on the new cover of Dime. We shot KD at Pier 59 Studios at Chelsea Piers here in New York City, and had the cameras there to capture what went down. Check it out and let us know what you think…
Thank you to the Toronto Raptors for providing the first, “It’s just preseason” moment of the new year. Embarking on Phase 1 the post-Chris Bosh era, during which everyone not being paid by the Raptors is convinced the team will stink worse than Randy Watson‘s shower cap, the Raptors nonetheless DESTROYED the Suns in their preseason opener, 129-78. In front of a Vancouver, B.C., crowd that gave Steve Nash some home-province love and got to pretend for a night that the Grizzlies never left, Linas Kleiza led T-Dot with 20 points in the rout. Read More »
Now that NBA 2K11 has officially launched, the fam at 2K Sports have released the official launch trailer for all of you that haven’t gone to pickup your game yet. In case you had any reservations, let them subside – to the tune of Big Boi‘s “Shutterbugg.”
Even if you weren’t in New York City between 2000 and 2004, you knew about Telfair. It’s nothing new for NYC players to be over-hyped by media and fans, but Telfair deserved the attention during his time. Read More »
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