Beast of the Night: Elton Brand finally emerged and put up 19 points, 11 boards, 2 assists, 3 steals, 6 blocks and just 1 turnover while shooting 47 percent (8-17) from the field and 75 percent (3-4) from the line. This was vintage Brand and owners who have remained patient or bought low on him have to be giggling with joy right now. He’s not out of the woods just yet, but things look are looking way up for Brand and his owners today. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Manu Ginobili was absolutely rabid last night, exploding for 36 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocks, while nailing 6 threes and turning the ball over just once in just 32 minutes of work. He shot 53 percent (8-15) from the field and 88 percent (14-16) from the line. His owners have to be praying that Tim Duncan and Tony Parker take their sweet time recovering on the sidelines. Read More »

As we anticipate the commencement of the brand spanking new 2009-10 NBA season, let’s take a look at a handful of fantasy “gangs.” To be more specific, let’s give fun names to certain groups of players who have similar attributes — for fantasy purposes, of course. Hopefully, this post will do two things: offer you some helpful glimpses into what you should expect from these players heading into the regular season, and present you with an amusing read to help you rediscover your smile (especially if you drafted Blake Griffin) and regular breathing patterns amid all the tense eagerness for tonight. Read More »

Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…

Added: Blake Griffin, Rasual Butler, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Kareem Rush

Lost: Zach Randolph, Mike Taylor, Fred Jones, Paul Davis Read More »

Take a deep breath.

We’re on the edge of the glorious start of the 2009-10 NBA season. For fantasy owners, this means that eyes are bulging, lips are grinning and palms are sweating as we check our starting rosters over and over and over again to ensure a good start to the season.

In order to help you toward a successful launch for however many fantasy teams you own this week, we’ll have a brief overview of team schedules for week one, along with a look at some of the difficult decisions you might have to make. Read More »

Who do you want your offense to run through with everything on the line? Counting down 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…

*** *** ***

#4: LEBRON JAMES, Cavaliers

Under a different set of circumstances and a different kind of criteria, I could easily argue that LeBron is the all-around, pound-for-pound best player in basketball. In fact, save for the existence of one Usain Bolt, I could argue for ‘Bron as the top active athlete in any sport today. Read More »

With the last free agents still looking for teams, there’s one guy that always comes to mind: Latrell Sprewell. Walking away from the game at a time when he could have still held his own on any of the NBA’s 30 teams, Spree decided it was time to hang it up. I bet there are still teams that would sign the guy, even if he just turned 39.

It’s too bad YouTube didn’t exist back in the year 2000. If it did, I guarantee a lot more people would know who Eddie Robinson is. E-Rob’s hops were straight up ridiculous. He was the sixth man for those Charlotte Hornets teams that boasted guys like Baron Davis, Ricky Davis and Eddie Jones. Even with all those high risers on the squad, E-Rob’s crams might have been the nastiest. Night in and night out, he was good for at least two Sports Center worthy crams. My favorite was his signature showboat dunk: a self alley-oop on the fastbreak (see vid below). Read More »

You want to cause a splinter within the ranks of the Solar Temple of Michael Jordan followers? Ask them whether they think MJ’s second comeback with the Wizards was a good idea. It’s like if Lauryn Hill dropped an album this year: Half her fans would be thrilled to snatch up anything by L-Boogie, while the other half would be terrified of the potential damage to her legacy when she’s clearly not at the top of her game right now.

But really, the concept of “going out on top” is one that has become strangely unique to sports. Read More »

In pretty much every sport — NBA, Major League Baseball, college football/hoops, boxing, gambling, competitive eating, etc. — optimism is at its highest before the real games start. The same holds true for the NBA. But when we previewed the Pacific Division yesterday, even the preseason optimism couldn’t hide one fact: This is the worst division in the League. All due respect to the reigning champs, but after the Lakers, the Pacific consists of four Lottery teams (Suns, Clippers, Warriors, Kings) who could all easily make an encore appearance at the event that Mike Dunleavy Sr. probably thinks is a mandatory spring-time BBQ with some co-workers … And yet, the Pacific can still be one of the more entertaining divisions out there. Read More »