The Golden State Warriors have perennially been one of the more favorable NBA teams for fantasy basketball fans. The arrival of new head coach Mark Jackson may mean more energy spent on the defensive end of the court, but make no mistake – the crew from Oakland still has plenty of appeal for fantasy purposes. After all, not many teams boast four players who can potentially be drafted in the first three rounds of drafts whenever the NBA resumes. Read More »

Of the Top 5 Available NBA Free Agents I wrote about on Tuesday, Mike Bibby is the only one to officially ink a deal. But that doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been progress as to where they, and others, are headed for the rest of the season. Here’s what we know: Read More »

While you were watching Kobe Bryant sit and watch the Lakers run through their paces on NBA TV’s “Real Training Camp” yesterday, the other L.A. team was watching their star run into a problem.

As the L.A. Clippers opened camp in the familiar shadow of their crosstown big brothers, new head coach Vinny Del Negro was already at odds with Baron Davis. Del Negro told reporters that Davis, essentially, isn’t in acceptable playing shape right now. Read More »

With the Heat taking up about 98 percent of the post-Decision attention devoted to the NBA’s Southeast Division, it’s like everybody forgot that the Bobcats are still on the rise, the Hawks are still pretty good, the Magic are still very good, and the Wizards shouldn’t be slept on as a future problem — and not the “Our three best players all think they’re The Man and want 20 shots a night” kind of problem they’ve been in the recent past … John Wall is the alpha, and if Gilbert Arenas isn’t a distraction, he’ll give you 20-something points a night at the two. Read More »

Less than 24 hours from the NBA free agency Royal Rumble, and teams are steady making moves to prepare their strongest pitch possible. The Nets, who have the first official crack at LeBron James (don’t count out somebody pulling a midnight surprise ambush), traded Yi Jianlian to the Wizards straight-up for Quinton Ross — a no-apologies strictly financial move that now puts New Jersey a good $30 million under the cap. That’s enough room to potentially sign two elite players. Even if Jay-Z can’t secure LeBron, we could imagine a core of Devin Harris, Joe Johnson, Rudy Gay, Derrick Favors and Brook Lopez … Read More »

Now that those pesky NBA Finals are out of the way, we can get back to talking about LeBron 24/7. Still a week and a half away from the official start of free agency, LBJ might actually be trailing Dwyane Wade in terms of the crazy things people are doing to get his attention. In Miami, they’ve done everything but convince the retiree community to give D-Wade a portion of everybody’s social security and let him bat cleanup for the Marlins. Yesterday in Akron, they threw a “LeBron Appreciation Day” that became truly newsworthy when LeBron showed up unexpected … Read More »

Anybody who says one-and-done players ultimately hurt college programs more than they help should take a look at Kentucky. Thanks to John Calipari‘s lineage of point guards — Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and John Wall — that spent one year under Calipari before moving on to NBA riches, now the nation’s top high school PG’s fight each other for the right to accept a Kentucky scholarship. The revolving door system may not translate into a national championship, but Cal remains the most talked-about coach in the country, his reputation as a recruiter and developer of NBA talent preceding him. Read More »

What do rich people do in a halfway house? I’ve known guys who have had to stay at a halfway house in between jail and freedom, and they had to work rough 9-to-5′s and be home by curfew. When you’ve got $80 million-plus of NBA money in your name, what’s your daily routine while everyone else is doing labor work?

For Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards, hopefully his 30-day “vacation” was spent working out and thinking about his priorities. Read More »

Good to know that a Nuggets/Knicks game at MSG can be entertaining and even playground-style competitive without innocent rich people getting trampled in the front row and Carmelo Anthony having to do a Floyd Mayweather Jr. impersonation … Instead of fighting, ‘Melo just got into a little harmless smack-talk with Danilo Gallinari. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but much like Andrea Bargnani, Gallo kind of snuck up on the League (as much as a guy playing in New York can do it low-key) as a legit problem for defenses. Read More »

Down 10 going into the fourth quarter against the reigning Eastern Conference champs, it seemed Kobe was just waiting for the perfect set-up to steal another team’s heart. Scoring a modest 16 points through three quarters, Kobe hit back-to-back jumpers to open the fourth, then later went on a personal 7-0 run to cut Orlando’s lead to two with about 4:30 remaining. Read More »