Selected 18th overall by the Denver Nuggets in 2009 NBA Draft, Ty Lawson saw several point guards get picked ahead of him. One person who thinks 17 teams made a mistake passing on the former Tar Heel is Trevor Kapp from our sister site Bouncemag.com. We passed the mic to Trevor and let him vouch for the 2009 ACC Player of the Year. 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: Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Austin Daye, Chris Wilcox, Ben Wallace, DaJuan Summers, Jonas Jerebko Read More »

In Smack this morning, we talked about Austin Daye catching D-Wade from behind on a breakaway sending Flash’s layup out of bounds. Drawing all sorts of comparisons to Tayshaun’s infamous swat, what would you say is the best come from behind block you’ve ever seen?

Detroit is hurting.

With the automobile industry virtually collapsing, the Motor City has seen its unemployment rate fluctuate close to 20% in any given month. Thousands of homes and businesses are left abandoned, and there is little light at the end of the tunnel for many families.

To make matters worse Detroit’s sports franchises, which have always been a source of hope and enthusiasm for the city, have struggled mightily. The Lions failed to win a single game in 2008, the Red Wings heartbreakingly lost in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2009, and the Tigers have consistently disappointed. Needless to say, a once glorious city is in the midst of destruction and despair. Read More »

Now that the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is over, it’s time to take a look back. The following All-Summer League teams consists of two guards, two forwards, and one center with consideration of at least four games played. That means guys like Eric Gordon and Anthony Morrow who went out to Vegas to simply get buckets weren’t considered because they only played in a few games, while the players we selected were all key components to their summer league squad the whole week. Read More »

After D-Wade’s Twitter tease (“I got good news coming, stay tuned”) turned out to be that he’s leaving Converse to take his sneaker game down the hall to Jordan Brand — and not an announcement that Lamar Odom was signing with the Heat — it meant the most important free agent left on the market (with all due respect to Allen Iverson) is still without a team. The Lakers had offered Odom $27 million over three years, but pulled it earlier this week, allowing Miami to get in the mix with a reported five-year, $35M pitch. Last night the L.A. Times said Odom called Lakers owner Jerry Buss himself after Buss got upset that Odom’s agent hadn’t been returning calls. Even if it’s not for $9M a year, when it’s all said and done, we think L.O. will stay in L.A. … Read More »

In motion pictures, here’s all of last night’s Vegas Summer League Action…

Blazers/Rockets… Flip through Dime #49 and you’ll see that we called Dante Cunningham one of our favorite second-round sleepers…

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Guys like Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings are making headlines with standout stat lines, but one of the most consistently impressive rookies in the Vegas Summer League so far has been DeMar DeRozan. Four games in, he’s steadily improving — last night DeRozan put up 20 points on an efficient 9-for-16 from the field (56 percent) against the Suns — and is showing he’s got more to his game than running, jumping and dunking. (Not that he didn’t throw in a couple highlight-reel bangers.) With Anthony Parker headed to Cleveland, DeRozan should be Toronto’s opening day starting two-guard, and between Jose Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu’s playmaking, and Chris Bosh drawing double-teams, DeRozan should have plenty of opportunities to succeed early. Read More »

Even more than in last week’s Orlando summer league, we’re seeing a trend develop in Vegas: The star rookies aren’t just getting the green light to fire away, they’re having the entire offense run through them. Guys like Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry and DeMar DeRozan are getting 20-plus shots a day, and consider these are shorter games where almost everyone else on the court is trying to earn an NBA job … In yesterday’s big head-to-head matchup, Steph and Tyreke were like Allen Iverson and Steve Francis circa 2001: Curry put up 29 points (8-22 FG, 10-11 FT) and six boards, while Evans had 25 points (8-19 FG, 7-12 FT), 10 boards and five assists. Read More »

While the Orlando summer league wrapped up on Friday, the Vegas summer league — the more “glamorous” of the two — was just getting started. Lots of Lottery picks on display: Brandon Jennings had 10 points (3-12 FG) and three assists against Dallas; DeMar DeRozan had 10 points and five boards against the Lakers; Tyreke Evans scored 15 on the Pistons, and Stephen Curry put up 16 points (4-14 FG) with four turnovers and seven fouls against Houston. Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn will also be in action this weekend … That Lakers/Raptors game was an NBA junkyard of “Whatever Happened To That Guy” candidates. Read More »