Less than a minute to go in Orlando, the Wizards were up one with the ball. And as one of the Magic announcers put it, “Their body language is such that they don’t believe they’re really here.” In other words, the Wizards were acting like they knew they were going to somehow blow the game. As if on cue, they committed a turnover, and a couple possessions later, Rashard Lewis stuck a corner three to put Orlando up one with four seconds left. Given all that’s happened to the Wizards this year, you’d think they might as well just go home at that point, but this time they had one reason to stay optimistic: Caron Butler … Read More »

By now, you should know that when NBA announcers keep saying, “Kobe is really frustrated,” it’s actually code for, “Kobe’s shot isn’t falling and he’s battling with the refs.” … That was the case during Lakers/Mavericks last night, as L.A. got smoked on its homecourt and Kobe (20 pts, 6-19 FG) struggled between breaking out his best whiny faces. Read More »

With the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony scheduled for this Friday, we wanted to give the true diehard fans of the Dime Magazine community an opportunity to write about the 2009 class. First up, Dime reader and Utah Jazz fan Amar (who maintains his own Utah Jazz blog) shares his thoughts on Jerry Sloan:

*** *** ***

What do you say about a man who has been involved with the NBA (as a player or coach) during the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr. and Obama Administrations that has not already been said before? Read More »

Four words you’re going to hear more than “rumor” and “sign-and-trade” over the next 2-3 weeks:

It’s. Just. Summer. League.

Remember that when you see some of the stat lines coming out of Orlando and Vegas from rookies and guys trying to shoot their way into the NBA. Yesterday the PTP’er was none other than Ryan Anderson, the Magic’s throw-in of the Vince Carter trade who dropped 33 points (11-15 FG, 9-9 FT) and 14 boards on the Celtics. Read More »

Just when you thought Joe Dumars was going to make a good move after picking Michael Curry last year, word out of Detroit is that Avery Johnson is no longer in the running for the Detroit Pistons head coaching vacancy after the two sides could not come to terms on a contract. Read More »

Before getting into what was a busy first day of NBA free agency, let’s talk about Joe Dumars and his sudden firing of Pistons coach Michael Curry. You can’t really say it was “out of nowhere,” because few teams fell apart quite like the ‘08-09 Pistons fell apart, and Dumars has proven that he’s not exactly patient. (It’s a miracle he didn’t trade Amir Johnson two years ago.) But it was just two months ago that Dumars admitted he’d fired previous coaches too soon, promised to be more patient with Curry, and even took some responsibility for putting Curry in a tough situation with the Billups/Iverson trade. What happened to that? Read More »

After spending his last eight years coaching at Pepperdine, serving as an assistant under Avery Johnson in Dallas, and attending multiple Clay Aiken concerts with his wife (yes, that happened), Paul Westphal is back. Kings GM Geoff Petrie chose Westphal over LA Lakers’ assistant Kurt Rambis and Boston defensive specialist Tom Thibodeau.

Frankly, those Clay Aiken concerts sound like fun compared to trying to win in the West with the Kings’ roster. Enjoy yourself, Paulie! Read More »

What would have happened this season if Steve Kerr and the Suns never hired Terry Porter? For one, Amar’e Stoudemire thinks that Phoenix would be a playoff team right now. STAT has no qualms about blaming Porter for the Suns struggles this season.

He also adds that Porter’s style of coaching took the fun out of the game, especially when the squad went 3-7 to end the month of January: “It wasn’t great. It didn’t feel good. It wasn’t fun to play.” Read More »