Buy Low:Dirk Nowitzki is struggling with his offense lately, averaging just 12 points on 33 percent shooting from the field in his past two games. If there was ever a shot at buying low on the headband-donning beast, now’s the time. This U-boat will emerge from the water very soon. Read More »
Weekend Wonder: Kobe Bryant delivered two nice presents to his fantasy owners this past holiday weekend, averaging 36.5 points, 2.5 threes, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 4.5 turnovers. He shot 44 percent from the field and 100 percent from the line in those two games. Kobe played a whopping 96 minutes in those two contests, thanks to a double overtime game on Saturday. Read More »
For six weeks leading up to the NBA season, I ranked and filed the League’s go-to guys. Using the rationale that even the most harmonious, balanced team has one if-all-else-fails alpha male that they look to in crunch time, I picked one player per squad for a final list of 30. (A concept that went over a lot of people’s heads; I can’t tell you how many “How is Ray Allen not on the list and Boris Diaw is?” e-mails I got.) Read More »
Weekend Wonder:Tyreke Evans is bouncing back from a bum ankle in a big way, helped partly by the absence of Kevin Martin. The Kings’ surging rookie averaged 27.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.5 steals and just 1 turnover in two games over the weekend, while also hitting 1.5 threes, shooting 50 percent (15-30) from the field and 85 percent (22-26) from the free throw line. With Martin sidelined for six to eight weeks, expect Evans to fill that void quite nicely. Read More »
Allen Iverson made last night’s Grizzlies/Kings game worth checking out from the beginning, but Kevin Martin made it worth staying until the end. What was originally billed as A.I.’s big debut turned into K-Mart’s showcase, it may have been the best game of the season so far, and it was a hell of a timely ad for NBA League Pass as the free preview week wraps up … Checking in to a nice ovation from the Sacramento crowd, Iverson looked like he was just testing out his hamstring in his initial rotation, a scoreless five-minute stretch of the first quarter. 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 »
When a young phenom stumbles, or goes all the way and completely falls from grace, the race is on amongst guys like us (media) to say “I saw it coming.” Whether it’s a young Mike Tyson’s behavior around women or Todd Marinovich’s father creating a recipe for his son’s rebellion, pundits like to say they saw the signs before anyone else. In the case of Michael Beasley, playing the “We saw it coming” card initially seemed like opportunistic hindsight, and yet, thinking back to our time spent with Beasley, everything that’s come to light this week makes sense. Read More »
Although the ‘09 NBA free agent class isn’t as stacked as in years past — not to mention the League is being more thrifty than ever due to the slumping economy — teams still have holes they want to plug, and players have moves they want to make. Here, we break down all 30 NBA teams’ free agent strategy…Read More »