Can’t the Timberwolves do anything right? The same franchise that used its first-ever draft pick on Pooh Richardson when Mookie Blaylock, Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp were still on the board; that cost itself five years of first-round picks just to overpay Joe Smith under the table; that wasted Kevin Garnett‘s prime by not getting him a good enough supporting cast; that may have fumbled their biggest post-KG opportunity at the ’09 Draft; that’s taking way too long just to eventually hire Elston Turner as its next coach — they’ve done it again. Read More »

For a Monday slow with basketball news, you can understand how excited I was when I saw Shelden Williams agreed to a one-year contract with the Celtics. Not because the fifth overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft helps solidfy the frontcourt, but because this means I’ll get to see a lot more of Candace Parker. Read More »

Thursday’s NBA news wire looked like the brainstorm meeting for an after-school special. First, with the promotion for LeBron James‘ quasi-autobiography (Shooting Stars, co-written with Buzz Bissinger of Friday Night Lights fame) underway, the big bombshell — and perfect cover-up for the Jordan Crawford thing — was ‘Bron Clinton revealing he smoked weed once in high school. In a book that mostly focuses on his high school career, LBJ also wrote about dealing with fame at a young age. “We had become big-headed jerks, me in particular,” James said. “And we are to blame for that, but so are adults who treated us that way and then sat back and smugly watched the self-destruction.” … 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 »

Don’t forget about the Celtics now. In the offseason arms race that’s seen the Magic get Vince, the Lakers get Artest, the Cavs get Shaq, and the Spurs getting Richard Jefferson, the Celtics made their big move by reaching an agreement with free agent Rasheed Wallace yesterday. ‘Sheed was Boston’s #1 target from the get-go: Danny Ainge risked life and limb skulking around Wallace’s house in the middle of the night; KG, Pierce, Ray and Doc Rivers dropped by to make a pitch; and the C’s appeared willing to let Big Baby Davis walk if it helped land the older, more accomplished PF in ‘Sheed. Read More »

Beyond the obvious — that would be making some jumpers and not getting dragged into the oubliette by Kobe — one thing that needs to happen for Orlando to have a chance in today’s Game 2 is for them to get some production out of the point guard spot. The Lakers have shown a weakness in letting opposing PG’s get savage buckets on Derek Fisher, from Deron Williams to Aaron Brooks to Chauncey Billups. In Game 1, Rafer Alston showed he can get past D-Fish off the dribble with no problem, but Skip needs to make something happen once he gets in the lane. Read More »

Any excuse to put a picture of Candace Parker on the Dime site is a good one. Yesterday Parker gave birth to her first child, a 7-pound, 6-ounce baby girl. If you didn’t know that Shelden Williams is the father, we hate to be the ones to break the news. But it’s true. Read More »