The Oklahoma City Thunder laid the smackdown on the Bobcats on Monday night, winning 114-69, and negating the positive work new head coach Mike Dunlap had done with the Bobcats to start the season. The Thunder’s 45-point rout of the Bobcats was highlighted by their early 79-25 lead, which prompted DailyThunder blogger, Royce Young, to tweet: “It’s time like these where I really miss Cole Aldrich.” Hasheem Thabeet even recorded his first career double-double (!) in some prolonged garbage time. Read More »

The annual poll of NBA general managers was released today and with it come the instant analysis. Dime is no different, but instead of seeing the superlatives, I wanted to offer observations on what may have been overlooked. The biggest winners and surprises of this poll are easy to see if you look closely. Keep reading to see the top 5 things to know about the GM poll. Read More »

Shaquille O’Neal‘s movies make us want to wince (did you know he’s been in seven films?) but it doesn’t mean the big screen is out of his future. And we’re not talking about his cameo in “Grown Ups 2″ he’s got coming up. The Big Aristotle became The Big Projector on Friday when his newly renovated movie theater, the CityPlex 12, he co-owns in downtown Newark opened. Read More »

We’re all for pushing the limits. When Kobe said he was skipping college to test himself in the NBA, we said “Do you, kid.” When Dirk Nowitzki said he wanted to stop shooting threes and work to become more of a post player, we thought it was a great move. Even when Pat Riley tried to turn Anthony Mason into a point-forward, we thought the plan might have potential. We’ve supported nearly every basketball move outside of the “Andrew Bynum Three-Point Program” but this summer’s No. 1 pick might be thinking just a lil’ too high. Read More »

The NBA offseason still isn’t quite over – we don’t know what’s going to happen with Dwight Howard … will anyone give Tracy McGrady and Gilbert Arenas another chance? … who is signing Josh Howard? – but for the most part, the big moves have been made. Deron Williams, Eric Gordon, Steve Nash, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and the rest of the best available names have chosen teams for next year. Read More »

Jalen Rose is the last relevant member of the Fab Five, parlaying his NBA career into an ESPN NBA analyst job and Grantland podcaster. Well, apparently Jalen doesn’t consider himself a part of the everyday media machine, even though he’s a part of the 30-second attention-grabbing proclamations that berate us through the television day in and day out. In a recent radio appearance, Rose took the opportunity to reproach the recently nicknamed “Fab Five” U.S. women’s gymnastics team under the guise of laziness, even if this was only a veiled defense of his own unique distinction as one of Michigan basketball’s five fabulous freshmen. Here’s what Jalen had to say: Read More »

It’s hard to be considered an offseason winner when your No. 1 player and franchise cornerstone recently tore up his knee and won’t be returning until probably March at the earliest. But the Bulls aren’t just going to be one player down next season; They’ve made some huge changes in this offseason. They lost Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver and Omer Asik, among others, and replaced them with Kirk Hinrich, Nate Robinson and Nazr Mohammed. Rose probably means a dozen wins himself, and with the new changes they’ve made, Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t think they’ll even make the playoffs. The Notorious J.V.G. said on ESPN 1000′s “Waddle & Silvy” show that it’ll be a heck of a year if the Bulls can even win half of their games. Read More »

Building an Olympic team shouldn’t be like constructing an All-Star team. A one-off All-Star team doesn’t need chemistry, role players or defense (definitely not any defense). An Olympic U.S. team requires all that and a dose of humility, too, a point underscored after the 2004 bronze medal Olympic performance and the World Championship failures surrounding it. This summer has broken out the nostalgia from the 1992 team, and the otherworldly talent on it. Picking that squad must have been like having a dozen straight first-round picks in your fantasy league. No team, though, is perfect, even with that much leeway. Try as a committee might, there are always deserving players left out when it comes time to represent a country at the Olympics. Here then, are the best 20 players of the last 20 years who never made a U.S. Olympic team. Read More »

There’s a time and place for shaking things up in the NBA, and there’s another for finding a rhythm with familiar parts and pieces. When free agency opened for official signings on Wednesday, most the attention went to the shiny new additions around the league, from Steve Nash in Los Angeles to Omer Asik in Houston. Creating — or holding together — a contender isn’t just about the add-ons, though; it’s about keeping the best players from before who already have experience. Read More »

We think it’s unfair to make jokes about Jason Kidd playing with a cane now that he’s agreed to a three-year deal worth reportedly $9 million to return to Dallas. Wait, what’s that? Oh, he changed his mind three hours later to play with the Knicks. That about-face was the story of the NBA on Thursday in what has become even more of an old guards’ league. Free agency so far has been a job fair where only old point guards have shown up, and everyone’s fighting over them. Note to the draft class of 2013: Help wanted if you’re a point guard. Read More »