Beast of the Night: Kevin Martin finished with 48 points on 52 percent (14-27) shooting from the field and 72 percent (13-18) from the free throw line, hitting 7 threes and adding 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, 1 block and 3 turnovers. He was toying with O.J. Mayo during parts of the game, hitting a variety of difficult shots over his outstretched hand. K-Mart’s picking up right where he left off last season and the only major limitation to his value is his health. 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: Jonny Flynn, Ramon Sessions, Wayne Ellington, Ryan Hollins, Damien Wilkins, Sasha Pavlovic, Antonio Daniels, Oleksiy Pecherov, Jason Hart, Nathan Jawai, Mark Blount, Henk Norel

Lost: Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Rodney Carney, Mark Madsen, Kevin Ollie, Jason Collins, Shelden Williams, Bobby Brown Read More »

With points, rebounds and assists covered, let’s move on to discuss some late-round thieves who could help your fantasy team with a steals deficiency. Again, these players are listed in no particular order. There’s much room for discussion here, so please populate the comments section below with your reactions. Read More »

With LeBron James not quite over his might-be-swine-might-be-regular flu bug, can you really blame the Spurs for putting some of their guys out of harm’s way last night? Manu Ginobili (the most fragile of the Big Three), Richard Jefferson (the expensive new acquisition) and Gregg Popovich (the mastermind) all took the night off from Spurs/Cavs, but San Antonio got the W anyway. Tony Parker put up 22 points and seven assists, and Tim Duncan had 13 points and nine boards in the first half before sitting out the second. LeBron finished with 22 points and six boards, including a half-court alley oop dunk, but said he’s “down probably 20 percent” as far as health … Read More »

Yesterday, I wrote a post about the Nets and how they had one of the best young cores in the league. It got me thinking about all the other top young teams, so I decided to rank them. I know “young core” is kind of a vague term that technically could include CP and the Hornets, the Jazz and the Magic. So I set up a couple of parameters.

By young core, I mean players who have not accomplished much yet in their young NBA careers and are still paying dues. I’m talking about players and teams that are not quite ready to contribute anything big this upcoming season, but will be right there in the mix two or three years down the line. All of these players are relatively young, have no more than three years in the league and have not been all-stars or major contributors in the playoffs. Read More »

While it’s hard for me to fathom nobody even offering the veteran’s minimum to Allen Iverson, I can understand why teams don’t want to sign the future first-ballot Hall of Famer this off-season. But if there’s one player in the League that it seems nobody wants, that player would have to be Quentin Richardson. Read More »

Just ask the Miami Heat: Even the worst team in the NBA is one monster season by one player away from getting back in the playoff picture. And it doesn’t always have to be a superstar putting in an MVP-caliber effort, either. Every one of this year’s 14 Lottery squads has one player who, if he produces a career year (or simply does what he’s supposed to do), can swing his team’s fortunes as a postseason contender. In this three-part series, we’ll identify those guys who need to step it up: Read More »

As much as we make summer league about the rookies, this year’s Vegas version was stocked with young “vets” whose play could be a sign of big things to come when the real games start. Nick Young, Anthony Randolph, Jason Thompson, even Adam Morrison and Marcus Williams all put in work, but when the VSL wrapped up yesterday, it was rookie Blake Griffin who was named MVP … Blake averaged 19 points and 10 boards in his five games with the JV Clippers, and in his finale put up 16 and eight in a matchup with older brother Taylor Griffin (4 pts, 6 rebs) and the Suns. We’re probably not going out on a limb saying that was the first and last game those two ever play where they’re across from each other in the starting lineup. Read More »

Apologies to Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, Corey Brewer and anyone else who planned to get a serving of easy buckets in Minnesota, but with each passing day it’s looking more and more like Ricky Rubio won’t be suiting up for your squad. (Forgive Jonny Flynn and Sebastian Telfair if they’re not as upset about it.) Rubio skipping the Wolves’ rookie introduction press conference was the first bad omen, and this weekend was flooded with talk of the Knicks putting on the full-court press to get Minnesota to give up Rubio since he’s not exactly eager to play there. And yesterday, more reports surfaced that Rubio is getting offers from other pro teams in Turkey and Spain. Read More »

When I previewed the Minnesota Timberwolves’ season back in September, I wrote that, at worst, they would still finish with a better record than last year’s (22-60) team. With 11 games left on the schedule and the Wolves sitting at 20 wins, that’s still a possibility. But at the same time, it’s hard to say these Wolves made any tangible improvements over last year’s version. Read More »