WOJ is KILLING it today. His Twitter account has been ground zero for every bit of breaking NBA trade deadline news. One of the many deals he broke this afternoon actually looked to be dead right up until the 3p.m. deadline. At the last minute though, the Portland Trail Blazers and Charlotte Bobcats pulled off a deal to send former All-Star Gerald Wallace to the Great Northwest. Read More »

Somebody call Smush Parker and tell him to dust off his purple kicks. Because if Kobe Bryant is at all missing the time he played with Kwame Brown, a 10-day for Smush in L.A. could be in the cards … OK, so Kobe didn’t say he misses Kwame — he didn’t say anything at all — but during last night’s loss to the Bobcats, Kobe had to notice Kwame was outplaying his more talented opposition for key stretches simply because he went harder. Read More »

The other night in Portland’s win over Golden State, second-year Blazers forward Dante Cunningham had a breakthrough game. Finishing with 13 points and five rebounds in a career-high 39 minutes of action, D.C. showed the Portland brass why they drafted him with the 33rd overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. So on a team constantly struggling with injuries, the best thing Cunningham can do is bright it when he’s given the chance. Recently, we caught up with him to talk about his sophomore season, life on the road and Scottie Reynolds. Read More »

We know which teams have the money, and we know which players they want. The only intrigue left before LeBron, D-Wade, Amar’e, Bosh, Joe and the rest actually put pen to paper is how they’ll be recruited. LeBron’s camp has already said they’re not going on a cross-country tour, that they’ll meet with teams at a “neutral site.” (Not that anyone will complain: The Knicks would swim through 500 yards of sh*t-smelling foulness to get LeBron.) … As for D-Wade and Bosh, reports yesterday said they will travel to New York to visit with the Knicks. Meanwhile, LeBron is going to hear pitches from the Cavs, Nets, Heat, Bulls, Clippers and Knicks. Read More »

Even more than MVP, the Coach of the Year award needs a criteria makeover. Because while it’s kind of ridiculous in retrospect that Shaq only has one MVP when he was the most dominant game-changing basketball player in the NBA for several years, it’s patently ridiculous that Jerry Sloan was never deemed the best coach in the League over any of his two decades-plus run in Utah while continually placing his team in the title contending picture. Read More »

By now you don’t need a Clyde Frazier pimp poem to tell you the Knicks probably wish they would have drafted Brandon Jennings — or Terrence Williams, or Tyler Hansbrough, or Ty Lawson — over Jordan Hill in last year’s NBA Draft.

Two-thirds of the way through his rookie year, Hill has played in less than half of New York’s games, and hasn’t done much (4.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg) when he does see the court. The 6-10 power forward out of Arizona appears every bit like just another left-too-early Draft bust. Read More »

Once upon a time, Antonio Pena was known only as one of the “other guys” on Sebastian Telfair‘s team at storied Lincoln High School (Brooklyn, NY). But after a journey that has since taken him through two years at a prep school in Connecticut, knee surgery and a redshirt season, Pena has re-emerged as one of the key players on a Villanova University squad contending for a national championship in 2010.

Pena, a 6-8 junior power forward, is averaging 11 points and 7.5 rebounds for the Wildcats (22-3, 11-2 Big East), ranked No. 3 in the country before last night’s loss to UConn. Read More »

When Amar’e Stoudemire dunked on Dante Cunningham at the end of the first half, it’s safe to say the the rookie didn’t know what hit him. But then again, payback is a mutha. In the fourth quarter, with the Blazers leading and en route to victory, D.C. got his revenge. Read More »

Depending on who you ask, Stephen Curry passed Brandon Jennings for second place in the Rookie of the Year race weeks ago. (Tyreke Evans is still in the lead, while Hasheem Thabeet is in a close battle for 47th.) Then last night, Curry might have jacked the “Best Single-Game Performance, Rookie” trophy from Jennings’ mantle, posting a 36-point, 10-board, 13-dime triple-double as the Warriors 30-pieced the Clippers, adding three steals and seven triples for good measure. Read More »

In motion pictures, here’s all of last night’s Vegas Summer League Action…

Blazers/Rockets… Flip through Dime #49 and you’ll see that we called Dante Cunningham one of our favorite second-round sleepers…

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