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: Hedo Turkoglu, DeMar DeRozan, Jarrett Jack, Amir Johnson, Antoine Wright, Reggie Evans, Marco Belinelli, Rasho Nesterovic, Sonny Weems

Lost: Shawn Marion, Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono, Joey Graham, Roko Ukic, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Kris Humphries, Jake Voskuhl, Nathan Jawai, Hassan Adams Read More »

Missing the deadline for Sunday morning’s Smack, Carmelo Anthony had the performance of the NBA preseason so far in a very late-Saturday/early-Sunday tip in Beijing — in the same arena where ‘Melo and Team USA won their ‘08 gold medals. In just 24 minutes of work against the Pacers, ‘Melo dropped 45 points, going 14-of-19 from the field and 16-of-17 from the line. Oh, and he threw in nine rebounds and two blocks. Those are video-game numbers, like playing NBA 2K against the CPU on Easy mode. But then even more amazing than that might have been Indiana’s “defensive” numbers. Read More »

A good sign that things are getting busier and crazier around here: A couple years ago, if the first televised NBA preseason game was on during the workday, you would’ve found at least 2-3 members of the Dime crew parked on the office couch in front of the TV, workload be damned. This year, the best we could do was catch some of Jazz/Bulls (from London) on a side-glance … No Derrick Rose for this one, as he reportedly hurt his ankle the day before in practice. (Funny how that coincided with his 21st birthday on Sunday. Not that we’re accusing anybody of anything.) Read More »

You might remember USC’s Leonard Washington as the guy who committed one of the dirtiest plays of the year last season, running down the court and hitting Blake Griffin square in the junk. But today, the 6-7, 230-pound sophomore was told that he won’t even have a chance to get back on the court and redeem himself until 2010, after being declared academically ineligible for the first semester. Read More »

Since the NBA Finals ended, we’ve been jumping at any chance we could to watch hoops. From NBA Summer League to AAU tournaments to pickup in NYC/LA, we’ve basically gone out of our way to catch as much ball as we could. And who wouldn’t? So with the NBA season right around the corner, there’s no better time than now to start predicting who is going to win some NBA awards this season. First up, Rookie of the Year. Read More »

Four of the Raptors’ starting five is basically in stone. You know Calderon is starting at point, Hedo at the three, Bosh at the four and Bargnani at the five. The shooting guard spot? That’s where it gets debatable. While early indications out of TO suggest that top draft pick DeMar DeRozan will begin the season as a starter, there is no guarantee that will stick throughout the season and maybe even preseason. The sure-to-be fan favorite guard out of USC has his fair share of competition at his spot. Read More »

What’s up Dime readers! Before I defend my headline, I’d like to take a second to introduce myself to you all. My name is Gerald Narciso and I’m the newest addition to the Dime family. I’m Canadian but grew up in Utah and just finished a three-year stint in Vancouver (Canada not Washington). In the past, I’ve done some freelance work here as long as with Bounce. Apparently Dime liked me so much they kidnapped me from Vancouver and brought me over to the big apple. Anybody got any good suggestions on cool restaurants, bars or coffee shops I should check out, please hit me up! 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 »

While Miami waits for Lamar Odom to decide if he’d rather look at sun-dipped Rodeo Drive honeys or sun-dipped South Beach honeys during timeouts for the next 4-5 years, another possible Plan B in case they don’t get Odom became unavailable. The Hawks re-signed Marvin Williams for $40 million over five years — kind of steep for a guy who wasn’t gonna get $8M a year from anyone else, but not the worst move in the world considering Marvin is a big contributor for a still-developing core unit in Atlanta. Read More »

Whatever you hear coming out of Las Vegas today, don’t believe Anthony Morrow if he says he wasn’t gunning to break teammate Anthony Randolph’s summer-league scoring record. A couple days after Randolph dropped 42 points in a game for the Warriors, Morrow went Desperado on the Hornets — in a game Randolph was sitting out — sniping them for 47 points (18-26 FG, 7-9 3PA) to take his spot in the record books. (Not that they keep an actual book of VSL records; it’s probably scribbled on the back of a racing form.) Morrow had zero assists … And it’s nice to know Nellie will reward Morrow by benching him for two straight weeks once the season starts in favor of Rob Kurz … Thursday’s big matchup pitted Blake Griffin versus Hasheem Thabeet. Read More »