Selected 18th overall by the Denver Nuggets in 2009 NBA Draft, Ty Lawson saw several point guards get picked ahead of him. One person who thinks 17 teams made a mistake passing on the former Tar Heel is Trevor Kapp from our sister site Bouncemag.com. We passed the mic to Trevor and let him vouch for the 2009 ACC Player of the Year. 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: Earl Clark, Channing Frye, Taylor Griffin

Lost: Shaquille O’Neal, Matt Barnes, Stromile Swift Read More »

Every day, more signs are popping up to tell us we’re getting closer and closer to the actual NBA season. Over the last week or so, we’ve watched guys going through the motions in practice (the “Real Training Camp” cameras never lie); Shaq throwing his old teams under the bus to hype up his new team; a valuable Kings player getting hurt; Vince Carter’s critics blasting him for shooting (and missing) too many jumpers; Gerald Wallace dunking on cats; some decent preseason games; a couple of fights and suspensions; and further proof that the Warriors are officially the Oakland Raiders of the NBA. Last night was another milestone, with the first nationally televised game of the year: Suns/Warriors on TNT. Read More »

OK, so the Shaq and Terry Porter experiment failed and now the Phoenix Suns are back to runnin’ and gunnin’ full time. Over the summer, Steve Kerr re-signed the quarterback behind the seven-seconds-or-less offense Steve Nash, re-upped with Grant Hill and acquired two slim and athletic big men in Channing Frye and lottery-pick Earl Clark. Under coach Alvin Gentry (who was one of D’Antoni’s assistants in Phoenix), the team will try to trying to rewind time back to the 2004-’05 season and attempt to put up 115 or more points per game. Read More »

In Dime #49, our NBA Draft Preview issue, we said that 10 years from now we will be talking about Earl Clark. And for good reason. At 6-9 and 225 pounds, Clark is an NBA-ready wing that is going to be a nightmare to guard out of the triple-threat for the Suns this year. In the issue we even said that he “might have the best jab step since ‘Melo.” Our friends over at InsideHoops.com caught up with Earl recently and he had some pretty interesting things to say. Read More »

When I was at the 2009 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot this past Sunday, Bulls rookie James Johnson challenged all the guys to a dance off. With Earl Clark on the mic and DJ Mode on the turntables, no one could even step to JJ once he was done.

Say this much for new Timberwolves GM David Kahn: He might be the worst comedian in the NBA (his jokes last night bombed like Kramer on “Comicview”), but in the few weeks he’s been on the job, he’s made the Wolves relevant for the first time since they had KG. In almost every media outlet’s recap of last night’s NBA Draft, the Wolves were one of the lead stories, with half the experts thinking they killed it and deserved an A+, and the other half wondering if Kahn is smoking that same stuff Prince had when he made Graffiti Bridge … The Wolves used the 5th pick on Ricky Rubio, then took Jonny Flynn with the 6th pick. Read More »

You don’t declare for the NBA Draft as a sophomore and then let the withdrawal deadline pass unless you’ve heard good things from the League. And you definitely don’t accept an invite to the Green Room unless you’re damn sure you’ll be gone somewhere near to the Lottery.

And yet there’s Austin Daye, in New York City, with a spot reserved in the Green Room next to Tyreke Evans and Blake Griffin and the rest of the top-flight incoming rookies despite having more doubts surrounding him than any first-round prospect. Read More »

Before draft season rolled along, critics of this year’s draft class suggested that the Wolves try to get rid of their boatload of picks. But instead of ditching a couple of their choices this year for picks in a stronger draft, Minnesota’s gone in the opposite direction. They’re going by the Warren Buffet edict - be a buyer in a seller’s market. At least that’s the way that it appears at the moment.

But will that philosophy hold up? Minnesota is in the driver’s seat tonight - they could use all of their six selections, or they can make one of the following moves. Read More »

During football season, one of my boys has made a habit out of sitting in front of his computer with a game in the background, betting $0.25 on virtually every play. Wagering a quarter that the Seattle Seahawks will run the ball for 3-6 yards is one way to amp up the intensity of the game.

I haven’t seen any gambling sites offer this same feature during NBA contests. The game is too fast-paced to place play-by-play bets. But the NBA Draft isn’t - in fact, it’s the perfect venue to throw your money away gambling online. Read More »