In case you were wondering, there is still NBA basketball being played tonight, as the Magic head to Miami to take on the Heat. But one thing that’s interesting is that almost all the top schools in the country are represented on Miami’s roster. The question is, who do you think is going to win? Read More »

I can’t resist season preview magazines. NBA, NFL, college, MLB, I’m a sucker for those thick annual issues that I’ll pore through in a couple of sittings before the season, then rarely open during the season. (Speaking of, keep an eye out for Dime #53, our NBA/college/high school preview issue.)

Every few years, one of the preview mags will do a feature where they create the “perfect” player for their sport, Dr. Frankenstein-style. Read More »

This will not be your typical NBA recap, it is simply my random observations and thoughts on the game. These observations were made in real time watching the game, if you have random observations, comments or questions during any NBA game tweet it to @dimemag and I will choose the best to include in my random observations. 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: Carlos Arroyo, Quentin Richardson, Shavlik Randolph

Lost: Jamario Moon, Luther Head, Mark Blount Read More »

Principal D-Stern had to have been pleased with his product yesterday, as two of the NBA’s three preseason games took place outside the United States. In Taiwan, the Pacers blew out the Nuggets: Troy Murphy put up 20 points with four threes, and Brandon Rush (20 pts) knocked down six triples, but the real story was Roy Hibbert. The kid was a BEAST, going for 20 points, 11 boards and eight blocks. Granted, Nene being out meant Denver started Johan Petro at center, but he only played 10 minutes before Birdman and K-Mart assumed most of the duties inside. It’s just preseason, but in the Nuggets‘ two games against NBA teams (they smashed a team of kids from Belgrade), they haven’t looked good at all … Read More »

Real life hit the NBA once again yesterday, when reports surfaced that a number of Miami Heat employees — most notably Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra — accepted pay cuts up to 20% in an effort to prevent further layoffs in the organization. It’s been public knowledge for years that some NBA teams are in financial trouble (Grizzlies, Bobcats, etc.), but Miami usually wasn’t in that group. It’s not like Riley or Spoelstra is starving or anything, but it’s got to be scary for a lot of people around the League. And of course, it kicks off an easy round of “Why can’t Underachieving Player X take a pay cut?” Read More »

Classic example of why playing in New York makes you automatically more relevant than you should be: Stephon Marbury‘s career from 2008 to 2009, a.k.a. As The Truck Turns.

While Steph was going through his soap opera with the Knicks, there was another (arguably better at this stage) NBA point guard (an NYC native, coincidentally) going through almost the exact same drama with his team and being similarly cast as the villain. But because that team was the Indiana Pacers, that player, Jamaal Tinsley, quietly disappeared. There were no “SportsCenter” updates, no newspaper blogs, no YouTube-friendly interviews, no uStream feeds, no Twitter followers. When the Pacers exiled Tinsley this past season, he simply ceased to exist on the NBA landscape. Read More »

Although the ‘09 NBA free agent class isn’t as stacked as in years past — not to mention the League is being more thrifty than ever due to the slumping economy — teams still have holes they want to plug, and players have moves they want to make. As the negotiation period gets underway (players can’t officially sign until July 8), we’re breaking down each team’s free agent situation… Read More »

Are the Hawks just ultra-confident that they’ll win any Game Seven in their own gym? Because with a chance to eliminate D-Wade and the Heat last night, ATL came out, as Mark Jackson put it, like they had some kind of cushion. True, the Hawks were essentially missing two starters (Al Horford out; Marvin Williams played five minutes), and generally they were not a good road team this year. But execution and effort are two different things … Read More »

Heat/Hawks had all the physicality and ill will of a 1990s playoff series — for a minute there we thought Mookie Blaylock and Kevin Willis had checked in unnoticed — but at the same time, it had refs and rules from the 21st century, and Principal Stern was sitting courtside as a constant reminder to everyone not to get too wild … Dwyane Wade was out of control, and not in a good way for Miami. Read More »