Some of the benches on NBA squads are just nasty. It used to be teams would go just seven or eight deep in their rotation. Now some of these teams have benches so stacked that they could probably handle Milwaukee or Sacramento’s starting fives. I ranked my top five second units in the league. Keep in mind, starting lineups haven’t been set in stone and some of these guys might start come opening night (tonight for some). 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: Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Fabricio Oberto, Paul Davis

Lost: Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas, Oleksiy Pecherov, Juan Dixon Read More »

Logically, after ticking off points, rebounds, assists and steals, it’s time to move on to looking at late-round players who can help you in the blocks category. This is a list of big men, naturally, so most can help field goal percentage as well, but our focus today is on blocks. Listed below, in no particular order, are some players that will likely be available in the later rounds of your fantasy drafts and can help fulfill your need for blocks. As always, let us know what you think. Read More »

There’s no question that the class of 2008 is front-loaded with talent. And now that the rookie jitters are gone and contract extensions are in sight, how will they fare after a year in the League under their belts? The reality is, a case can be made for almost 30 guys to be on this list in some way. For instance, where do Danilo Gallinari and Roy Hibbert go with such strong coach-backing? It’s still too early to close the book on any of these guys, but so far here are my predictions. Read More »

One of the most interesting parts of the first few days of NBA training camp is seeing the lineups we’ve speculated about all summer finally coming together. Some of them haven’t changed a bit, some of them look real good, and some — try Chris Duhon, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington and David Lee in New York — just look good and terrible … Speaking of Gallo, apparently Mike D’Antoni has fallen back in love with the kid and is talking him up big-time. After the Knicks fans booed him out of MSG at the draft, the quick assumption was that Gallo would be the next Skita Tskitishvili, but if he stays healthy and carves out a nice little Andrea Bargnani-like niche for himself, that’s a big W for the Knicks … Read More »

Before you skip the article and head directly to the comments to destroy me, just hear me out. And for fans of the Celtics, Cavs and Magic, it’s not that you don’t think it’s possible, but rather that the thought of the Wizards beating you in the second round of the playoffs makes you sick. But the more and more I think about it, the more and more I convince myself that the Wizards could win the championship this year. Read More »

A couple months ago, one of our writers picked the Wizards to make a return to the playoffs in 2010, slotting them eighth or ninth in the East. A lot of readers thought that was way too low; they had the crew of Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, a returning Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood, new pickups Randy Foye and Mike Miller, and young’uns Andray Blatche, Nick Young and JaVale McGee finishing as high as fourth in the East. Now Jamison is taking it a step further. In yesterday’s Washington Post, Jamison said he believes the Wizards can win a championship next year. Read More »

When Austin wrote a couple weeks ago that the Wizards would be crashing the 2010 postseason party as a seventh or eighth seed, a lot of people disagreed. Not because they thought the Wizards would be back in the lottery, but rather that people were thinking they could legitimately get homecourt advantage in the first round. Despite having Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Randy Foye, Nick Young, Mike Miller, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, DeShawn Stevenson knows that it all comes down to Gilbert Arenas. Read More »

Thursday’s NBA news wire looked like the brainstorm meeting for an after-school special. First, with the promotion for LeBron James‘ quasi-autobiography (Shooting Stars, co-written with Buzz Bissinger of Friday Night Lights fame) underway, the big bombshell — and perfect cover-up for the Jordan Crawford thing — was ‘Bron Clinton revealing he smoked weed once in high school. In a book that mostly focuses on his high school career, LBJ also wrote about dealing with fame at a young age. “We had become big-headed jerks, me in particular,” James said. “And we are to blame for that, but so are adults who treated us that way and then sat back and smugly watched the self-destruction.” … Read More »

Now that the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is over, it’s time to take a look back. The following All-Summer League teams consists of two guards, two forwards, and one center with consideration of at least four games played. That means guys like Eric Gordon and Anthony Morrow who went out to Vegas to simply get buckets weren’t considered because they only played in a few games, while the players we selected were all key components to their summer league squad the whole week. Read More »