Anything is possible in the National Basketball Association. On any given night a team can pull out an upset victory, David Stern can fine you for something you didn’t even say or a superstar can be traded for pennies on the dollar. For the most part we don’t know what General Managers and team executives are thinking. The general NBA fan has the common sense to know when a front office decision is a bad move. For instance everyone knew when Isiah Thomas signed Jerome James to his ridiculous contract that it was unwarranted. It is knee jerk reactions like that which create the special group of NBA players called the Untradeables. Read More »

D-Wade had three forces working against him on Sunday: nagging injuries that Martell Webster seemed bent on turning into major injuries, a red-hot Brandon Roy in fourth-quarter takeover mode wearing a Reggie Miller mask, and, apparently, the big man upstairs being a Blazers fan. “The basketball Gods didn’t want us to win this one,” Wade said after the Heat lost at home to Portland … Over the last four and a half minutes of a nip/tuck ballgame, B-Roy scored 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting with a pair of threes and a free throw. Usually when Roy (28 pts, 11-14 FG, 8 asts) is going ballistic, he’s mixing his defender up and knifing into the lane from all angles, getting layups with either hand. This time he was icing outside jumpers with Wade right in his face. Read More »

Sam Cassell can stay, but if Flip Saunders is going to turn these Wizards around, he needs to clean house with the rest of his assistants and bring in the likes of Coach Carter, Joe Clark from Lean on Me, Gene Hackman, Bobby Knight and Mike Ditka. Basically, coaches who won’t take any nonsense and won’t accept some of the iron-headed decisions the players are making. The Wizards had a chance to beat the Celtics last night and stay undefeated in national TV games this season, but they gave it away with their own curious choices … Read More »

Among the questions facing the Trail Blazers as they get used to life without Greg Oden, another bigger and broader question faces Oden himself as he prepares for another grueling round of rehab and another psychological hurdle to clear once he does get back on the basketball court.

Do I want to do this anymore? Read More »

The NBA preseason is underway, meaning it’s time again for Dime’s team-by-team season previews. Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceilings and basements for each team. In other words, what is the realistic best-case and worst-case scenario for the 2009-10 campaign?

Added: Jordan Hill, Darko Milicic, Toney Douglas, Gabe Pruitt Read More »

Now that NBA training camps are underway, some guys will have to get used to having all eyes on them — or more specifically, all eyes on their knees, shoulders, ankles, etc. — waiting to see if they’ll hold up or crumble like a toothpick sculpture … Chris Bosh wasn’t supposed to be on that list, especially given the results we’d seen from his offseason workout, but then he tweaked his hamstring right before Raptors camp opened. Bosh apparently hurt himself while playing golf, which just sounds like the first chapter of another bad-luck season in Toronto … Read More »

Welcome to the (so far) most Twitter-infected edition of Smack ever written. We begin with Nate Robinson, who was arrested yesterday in NYC for driving on a suspended license, and broke the news himself — on Twitter. Nate actually tweeted while he was being pulled over (if only this kind of technology existed when Rodney King got popped in ’91), and what started with his windows being too tinted turned into a revelation that his license had been suspended for an unpaid ticket he says he didn’t know about. Granted, this is a very minor legal matter, but it’s also horrible timing for Nate when he’s still technically unemployed … One of the League’s other high-profile jobless guys, Allen Iverson, took his free agency news to the Twitter crowd. Read More »

Knowing that teams are banking on spending bank next summer, there are certain players that help make everything fall into place, and those players are guys with expiring contracts. Teams that want cap space trade for them, and teams that have them know that they can trade them for pieces to fill out their roster. While this list could include every 2010 free agent, I’m sticking with guys that are more valuable as contracts than on the court. Realizing this, here are the top 15 expiring contracts this season: Read More »

While you know anything Sam Smith reports must be taken with a grain of salt, the Bulls.com writer has speculated trade talks between the Bulls, Jazz and Rockets that would involve shipping Carlos Boozer to the Bulls, Shane Battier and Carl Landry to the Jazz, and Tyrus Thomas, Jerome James and Kyrylo Fesenko to the Rockets. Read More »

The competition for the annual Jerome James award for the most bloated offseason signing is really heating up.

While the Blazers are balking at a five-year max deal for the face of their franchise Brandon Roy, other teams are offering truckloads of cash to bench players. Read More »