If you haven’t heard, this is supposed to be a down year for the Pac-10.

Over the summer the conference lost James Harden, Jordan Hill, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Taj Gibson, Jeff Pendergraph, Jon Brockman and Chase Budinger to the NBA Draft. Going back to 2008, the Pac-10 also lost O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, the Lopez twins, Jerryd Bayless and Ryan Anderson, all of whom would still been in school today had they not gone pro early. Read More »

From worst to first, ranking the NBA through the first couple of weeks…

30. New Jersey Nets (0-7) — They’re dropping like panties at R.Kelly’s house in Jersey, with starters Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, CDR and Yi Jianlian all missing games with injury and/or illness.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (1-6) — The only bright spot of this past week was Jonny Flynn outplaying Brandon Jennings head-to-head. And the Wolves still lost that game. Read More »

The NBA season is only a week old, but there are already a couple of rookies that are making an impact. From a flashy point guard in Milwaukee to a sharp shooting second rounder - the contributions are coming from unlikely sources. On the flip side, there are a bunch of high profile draft picks like Jordan Hill and Hasheem Thabeet that are struggling to get burn. There are also few rooks (one in particular) who has been slowed down by the injury bug. Here are some of this rookie class’ standouts. Read More »

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 »

The Big Three had the night off Tuesday (as did Mike Sweetney, so maybe that’s like The Big Five), leaving Rajon Rondo and Rasheed Wallace to carry the load in the Celtics’ win over the Nets. ‘Sheed posted 20 points and nine boards before tweaking his ankle in the third quarter, taking turns shooting Yi Jianlian’s face off and beasting Ed Najera in the post; Rondo had 18 points and 13 dimes and took over in the fourth quarter. Big Baby helped seal the W by showing some vertical and swatting Courtney Lee on one of NJ’s last possessions, then getting a key offensive board on a Rondo missed FT in the final seconds. Read More »

Danilo Gallinari is still kind of a mystery to the basketball world. Because of a back injury, the 21-year-old forward was limited to just 28 games during his rookie campaign but he showed some flashed of promise near the end of the season. Word out of Knicks camp is Gallinari has been impressive not only as a shooter, but as a distributor and creator. Entering his second season in the League, big things are expected out of the Rooster this year. We were able to talk a little Knicks with Danilo at the EA Sports NBA Live 10 release party on Tuesday. 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 »

The Knicks rolled out what might be the worst NBA starting lineup you’ll see all year (Chris Duhon, Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries, Al Harrington, David Lee), but they still managed to beat the Nets in yesterday’s preseason opener for both teams because, frankly, the Nets also have high potential to stink. Harrington led NY with 23 points, Lee had 20 and nine boards, and Wilson Chandler came off the bench for 21 points. Chandler is expected to take over that starting SG spot soon enough, but he’s been a little banged up in training camp … Nate Robinson was curiously quiet, coming off the bench for 17 minutes and scoring six points. Read More »

Stephen Jackson’s trade demand was the big story coming out of the Protege Block Party on Friday. But we were also able to catch up with the Knicks’ Al Harrington. The 13-year vet out of St. Patrick’s High School in Elizabeth, NJ, is entering his first full season as a Knick. Harrington weighed in on the state of the Knicks as well as his mission to make quality and affordable shoes.

Dime: Tell the readers a little about Protege. Al Harrington: Well the shoes are great. They’re shoes that will immediately impact the community. It will empower kids and allow them to be able to afford sneakers themselves and not need their parents to buy shoes for them. The days of the $200 shoes are pretty much over. I think it’s unfair because shoes are made at a price that is way, way lower than that. We wanted to be able to put out a shoe that is quality and is just as good as other shoes on the market that are $100 and $200. Kids can look good and with me, Stephen Jackson and Fat Joe wearing them - it’s giving the line a lot of credibility. Kids can wear them and feel empowered wearing them. Read More »

Thank Oscar that the program directors at NBA TV decided to start showing some of the best games from the ‘08-09 season in neat little one-hour increments this week, otherwise the general inactivity these days would draw a basketball fan stir crazy … The NBA free agent landscape is like combing through the used CD rack at a store that’s already been raided by the broke college students: There’s still some interesting, slightly attractive product, but nothing too great. Case in point: The most intense “bidding war” lately has been over C.J. Watson — a second or third-string PG on most teams — and that just ended since the Magic pulled out of negotiations and it’s looking like C.J. is headed back to the Warriors … Meanwhile, David Lee is the biggest name left on the board that anybody seems to want (sorry, A.I.). Read More »