In June of 2003, the Detroit Pistons made a decision that forever changed the face and future of the Denver Nuggets. By selecting Darko Milicic with the No. 2 pick, it allowed Denver to finally secure a franchise player in Carmelo Anthony with the next selection.

Since that evening in the Garden, the Nuggets have only gotten better. Business the prior season though, pre-Melo, was anything but exciting for the city of Denver. The 2002-2003 squad, which featured a younger Juwan Howard, ultimately rotated through 21 players and 65 losses. The Nuggets finished the year with 17 wins and found themselves 43 games behind the division-leading and eventual NBA Champions, San Antonio Spurs. 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: Andre Miller, Juwan Howard, Jeff Pendergraph, Dante Cunningham, Ime Udoka

Lost: Sergio Rodriguez, Channing Frye, Michael Ruffin, Shavlik Randolph Read More »

When you work in an office with basketball junkies, the conversations sometimes can get very heated about very specific things. For example, yesterday the trivia question floating around out there was seeing if you could name all 14 active NBA players that are in the Top 100 on the all-time scoring list. While there are definitely some obvious ones (Shaq, Iverson, Kobe), there are others that took us a minute to figure out (Finley, Stackhouse, Juwan Howard). While we jokingly put it out there that LeBron could be in the Top 100 despite just playing six NBA seasons, we decided to look it up and see where he stands. The results are kind of amazing. Read More »

Even before the tournament field was set, Spain vs. France was the most anticipated matchup at the FIBA European Championships. With both squads only missing a couple of their high-profile players — Jose Calderon and Sergio Rodriguez for Spain, Joakim Noah and Mickael Pietrus for France — these were clearly the two most star-studded rosters and favorites in the tourney. Throw in the drama of Spain looking very vulnerable thanks to some early-round struggles, and it was at least expected to be interesting. But then in yesterday’s quarterfinal matchup, Spain laid the hammer down in a 20-piecing that wasn’t even competitive. Rudy Fernandez (16 pts, 6 stls, 5 rebs) knocked down three triples in the first quarter as Spain got out to a blazing start and never looked back. Read More »

Today, Juwan Howard signed a one-year contact with the Portland Trail Blazers according to GM Kevin Pritchard. This will be the 15-year NBA vet’s eighth team. Last year, he split time between Denver and Charlotte where he averaged 4.1 points and 1.8 rebounds. Howard is also the last member of the Fab Five still standing in the NBA. What does he bring to the Blazers this year?

NBA training camp is still a few weeks away, so Saturday was all about college football. Some basketball-related notes from the day’s action: Greg Paulus lost his first game as Syracuse’s starting QB, racking up 167 yards on 19-of-31 attempts with one touchdown against Minnesota, but he threw a crucial pick in overtime (’Cuse was also 1-for-12 in converting third downs); Javier Arenas (Gilbert’s cousin) had a handful of kick/punt returns in fifth-ranked Alabama’s win over No. 7 Virginia Tech, but didn’t break any for a long gain … With Ramon Sessions spoken for, the only two point guards anybody is looking out for in free agency are Allen Iverson and Ray Felton, and the former’s eventual destination likely has a big impact on the latter’s next move. Read More »

You want to cause a splinter within the ranks of the Solar Temple of Michael Jordan followers? Ask them whether they think MJ’s second comeback with the Wizards was a good idea. It’s like if Lauryn Hill dropped an album this year: Half her fans would be thrilled to snatch up anything by L-Boogie, while the other half would be terrified of the potential damage to her legacy when she’s clearly not at the top of her game right now.

But really, the concept of “going out on top” is one that has become strangely unique to sports. Read More »

Nothing happened in basketball yesterday. Really. The Celtics are still trying to find a way to make that sign-and-trade for Marquis Daniels work (a.k.a. ringing Chris Wallace’s phone off the hook), the Hawks are looking to add another big man (those auditioning for the role include Joe Smith, Jason Collins, Stromile Swift and D-League MVP Courtney Sims), and Linzas Kleiza is getting closer and closer to signing with Olympiakos (Greece) and making it official that the Nuggets really lost ground on the whole improving-the-team thing this summer. Other than that, most of the weekend was dead basketball-wise, with the first NFL preseason game, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a Yankees/Red Sox series, and Tiger Woods involved in the last day of a tournament owning the headlines … 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 »