No matter how old and inconsistent he gets, apparently Peja Stojakovic will always be able to light up the Suns. In what could have been one of those rock-bottom moments for the Hornets — national TV, no Chris Paul, interim coach, hosting a red-hot opponent who could conceivably drop 130 points on ‘em and get them booed out of their own gym — N.O. showed some heart and pulled off an upset win behind Peja’s 25 points, 13 boards and seven threes. It wasn’t the first time Peja has taken down the Suns on a big stage: Read More »
Beast of the Night:Tim Duncan put up 28 points, 16 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks in 34:23 against the Bulls last night. He also shot 68.4 percent (13-19) from the floor, 50 percent (2-4) from the free throw line and turned the ball over twice. His minutes won’t climb much higher for most of the season, but on nights like these it doesn’t matter. Read More »
With points, rebounds and assists covered, let’s move on to discuss some late-round thieves who could help your fantasy team with a steals deficiency. Again, these players are listed in no particular order. There’s much room for discussion here, so please populate the comments section below with your reactions. Read More »
Now that we’ve covered late-rounders who will help fill in your teams’ scoring and rebounding weaknesses, let’s move on to assists. Again, these are players who will likely be available in the later rounds of most fantasy drafts but could offer good value in this specific statistical category and are not listed in any specific order. Read on, respond and let us know if you’d remove or add someone to this list. Read More »
Of course the games don’t count in the standings, and not everybody is going all-out although they’re still getting paid (it’s like Tim Thomas‘ fantasy land), but one of the biggest misconceptions about the NBA preseason is the idea that you can’t learn anything from these exhibitions. If a guy can’t hit a shot in the preseason (e.g. Peja Stojakovic right now), it’s not like he’s going to automatically become more accurate when the games count. And if he’s busting the defense’s ass and making it look easy in the preseason (e.g. Kobe every year), it’s not like he’s going to suddenly turn into a scrub when it matters. Look at the Orlando Magic: Read More »
Many times there comes a need to fill in the statistical gaps that exist in your fantasy rosters, and most times these weaknesses are only apparent later in your drafts. This week we’ll discuss players who will likely be available in the later rounds of most drafts but could help you stop up those statistical cracks in your fantasy rosters. We’ll start off with some late-round players who can help you with points, in no particular order. 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:James Johnson, Taj Gibson, Jannero Pargo, Derrick Byars
Lost:Ben Gordon, Tim Thomas, Linton Johnson, Anthony RobersonRead More »
The second game of the NBA preseason, Bulls vs. Pacers, kind of flew under the radar for a few reasons: Nobody cared as much because it wasn’t the debut for the League or the replacement refs, it was on a Friday night when people had better things to do, and the most notable “new face, new place” involved was Bulls’ first-round pick James Johnson — only the most generic (at least in name) first-round pick in this year’s rookie class. Johnson was terrible, by the way, going 1-for-6 from the field and fouling out in 20 minutes … Derrick Rose had 17 points and three assists in Chicago’s win, while John Salmons and Luol Deng (3-10 FG, 9-9 FT) scored 15 apiece. Read More »
With Bruce Bowen retiring last week and John Stockton headed for the Hall of Fame this week, the concept of the “dirty” basketball player has been in discussion around the Dime office.
Even the casual NBA fans knows about notorious thugs like Bowen, Bill Laimbeer and Ron Artest, who wind up on “SportsCenter” with every elbow, slide-under ankle-breaker, hip check and hard foul they deliver. But you really have to watch the games to point out the guys who are sneaky-dirty; the ones less like Bowen and more like Stockton, whose slight-of-hand acts don’t get as much attention as the guys with reputations that precede them. Here are 10 of the sneakiest/dirtiest, a.k.a. The Wood Harris All-Stars: Read More »
Throughout the entire year, everybody hears all sorts of rumors regarding “potential” trades in the NBA. (Check out some of the best NBA trade rumors of the past 15 years here). I’m just as guilty as the next person of throwing all rational thinking out the window and becoming euphoric about a potential deal getting done that would change the course of the NBA as we know it.
Generally speaking, there are three phases we go through when we first learn of a specific trade rumor.
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