With no return date in sight for the 2011-12 NBA season, there are at least 10 current players that wake up every morning during this lockout and check their watch, clock or calendar to see what day it is. Because unless they can channel Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, each 24 hours means their internal NBA clock is ticking closer to the zero. Not everyone can be John Stockton or Karl Malone and play into their 40s. As we saw at the end of last season with Shaquille O’Neal‘s retirement, all good things must come to an end. With that, we evaluate the future of the NBA’s 10 oldest players: Read More »

I get this argument all the time. Defense is better in college than in the NBA. Everyone wants to debate it. Hardly anyone ever agrees with me. They see the floor burns. They see the intensity. They see coaches screaming, players slapping the floor, fans going ballistic. Defense is not better in college. It’s different. The very best defensive players in the world – Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, LeBron James, Andre Iguodala, etc. – would cause complete havoc in a college game. No one would score on them. No one would come close. Read More »

A year lost to the black hole of an NBA lockout doesn’t stop at lost revenues for team owners, nor the lost nights of kicking back with an extra large bag of Doritos to catch a game.

An NBA lockout means some players who live and breathe hoops won’t know what to do with themselves. To be real, the most gifted of NBA players probably don’t have hobbies, and blasting inferior competition in self-organized streetball games can only fulfill that competitive itch so long. Read More »

Next up for fantasy basketball discussion: the Chicago Bulls. There’s a good deal to like here from a fantasy perspective – a first-round stud, some decent value in the middle rounds and a few fill-in guys to watch on the waiver wire when need be. Without too many free agents for the Bulls, fantasy owners shouldn’t expect too many things to change in the upcoming season. But if Brian Scalabrine isn’t re-signed, all bets are off. Read More »

During the last CBA, we saw a startling jump in player salaries, poor owner decisions and roster moves that made the average fan scratch their head. Most teams spent tens of millions of dollars on big-name, flashy shooting guards and small forwards who put the ball in the bucket, put wins in the “W” column and most importantly, put the butts in the seats.

Meanwhile, the undercurrent in the NBA has been the overpayment of no-name, blundering big men. The most famous of the bunch is Erick Dampier, who signed a deal with Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks that ended up paying him a whopping $12.1 million in the last year. Read More »

Behind every Sherlock lies a Watson. Lurking in the shadows of a potential MVP can be tough for anyone, though C.J. Watson seems to be making the best out of his back-up role in Chicago. Coming from a Warriors team where he was averaging 27-plus minutes and putting up good numbers, you would think C.J. would be upset about getting significantly less playing time. Not so much. As an integral part of the surging Bulls’ second unit – a bench many regard as the best in the League – he is now playing for a team destined to make a serious splash in the postseason. Last I checked, the Warriors aren’t exactly contenders. We got up with Mr. Watson to discuss playing behind Derrick Rose, his favorite sneakers and Miami’s “Crygate.” Read More »

On paper, Derrick Rose vs. Chris Paul conjures images of an offensive basketball orgy, with buckets and dimes and dunks and crossovers everywhere. But last night’s MVP-candidate matchup was a defensive battle between two of the most stingy teams in the League … The Hornets strategy was to keep Rose out of the lane by putting multiple bodies in front of him, and for the most part it worked. Read More »

The instruction book says Chris Paul is the alpha, omega, and everything in between for the New Orleans Hornets, but last night Dave West owned the most crucial moments of the team’s win over the Thunder. We reference shooting one’s face off here often, but D-West was the epitome on Monday. By the time he was done sticking daggers on OKC, eyeballs and noses were strewn everywhere like it was the prop room of “Nip/Tuck,” and the Hornets won their 9th in a row to take possession of third place in the Western Conference … Read More »

We’ll say this much: Had LeBron James been able to (or wanted to) convince Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to move to Cleveland last summer, they would be playing in a much more electric building for their home games. Last night, as the Heat fell behind early on the scoreboard and couldn’t penetrate Atlanta’s brick wall of a defense, the Miami crowd was more dead than Dr. Conrad Murray’s office phone … LeBron was back after missing two games with an ankle injury, while Bosh sat out with his own ankle injury. Read More »

His star-making postseason debut series aside, Derrick Rose had kind of established a script recently whenever he faced the Boston Celtics. The most explosive point guard in the League wouldn’t do anything too spectacular, his counterpart Rajon Rondo would slap up an easy double-double while flirting with 20 assists, and the Bulls would lose in uninspiring fashion. Last night, D-Rose thankfully flipped the script and reignited that Rose/Rondo rivalry we all want to see … Rose dropped 36 points and the Bulls’ interior defense stepped up in crunch time as Chicago snapped Boston’s four-game win streak. Read More »