The Raptors and Thunder are two teams heading in starkly different directions. The Thunder were one of the feel good stories of the NBA this past season. They have one of the best young cores in the League, and a team chemistry that is not often seen. On the other hand, Toronto struggled this past season with chemistry issues, underachievement, and now faces the likely loss of star forward Chris Bosh. While these two teams are going in opposite directions, they can both help each other greatly. Read More »

Seeing as Rasheed Wallace didn’t even bother combing his hair, you kind of got the impression early on that Boston was taking the Pacers lightly — and that was before the C’s fell behind by double-digits in the first quarter. (Oh wait, ‘Sheed never combs his hair. Scratch that part.) KG was given the night off with a thigh bruise, and even Tommy Heinsohn called in sick rather than risk his pipes against Indiana when there’s a big Christmas Day game against Orlando looming … Overcoming a slow start in which they made Earl Watson look like Tim Hardaway, the Celtics managed a tie going into the fourth, and that’s when Paul Pierce took over. Read More »

Just when you thought things were going well for Eric Maynor in Utah, the Jazz go and trade him to Oklahoma City. The Thunder acquired the rookie point guard, along with Matt Harpring’s expiring $6.5 million contract, in exchange for the draft rights to Peter Fehse from Germany, a 2002 second-round pick. Since Fehse will most likely never play in the NBA, and Harpring is out for the season (possibly the rest of his career) after numerous ailments and surgeries, you can see why the Jazz made the move: to save some money. 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 Harden, Byron Mullens, Serge Ibaka, Etan Thomas, Robert Vaden, Kevin Ollie

Lost: Desmond Mason, Earl Watson, Damien Wilkins, Robert Swift, Malik Rose, Chucky Atkins Read More »

In case you haven’t read last month’s issue, Kevin Durant has been on a tear lately, and Joel Anthony got a mouthful of it last night. During the first quarter of the Heat-Thunder game, which Oklahoma City won 96-91, Kyle Weaver delivered the ball to a streaking Durant for one of the best in-game slams that I’ve ever seen him throw down. Durant looked more like Velvet Hoop with some “Shameless Showtime” with this dunk (see below). Durant finished the game with 30 points.

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I’m not sure why it isn’t this simple for all of the other bad teams in the League. The Knicks, Grizzlies, and Timberwolves have a ton of weaknesses. But they don’t seem to have a clear vision to fill the glaring gaps in their rosters.

New York’s best player is a power forward, but they took another one with the eighth pick. The Grizzlies had four seven-footers headed into the draft, and they took another one. The Wolves took two f-ing point guards, and now they’re indignant when someone says that their draft strategy isn’t making too much sense. If only every team approached the draft with the same lucid philosophy as the Thunder. Read More »

Two years ago, I was interviewing Washington State (now OKC Thunder) swingman Kyle Weaver for the Pac-10 part of Dime’s annual Player’s Ball NCAA preview when Weaver briefly mentioned Jordan Hill, predicting the Arizona big man would have a big sophomore season. I’d seen Hill play before, and wondered exactly what Weaver saw in this kid who averaged just four points and four boards the year before.

Two years later, Hill put up 18 points, 11 boards and almost two blocks per game for the Wildcats, and left school early as a Top-5 NBA Draft prospect in just about everyone’s book. Read More »

Just the other day we were talking about Jeff Green‘s rookie experience, when he was routinely left on his own to get the service from the likes of Kobe Bryant and Joe Johnson and other charter members of Buckets Phi Buckets. Hopefully, Jeff had some encouraging words last night for OKC teammate Kyle Weaver, who got lit up by Kobe (36 pts) in the decisive stretch of Lakers/Thunder, which had to give Green a flashback. Oklahoma City had pulled to within one point early in the fourth quarter with Kobe on the bench, but after Kobe checked back in, Scott Brooks decided to use valuable minutes of a winnable game to get Weaver some first-hand experience against the biggest of the big dogs. But in hindsight, this was neither the time nor the place. Kobe took charge as L.A. scored on eight straight possessions, busting Weaver up in between finding teammates who were left open as the other OKC defenders got caught Kobe-watching. One time Kobe had the rookie Weaver posted up, got him in the air with a series of fakes, and after Weaver predictably landed on Kobe’s back, he tossed in a fadeaway, plus-one. Brooks eventually took Weaver out and stuck Thabo Sefalosha on Kobe to try and stop the bleeding, but it was too late … Read More »