All hail Jeremy Lin. That’s now two games in a row that the seldom-used backup has torched opponents and lit the Garden on fire as if he was John Starks. Lin dropped 28 and eight in New York’s 99-88 win over Utah. Beast? Lin seems to finish every three point play, make all the right decisions out of the pick-n-roll and has even shown off his deep ball. At one point in the second half, he dropped a high-arching shot and then trotted back on defense with a swag unlimited smirk before sticking his tongue out (It looked like he had been sucking on some blue lollipops during the quarter break). Read More »

Lob City’s a Laker town again, if only for a night in this upside-down season where the Clippers are the supposed juggernaut in town. With Andy Garcia looking on with an, ahem, obvious Lakers’ interest, Metta World Peace was as much a factor tonight as he hasn’t been the rest of the season. His physicality and hesitation three, his only bucket of the night, with 3:30 left capped an 11-4 run and the Lakers put the game away from there, thanks to two key plays from Andrew Bynum (19 points). In the closing seconds, he caught a lob from Kobe and finished, and then snuffed DeAndre Jordan‘s layup. Was this truly the night the big kid finally grew up? Read More »

The lockout is just a memory, the NBA is days away from its glorious Christmas Day return, and fantasy basketball preparations are in full swing. But you can’t escape the past. This isn’t a life lesson from the fingers of someone wholly unfit to give you non-fantasy basketball advice – it’s a reminder that suspensions handed down late in the 2010-11 NBA season are going to affect some players’ availabilities in the early going this season. On top of those suspensions are injuries and health conditions that will have implications from the outset of the 2011-12 NBA season. Below is a rundown of early suspensions and injuries, and the players who stand to benefit from those circumstances. Read More »

Let’s be blunt: the Toronto Raptors are a sorry bunch, in real life and in fantasy terms. Sure, there are a decent number of potential breakout candidates on this squad whenever the next NBA season begins, but there are also timeshares awaiting a few positions. There’s no true stud here, but when you’re in the latter rounds of your draft, keep some of these Canadian dinosaurs in mind. Read More »

Other than the arrival of Jonas Valanciunas, it’s been a tough summer for Toronto Raptors fans. Not only are they dealing with the NBA lockout like the rest of us, but they’re also wondering what the potential loss of a season means for the future of their franchise. At least NBA 2K12 has brought them something to get excited about: it looks like the Raptors will be getting camouflage jerseys. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first …

30. Sacramento Kings (5-20) Last week — Lost at Houston, lost at New Orleans, lost at Oklahoma City, lost to Houston Thirteen losses in their last 14 tries, but at least DeMarcus Cousins is starting to produce. He’s averaged 17 points and 9.5 boards in his last four games. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Carmelo Anthony finished with 32 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks, along with a three and 4 turnovers last night in Chicago. He shot 50 percent (11-22) from the field and 100 percent (9-9) from the line. Anthony’s having a solid start to the season so far, and while he’s scoring fewer points than last season, all his other categories have improved. Even if he gets moved, ‘Melo will be ‘Melo. Read More »

Coming off a 20-point piecing of the Cavs on Friday, Toronto seems to be doing just fine in the Post-Bosh era. The captain and unofficial spokesman for the team, Jarrett Jack, looks to lead the Raptors in a more balanced attack. Sharing time with Jose Calderon, this fifth-year guard out of Georgia Tech has shown flashes of brilliance in his time with the Raps and makes a good case for a permanent spot in the starting rotation. We caught up with Jarrett to discuss new opportunities, home cooking and NBA great Dave DeBusschere. Read More »

Sleepers are an important but dangerous part of any preparations for fantasy basketball drafts. After all, what fun is it strictly adhering to the automated or “expert-based” rankings you’re spoon-fed? Not only is taking that route lame, it can also blind you to players whose true value is hidden from lists too-heavily based on numbers or past performances. The hazard is getting caught up in the self- or media-generated hype for your sleeper picks and moving too early to grab them. All that said, here is a list of the Top 10 sleepers that you should keep an eye out for in the latter rounds of your drafts (with target rounds in 12-team leagues in brackets), in no particular order. Read More »

***EDITOR’S NOTE: We received a significant amount of backlash for this post, with angry readers calling us out for not being factually on point (the errant claim that Vince Carter was left out of the Raptors’ 15th Anniversary celebration), for not being thorough in our analysis and for being disingenuous in our motives for posting this piece. For the most part our critics are absolutely correct, this article is not up to our standards. Some of the judgment that went into this post was not great, starting with the misleading headline – we can admit that. And if we are going to make tough claims like the ones put forth in this piece, we need to back them up with a lot more facts and analysis than we did in this post.

– Patrick Cassidy, Director of Content

Once again, the Toronto Raptors are in rebuilding mode. After two more highly-publicized bad breakups this summer — Chris Bosh leaving in free agency and Hedo Turkoglu forcing a trade — the Raptors are left with no big names or potential All-Stars (at least for 2011) on the roster. Having missed the playoffs again last season with Bosh and Hedo, the team is expected to finish way out of postseason contention this time around. Read More »