Predictably, Damian Lillard headlines this year’s NBA All-Rookie First Team, where he is joined by Bradley Beal, Dion Waiters, Anthony Davis and Harrison Barnes. After the craziness that was this year’s All-Defensive Teams, it was good to see that Lillard, this year’s Rookie of the Year, was the only unanimous selection. Read More »

As much as I enjoy watching LeBron James at the peak of his NBA powers, as much as I enjoy watching the veteran Celtics come together since Rajon Rondo went down, as fun as it is to watch Carmelo Anthony drop 35-plus night after night en-route to his first scoring title, and Chris Paul continuing to be the best point guard of this generation, what makes the NBA so great night in and night out is everyone else. Read More »

The time has come for our first Rookie Ladder after the NBA All-Star break. The second half of the season has begun and a lot has happened in the first two weeks. While some guys have struggled since the break, other guys have really picked it up. Read More »

As we noted in Smack, amazing call by the commentators. What! What! Wooo! This one-handed facial from Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has to be one of the best dunks all season. Charlotte might’ve lost the game, but Greg Monroe is still feeling dizzy today. Read More »

When Houston traded for James Harden, they were hoping, maybe even believing that they were getting a star. But we’re not sure anyone thought they were getting this. In Houston’s wild 122-119 comeback win over the Thunder, Harden not only had a defining “So I’m not a max player, huh?” game, he looked like the best player on the floor. Read More »

Kyrie Irving took care of his All-Star case a long time ago. So last night, he spent the final three minutes of Cleveland’s five-point win over the Thunder doing other things, like letting the world know he’s coming for that “point god” spot. With CP still out, Uncle Drew is the best lead guard playing right now, and he cooked the Thunder for 13 of his game-high 35 points in the final 2:52. Read More »

With the midseason point approaching, it’s been interesting to see which rookies have been able to avoid that rookie wall so far. While January has been a hot month for some of the rookies, others have struggled. While Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Alexey Shved spent the majority of the season on the top half of our rookie ladder, others have outplayed them this month. Read More »

There was a lot of movement in the top 10 since our last rookie ladder. As the season picks up into high gear, few have been able to keep up with the pace. Guys like Austin Rivers and Kyle Singler have fallen off the radar while guys like Jared Sullinger and John Henson are opening eyes. Read More »

The rookie race is heating up as Anthony Davis made his return this week. Damian Lillard is still the top gun, but a healthy Davis is a force to be reckoned with. As each week goes by, it’s looking more and more like the top 10 is separated into two halves. The top half will get extremely competitive in the oncoming weeks. Bradley Beal proved that he’s still a top rookie, and when Dion Waiters makes his return, his running mate Kyrie Irving will be right there to assist him. Read More »

Along with our Race to the MVP Ladder, the first week of December marks the beginning of Dime’s Rookie Ladder. So far it’s been quite an interesting year for this rookie class. There are underachievers and overachievers; some are struggling, and others are just coasting through. Read More »