Jamal Crawford made a stir this offseason when he announced it was the first time he’d practiced shooting as a professional. Take away the initial reaction, though, and it actually makes a decent amount of sense — Crawford is only known for his handle. Dime included him in our top 10 ballhandlers since 2000 list in Dime issue No. 71 because of his shake and bake alone. Clearly the man does (or at least, he did do) nothing but work on his handle every chance he gets. Wednesday night he got to show off his latest move when he put it between the legs of San Antonio’s Nando De Colo. Read More »

In Smack, we wrote that a rookie beat Oklahoma City. And one did: Terrence Jones. He put up 20 points and six boards in one of those “Let’s empty the benches in the second half, and let the scrubs dive and chuck for loose balls like we’re a JV team in Eastern Massachusetts” exhibition games. But Jones wasn’t the only rookie flossing some big potential last night. There have been rumblings coming out of San Antonio about a rook named Nando De Colo, and how he’s going to sneak up on some people this year. Consider yourself warned… Read More »

In their last preseason win over Memphis, Kirk Hinrich morphed into a red-faced monster for a five or six minute span of the third quarter, and while he had the whole crowd in the Windy City on its feet, they have to know it’s not always going to be that easy in the CHI this year. Luckily for Bulls fans, Derrick Rose told ESPN Chicago he’s not only ahead of schedule, but also that he plans to come back when he’s ready to play as opposed to sitting out the season. Read More »

Preseason is when teams want to work through mistakes and identify the most pressing issues. Camps have now given way to games, which offer a different level of looking at a team’s identity. It would be asking for the impossible to have every problem identified, let alone remedied, by the end of October; the best-case scenario is to simply not carry too many from the start into the season. What should every team be asking itself during the preseason? We’ve got you covered. Today, we look at the Western Conference. Read More »

A new era opened Sunday for the Los Angeles Lakers. In Fresno. Any talk of being out of place, though, will have to not include Steve Nash from now on, as it was obvious it won’t take him long to get acquainted with his new teammates. Of anyone on the floor, Nash impressed us the most with his between-the-legs dime to Robert Sacre, his no-look whip to Kobe Bryant, his ankle-break of Jarrett Jack, and his overall smooth-as-silk shooting stroke. Read More »

Real life hit the NBA once again yesterday, when reports surfaced that a number of Miami Heat employees — most notably Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra — accepted pay cuts up to 20% in an effort to prevent further layoffs in the organization. It’s been public knowledge for years that some NBA teams are in financial trouble (Grizzlies, Bobcats, etc.), but Miami usually wasn’t in that group. It’s not like Riley or Spoelstra is starving or anything, but it’s got to be scary for a lot of people around the League. And of course, it kicks off an easy round of “Why can’t Underachieving Player X take a pay cut?” Read More »