Signing a huge deal affects athletes in different ways. For some players, the pressure of living up to the cash is just too much to bear and their play suffers from the added expectations. Others put up career numbers in a contract year to earn the big payday, and then relax on the court as they watch their bank accounts swell. In addition to frustrating the Hell out of loyal fan bases, these reactions can lead to general managers prematurely cleaning out their offices and updating their resumes for a new line of work. Read More »

One day after New York stayed as the NBA’s last unbeaten team by being selfless and smart (and ridiculously accurate from range), Memphis usurped the Knicks as the NBA’s best team right now by luring them in, then springing the trap. Start spreading the news: Memphis, owner of a seven-game win streak, is mowing down the league’s best teams like the hero of a Tarantino film. Just 10 percent of the season in the Griz are 7-1, but it’s still apt to be cautious about being too effusive with praise. Still, how can anyone deny these signature wins the Griz have just rattled off in their last three games: an 18-point win over Miami, a 10-point win in Oklahoma City and Friday night’s 105-95 win over New York that wasn’t as close as the score looks. Read More »

We don’t know anything concrete about the future of this season – our crystal ball broke a few weeks ago and the Ouija board was tossed long ago. We have our ideas – here’s who we think will take home MVP – but we don’t know, for example whether this Houston Rockets team will contend in the Western Conference. This team will, however, be fun to watch. It’s like this is an “Out to Prove Ourselves” multi-city, national stadium tour sweeping across America. Read More »

Do positions even matter anymore? They feel arbitrary. Shooting guards and small forwards should be wings or swingmen. Power forwards and centers should just be bigs. Most of the time, those are the terms people within the sport use. But for fans and the media, having specific one through five positions help to make sense of it all. 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 »

Believe it or not, there were some other significant moves this offseason than what “SportsCenter” would lead you to believe. Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to the Lakers, Deron Williams signing with the Nets and Joe Johnson joining him and even Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan re-signing with the C’s and Spurs, respectively, were stories that we heard about all summer long. As we close in on the 2012-2013 season, it’s time to take a look back at 10 moves that didn’t get enough notice this offseason. Read More »

Ryan Anderson. Kevin Love. Tracy McGrady. Gilbert Arenas. Dana Barros. Kevin Johnson. What do these guys all have in common? They all won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

What are we taught as young players? The summer is the time to improve, right? If you’re not improving, you’re losing, right? Well, as great as the NBA’s MIP award is – and IT IS definitely great when you consider how many things need to go right for someone to have a shot at it – it doesn’t necessarily mean future greatness. Read More »

So Team USA has found their groove. It goes something like this: mess around for a few quarters, and then get one of their guys – preferably Carmelo, Durant or Kobe – hot and watch them drop bombs video game-style from the perimeter. It worked against their last few opponents, and they did it again yesterday in their 119-86 shellacking of Australia in the first medal round game. Team USA took an 11-0 Aussie run to the chin to start the second half, and we actually had a somewhat competitive game through three quarters. Then, the Yanks went on a 45-20 run to end the game, and it started with Kobe Bryant … Read More »

Since when did Nicolas Batum become a tough guy? We guess this is what happens when you are on the verge of an upset in the Olympics, and then your entire team completely shuts down in the fourth quarter. Batum didn’t shoot well, missing nine of 12 shots, and by the time he rocked Juan Carlos Navarro in the balls with a nasty clubbed fist, the game was over. How did he justify it? He told Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, “I wanted to give him a good reason to flop.” Read More »

Coach K looked for a reason to knock Team USA’s win over France in both teams’ Olympic debuts Sunday. He said they overpassed — as if 27 dimes on 31 buckets is a bad thing. Kevin Durant (22 points, 9 boards) led the squad and had a nasty dunk in the first quarter where he looked like he was about to take a Euro step from inside the free throw line and threw it down over two defenders instead. He kept the ball high over the top so they couldn’t swipe at it and it’s not far from there to the rim when you’re KD’s length. Read More »