I approached NBA Summer League this July with skepticism. It’s nothing new or special, really, to season your summer basketball viewing with a shaker of salt. It’s the rule with any games outside of the NBA regular season — and even some of those qualify. But perhaps no player signified the “cautious” of cautious optimism this summer for me more than Perry Jones III, the rookie from Baylor who was drafted by Oklahoma City and whose full talents we’ve still never seen. Read More »

LeBron James‘ jaw-dropping year has been much discussed around these parts, not just for his accomplishments, but the scale of them. You know the list by now, with its various MVPs and gold-plated championship accoutrements. This year’s NBA rookie class is looking at what Anthony Davis has accomplished in the last year and believes he won’t be stopped either. The NCAA title, an all-time freshman blocks record, first pick in the draft and an Olympic gold medal are quite the haul for the lanky, 6-11 forward in New Orleans, especially one who wasn’t Mr. All-World Everything out of high school. Read More »

As part of our blowout rookie class and NBA Draft coverage in Dime 70, we ranked the top 30 first-year players coming into the league. To see this feature in its entirety, check out the issue now on newsstands nationwide.

As the NBA Draft is now over and rookies are infiltrating organizations throughout the league, you need to be able to keep up heading into next year. Here, I ranked the top 30 prospects of the 2012 NBA rookie class, regardless of position… Read More »

The learning curve for rookies is a sliding scale even if every rook enters the NBA dreaming of 20 and 10 a night. Only eight rookies in 2011-12 averaged more than 10 points per game. The guy who becomes the rookie of the year is one of the few whose role can make or break his team, but there’s a huge gap in the roles the rookies will be asked to tackle. While many will be given scraps of playing time, these are the 10 who will be asked to do the most in their first year in the NBA. Read More »

The 2012 NBA Draft has come and gone like Maybach Music Group’s Self Made 2 drop earlier this week. Billed as one of best drafts in recent memory, it didn’t provide the same kind of trade activity that all the pre-draft talk suggested. Nevertheless, the lack of major moves impacted the way the draft played out. Hell, David Stern, Adam Silver and the entire ESPN broadcast couldn’t even keep up with the rate Twitter was disseminating the picks at warp speed. Now GMs, teams and players have no time before they’re notified of how great or how poor their evening went. Read More »

Following the shocking NBA Draft Lottery in New York City where everyone and their momma is now saying David Stern and the NBA rigged it to make sure the top prize landed in New Orleans, we can now begin to get an idea of how the first round of the draft will play out after the top spot. After we took a stab at the first round earlier this week, here is the final Dime mock draft leading up to tonight. As usual, it’s a combination of what we think teams should do and what we think they will do. Read More »

The NBA Draft process is a once in a lifetime experience for those who go through it. While there are many broad similarities between the experiences of players during this process – like hectic travel schedules and grueling pre-draft training – each player takes something different away from the process. I decided to talk to 10 different eligible prospects to ask them all the same set of questions to use as a means of comparing their experiences. Read More »

That gasp you hear is the rest of the NBA. As if Miami wasn’t top-heavy enough, they’re looking to add another Hall of Famer to the cast of LeBronaires for next season, and for once, it doesn’t feel like a pipe dream. The money may not be great, but it doesn’t have to be to attract Jesus. The Ray Allen era in Boston is hanging by a strand of Paul Pierce‘s loose facial hair. He could go back, but the Celtics don’t have a starting spot for him and won’t overpay to bring him back. Does Mr. Shuttlesworth want to go to Miami? Yes, he’s interested. Would he be willing to accept a bench role behind two of the best players in the NBA? That’ll dictate whether we ended up seeing Flo Allen-Hopson in AmericanAirlines Arena next year. Read More »

With the NBA Draft Lottery taking place, everyone has a better idea where likely draftees will land come June 28, 2012. Here at Dime, we’ve already begun our full-fledge draft coverage. Catch up on player profiles like Harrison Barnes, the weekly diary of Dion Waiters, and our latest mock draft. All of these features provide a glimpse into what to expect from the incoming influx of ballers. Yet, the perpetual interrelationship between hip-hop and hoopin’ can’t be overlooked. Read More »

Following the shocking NBA Draft Lottery in New York City where everyone and their momma is now saying David Stern and the NBA rigged it to make sure the top prize landed in New Orleans, now we can now begin to get an idea of how the first round of the draft will play out after the top spot. After we took a stab at the first round immediately following the events of the lottery, here is the second of many Dime mock drafts leading up to June 28. As usual, it’s a combination of what we think teams should do and what we think they will do: Read More »