Beast of the Night: Elton Brand finally emerged and put up 19 points, 11 boards, 2 assists, 3 steals, 6 blocks and just 1 turnover while shooting 47 percent (8-17) from the field and 75 percent (3-4) from the line. This was vintage Brand and owners who have remained patient or bought low on him have to be giggling with joy right now. He’s not out of the woods just yet, but things look are looking way up for Brand and his owners today. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Manu Ginobili was absolutely rabid last night, exploding for 36 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocks, while nailing 6 threes and turning the ball over just once in just 32 minutes of work. He shot 53 percent (8-15) from the field and 88 percent (14-16) from the line. His owners have to be praying that Tim Duncan and Tony Parker take their sweet time recovering on the sidelines. Read More »

I get a lot of emails every day, and this video was one of them. This is all it said: “lol i dont even know what to say about this…but figured u could think of something.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of what to say either. Hilarious!

Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…

Added: Blake Griffin, Rasual Butler, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Kareem Rush

Lost: Zach Randolph, Mike Taylor, Fred Jones, Paul Davis Read More »

It’s too bad YouTube didn’t exist back in the year 2000. If it did, I guarantee a lot more people would know who Eddie Robinson is. E-Rob’s hops were straight up ridiculous. He was the sixth man for those Charlotte Hornets teams that boasted guys like Baron Davis, Ricky Davis and Eddie Jones. Even with all those high risers on the squad, E-Rob’s crams might have been the nastiest. Night in and night out, he was good for at least two Sports Center worthy crams. My favorite was his signature showboat dunk: a self alley-oop on the fastbreak (see vid below). Read More »

Back for one more. As I’ve covered before, this isn’t a typical “best players” list. If you see a high school kid ranked higher than an NBA All-Star here, nobody’s saying the prep is better than the pro. Instead, I’m looking at the whole picture: Who had an overall better season? Pound-for-pound, who made the biggest impact on their level? Who made the biggest mark on the entire game of basketball? Who made this season his own? That said, here are my Top 10 — not “10 best” — small forwards from the ‘08-09 season… Read More »

Barack Obama might be the only person in America who’s had a better run over the last eight months than Danny Granger. Last November, Granger signed a five-year, $60 million extension with the Pacers. In February, he made is All-Star Game debut. In April, he finished the season fifth in the League in scoring at 25.8 ppg. And in May, “Senor Buckets” took home the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. Read More »

Just about every year, the first day of NBA free agency is headlined by stories of team executives calling players (or their agents) — and sometimes showing up at their front door — at 12:01 a.m. in an effort to get first crack at the guys they feel will get them where they want to go. Last year it was Elton Brand and Baron Davis getting the rocks-at-the-bedroom-window treatment; the year before it was Rashard Lewis and Mo Williams.

This year? Chalk it up to the slumping U.S. economy, or everyone looking ahead to 2010 (when LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh, Amar’e, etc., could be available), but there doesn’t seem to be any “Gotta get him!” free agents out there. Read More »

Since it seems the popular thing for national basketball writers to do these days is openly lobby for NBA jobs they’ll never ever-ever-ever-ever-ever get, allow me to put in my bid:

I want to be Zach Randolph’s agent.

Of course I don’t have any experience or a law degree. But if the most important function of an agent is to always work in his client’s best interest, I’ve at least been thinking like Zach’s agent for the last four years; Read More »

THE GOONS ARE OUT. That was the e-mail sent by one of the Dime crew last night during Lakers/Rockets, around the time everybody from typically fiery Kobe and Ron Artest to mild-mannered Derek Fisher to teen heartthrob Luke Walton was issuing chin-checks and techs and getting themselves ejected … With L.A. down 0-1 in the series, Kobe (40 pts, 16-27 FG) came out on a seek-and-destroy mission. Read More »