The NBA’s best freshmen no longer need to study for midterms. Their quizzes come every day, in practices or in games with this year’s go-go-go schedule.

Their salaries are better than their scholarships, sure, but as rookies the learning curve is mastered slower than going from Math 100 into Advanced Statistics.

That’s why this time of year is one of the most interesting of any to watch the rookies play. In college life, as many of these guys were in last year, this is the peak of the year. Well, welcome to the league, where you’ve still got a month after the NCAA championships — and that’s if you’re watching the playoffs on the couch. Read More »

Seeing Donte Greene‘s dunk is even better when you know it’ll cause the Kings’ TV guys to give their famous “If you don’t like that…” call that we’ve been hearing since back in the day. Hit the jump to see what could be the best putback dunk of the season. Read More »

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen DeMarcus Cousins go between a defender’s legs. He did it in Miami just a few weeks ago, in basically the same exact spot on the floor. Cousins is still only shooting 44 percent, and the Kings are still allergic to the pass, but the big man is averaging 16.5 points and 11.3 rebounds in less than 30 minutes a night. Combine that with his unique ability to do stuff like this and you might have something. Read More »

One was a top-10 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. The other was the NBA’s version of Mr. Irrelevant; the last pick in the 2011 Draft. When the Kings selected Jimmer Fredette out of BYU the notion was that the pick coming 50 slots later wouldn’t mean much. Read More »

The Pacific Division’s second half is a tale of two teams from one city. No one is catching either the Clippers or Lakers as the rosters of the other three — Warriors, Kings, Suns — stand. If you’re trying to build a case in those teams’ defense, just stop.

This is what commissioner David Stern dreamed of in December when a trade of Chris Paul from New Orleans to the Lakers was rejected like a shot in Serge Ibaka’s airspace. That could have resulted in enough cap room to realize the owners’ great fear, Dwight Howard to the Lakers, and the run of titles in purple and gold to go with it. Read More »

There’s still one guy left in China who wants back into the NBA. Despite the attempts by the Chinese Basketball Association to keep him where he is, Wilson Chandler is expected to be coming home at some point within the next week. But as a restricted free agent, and especially one who’s only 24 years old and can shoot, defend and create at 6-8, Denver might not be the ones getting him. NBA.com reports there’s another team that plans on throwing their best pickup line in Chandler’s direction: the Toronto Raptors. Read More »

The guys in the NBA TV studios were saying the Heat looked like a championship team last night. Okay, they did play Sacramento, who have lost six in a row and have perhaps the most playground, fundamentally-flawed team in the league. But the Queens really went hard, and had the defending East champs on their heels all night. In the end, Dwyane Wade (30 points on 16 shots, 10 assists) lifted Miami to another level with one of his best games of the season, and for the first time all year, three Heat players scored at least 20 and one of them wasn’t LeBron. They’ve now won seven in a row, all by double digits, and are sitting in first place in the NBA. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. Charlotte Bobcats (3-26) Last Week: 30, — They haven’t won a game in what seems like ages, and have progressed to searching for moral victories. When your best player – going by PER – is D.J. Augustin (15.9), then you might as well throw in the towel. They have a chance to join the upper echelon of worst NBA teams ever. Read More »

I’m not going to say Floyd Mayweather Jr. was right when he tweeted that Jeremy Lin has only become the hottest name in sports because he’s Asian.

I am going to say that Floyd limited himself – either accidentally because he didn’t put enough thought behind his words, or on purpose within the 140-character confines of Twitter – from what could have started an intelligent debate on race, sports and social conditioning.

Rather than firing a stray race bullet into the crowd, what Floyd and every other Jeremy Lin hater should cite are the historically ignored forefathers to Jeremy Lins that we’ve seen pass through the NBA before. Read More »

Wow. Nothing else really needs to be said at this point. Jeremy Lin has done some cool things, but last night he took it to another level, wetting a pull-up jumper in Canada’s face with less than a second left in a tie game. The swag was ridiculous; In the huddle before he closed the fridge on the Raptors, Lin told Mike D’Antoni to give him an iso. Then he went out and capped the best night yet of the Jeremy Lin tour with New York’s come-from-behind 90-87 win. Read More »