Beast of the Night:Dirk Nowitzki was an absolute animal last night, putting up 40 points on 55 percent (12-22) shooting from the field and 94 percent (15-16) from the line, chipping in a three-pointer along with 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 5 blocks and no turnovers. He scored 29 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter, playing like Mehmet Okur bad-mouthed David Hasselhoff. You can’t get much better than this in fantasy ball and Diggler is in for a great year. Read More »
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…
With no more preseason games and just a few days until the NBA regular season starts, all that’s left to do is iron out some position battles and figure out who among the banged-up is healthy enough to suit up for Opening Night. There was an outside chance that Shaq, among others, would be suspended for the Cavs/Celtics opener after he left the bench during Mo Williams and Shelden Williams‘ altercation a few nights ago. But the NBA ruled that since the scrap happened technically at halftime, guys who left the bench won’t be punished … Read More »
Light schedule of only four NBA preseason games on a day where the biggest (rumored) news was that the replacement refs probably won’t make it to the regular season due to the League being close to an agreement with the union guys. We hit on this a little bit yesterday, but it’s funny how so many media and fans are bashing the replacements as if they’ve been so much worse than the regulars. We even heard one TV talking head praise the return of the “real” refs, because the ones they’ve had in the preseason are obviously fake refs. How long will it take for NBA players to start complaining about every call again and for the rest of us to remember we thought the “real” refs stunk at their jobs, too? About 24 minutes into the first game? … Read More »
For NBA teams, the quest for a title starts right now as training camp opens this week. While the Lakers are the champs and arguably the favorites to win it again this year, the rest of the league did not sit idle during the offseason. A lot of teams - especially the ones in contention for the chip - made some bold moves during the summer that strengthen their roster. I ranked the five teams who I thought made the best offseason upgrades. Read More »
Since winning the chip in ‘07, the Boston Celtics have slid down a little in the power rankings. Cleveland and Orlando are arguably now the top two teams in the East. With the big three of KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce turning another year older, the clock is definitely ticking on their second championship quest. Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers have been on the ball this summer by resigning Big Babyand adding Rasheed Wallace and Shelden Williams to the mix. They continued their offseason productivity this week by signing veteran guard Marquis Daniels to a one-year deal. Read More »
We’ll start with the Twitter-sponsored portion of Smack: Over the weekend Michael Beasley closed his Twitter account after he took some heat (no pun intended) for posting a pic that may or may not have been bags of weed. Nothing too major, but this is the exact kind of thing that kept Beasley from being a surefire #1 overall pick a year ago. No disrespect to Derrick Rose, but you take a lefty power forward with Beasley’s game and Tim Duncan or Blake Griffin’s personality, and the only thing he needs to worry about is getting a suit to match the team colors of whoever has the top pick. Instead, this is almost like watching the early part of Lamar Odom’s career replay itself … Ron Artest used Twitter as his bulletin board to spice up the next Lakers/Rockets game. Read More »
Glen
Davis is in free agent limbo, and he’s not happy about it one bit. He’s talked with the Celtics and a few other teams, but the restricted free agent, who is looking for mid-level exception money ($5.8 million), doesn’t really have much going on right now.
While I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, I have to say that today could be the slowest day of the basketball year. Summer League is over, as is the USA Basketball mini-camp, so what is everybody doing? I have NBA TV on in the office right now, and they literally have nothing to talk about. Read More »
Can’t the Timberwolves do anything right? The same franchise that used its first-ever draft pick on Pooh Richardson when Mookie Blaylock, Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp were still on the board; that cost itself five years of first-round picks just to overpay Joe Smith under the table; that wasted Kevin Garnett’s prime by not getting him a good enough supporting cast; that may have fumbled their biggest post-KG opportunity at the ‘09 Draft; that’s taking way too long just to eventually hire Elston Turner as its next coach — they’ve done it again. Read More »
