An NBA basketball team has more than five players for a reason. No matter how badly a coach may want to play his starters a full 48 minutes on any given night, he knows it’s not an option. One of his starters may roll an ankle. His center could commit two early fouls. Maybe he’s playing the Nuggets and George Karl goes small with four guards and a stretch four. A trustworthy bench allows a coach to adapt his gameplan and can be the difference between a good team and a great one. Without a good bench, a playoff team can be one inopportune ACL tear away from a potentially disastrous season. Read More »

Is this End of Dwightmare Eve? Could the league’s best center — who also leads the NBA in being publicly disgruntled — actually be leaving for Laker pastures? It’s almost a near certainty that by this time tomorrow, Howard will be readying for his official debut as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers’ storied tradition of centers. Wilt, Kareem and Shaq also arrived at Los Angeles from another stop elsewhere, and all went on to next-level careers in the purple and gold. It’s time to introduce the wet blanket on this party in Lakerland, however: “IF.” Read More »

After Portland announced former top Mavericks assistant Terry Stotts as its head coach on Wednesday, Stotts talked about freeing up the Trail Blazers’ game plan. More threes, more running, more room for players to make instinctual plays based on their abilities to read and react. Stotts was the offensive mind behind Dallas’ NBA title run in 2011, and he’ll have his own 6-10 centerpiece who can shoot in Portland, too, in LaMarcus Aldridge. He’s not Dirk Nowitzki, but the Dallas native is an All-Star worth building around. Aldridge also is the guy who campaigned for the job to go to video intern turned interim head coach Kaleb Canales. Then Stotts threw a curveball that will surely keep Aldridge pleased: Canales will stay on as assistant. Well this could be awkward. Read More »

For the first time since perhaps the days of the Human Highlight Film, people soon might actually want to go to Atlanta and check out the Hawks. The basketball team, stuck in the longest “decent but never good enough to scare anyone” mode of any NBA team, possibly ever, is apparently going to go after Dwight Howard if he becomes available as a free agent next summer. Since Howard can’t make up his mind and new Orlando GM Rob Hennigan struggles with the idea behind the word “trade,” the chances Howard plays out the year in Disney World, the Magic have the most dysfunctional NBA season we’ve ever seen, Dwight beats up three or four different Disney characters and ends up FINALLY leaving next summer are looking stronger than ever. Read More »

Portland hasn’t had a head coach without an interim tag since March, when the team fired Nate McMillan during a Midwestern road trip. Once he met with the team one last time and said goodbye at their Chicago hotel, it was interim coach Kaleb Canales‘ ship. According to a report Wednesday evening, Canales and Terry Stotts are the finalists for Portland after going through their third interviews. The real question is, which coach will owner Paul Allen fly out to Europe to meet with? Read More »