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: Jonny Flynn, Ramon Sessions, Wayne Ellington, Ryan Hollins, Damien Wilkins, Sasha Pavlovic, Antonio Daniels, Oleksiy Pecherov, Jason Hart, Nathan Jawai, Mark Blount, Henk Norel

Lost: Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Rodney Carney, Mark Madsen, Kevin Ollie, Jason Collins, Shelden Williams, Bobby Brown Read More »

With LeBron James not quite over his might-be-swine-might-be-regular flu bug, can you really blame the Spurs for putting some of their guys out of harm’s way last night? Manu Ginobili (the most fragile of the Big Three), Richard Jefferson (the expensive new acquisition) and Gregg Popovich (the mastermind) all took the night off from Spurs/Cavs, but San Antonio got the W anyway. Tony Parker put up 22 points and seven assists, and Tim Duncan had 13 points and nine boards in the first half before sitting out the second. LeBron finished with 22 points and six boards, including a half-court alley oop dunk, but said he’s “down probably 20 percent” as far as health … Read More »

The Knicks rolled out what might be the worst NBA starting lineup you’ll see all year (Chris Duhon, Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries, Al Harrington, David Lee), but they still managed to beat the Nets in yesterday’s preseason opener for both teams because, frankly, the Nets also have high potential to stink. Harrington led NY with 23 points, Lee had 20 and nine boards, and Wilson Chandler came off the bench for 21 points. Chandler is expected to take over that starting SG spot soon enough, but he’s been a little banged up in training camp … Nate Robinson was curiously quiet, coming off the bench for 17 minutes and scoring six points. Read More »

Harrison Barnes, a 6-6 wing out of Ames, Iowa, is the best high school ballplayer in the country. As he navigates through the hectic recruiting process, Barnes agreed to chronicle his thoughts for us during each of his five official visits. First up is North Carolina, where Barnes visited on Sept. 3. Here’s an excerpt:

… At about noon, I got a tour of campus on a golf cart and got to see where the dorms were, where the Dean Smith Center was, and I saw a few classes and walked around a little bit.

After that I had lunch with Coach (Roy) Williams, and then I got to see the North Carolina museum. Read More »

While earlier we reported that Ramon Sessions could sign an offer sheet with Minnesota, ESPN.com’s Chris Sheridan is now reporting that Sessions agreed to sign a four-year, $16 million offer sheet with the T-Wolves with the paperwork being processed this morning. Read More »

Yesterday, I wrote a post about the Nets and how they had one of the best young cores in the league. It got me thinking about all the other top young teams, so I decided to rank them. I know “young core” is kind of a vague term that technically could include CP and the Hornets, the Jazz and the Magic. So I set up a couple of parameters.

By young core, I mean players who have not accomplished much yet in their young NBA careers and are still paying dues. I’m talking about players and teams that are not quite ready to contribute anything big this upcoming season, but will be right there in the mix two or three years down the line. All of these players are relatively young, have no more than three years in the league and have not been all-stars or major contributors in the playoffs. Read More »

So much for Ricky Rubio. Word out of Wisconsin is that Ramon Sessions could be on the verge of receiving an offer sheet from the Timberwolves, which in all likelihood would end his time in restricted free agency limbo this summer. While T-Wolves fans should rejoice, I can’t say that Jonny Flynn is happy to hear this. Read More »

Just ask the Miami Heat: Even the worst team in the NBA is one monster season by one player away from getting back in the playoff picture. And it doesn’t always have to be a superstar putting in an MVP-caliber effort, either. Every one of this year’s 14 Lottery squads has one player who, if he produces a career year (or simply does what he’s supposed to do), can swing his team’s fortunes as a postseason contender. In this three-part series, we’ll identify those guys who need to step it up: Read More »

There’s only one reason why yesterday’s Wolves/Clippers trade — the one sending Quentin Richardson to Minnesota for Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith and Mark Madsen — means anything to Wolves fans: It’s yet another reason to believe Ricky Rubio is walking through that door sooner than anyone expected. Wolves GM David Kahn is in Spain this week to sit down with Rubio’s camp and talk about that contract buyout, and then yesterday it was reported that Rubio’s Spanish squad signed another point guard (Kristaps Valters, who may or may not be the Latvian Goran Dragic), perhaps indicating they may be ready to lose Rubio. With the Q-Rich trade (3-for-1), Minnesota not only gets Bassy out of the PG picture, but they also open up a roster spot for Rubio … Read More »

Who would have guessed that the first NBA dude to put Blake Griffin on his ass would be skinny JaVale McGee? Blake finished with 19 points, 10 boards and four steals against the Wizards in yesterday’s Vegas Summer League, but one time he came through the lane with the rock and McGee (19 pts, 7 blks) gave the rookie a good, hard, welcome-to-the-NBA foul. Blake stayed on the ground for a second, but he was OK. Then later in the fourth quarter, McGee caught an alley-oop on Blake’s head and screamed on him. (JaVale is still doing the salute thing whenever he dunks, too.) … Rodrigue Beaubois scored 23 for the Mavs in a game against the Thunder that was just ugly. Read More »