Need any more evidence that Gilbert Arenas’ bellyaching about Europeans and foreigners ruining basketball with their sweet outside strokes is all hot air? I’ll give you one: Josh Giddey. Now that his legal woes appear to be in the rearview mirror, the whispers about his liabilities in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 5-out offense are crescendoing for the Thunder as opposing teams adopt disrespectful defensive strategies when he’s on the floor. – DJ Dunson Read More
It is tempting to say that the Milwaukee Bucks turned a corner on Monday night. Without Giannis Antetokounmpo in the lineup, they were still able to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-106, and remain undefeated since the All-Star break. Damian Lillard did not play his best game of the season in Antetokounmpo’s absence, but it was damn close. – Stephen Knox Read More
Curses run deep. They fester in bloodlines, foundations and scorched Earth and are lamented in prose, lyric and declaration. From Shakespeare to Dostoevsky, curses are a part of the canon of human creativity. After the Boston Red Sox broke theirs in 2004 and LeBron James brought a championship to Cleveland in 2016, there remains just one cursed franchise: The Los Angeles Clippers. – Lee Escobedo Read More
This year’s NBA Draft has been dubbed the weakest since the Cleveland Cavaliers wasted the first overall pick on Anthony Bennett. There’s no consensus prize, or catchy tank phrase. Just the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards, and Portland Trail Blazers vying to see who can most egregiously throw away a season. However, there is one storyline that’s gone overlooked, something that hasn’t happened in 50 years. – Sean Beckwith Read More
Remember when NBA Twitter, now NBA X, spent an entire season obsessing over where Ben Simmons would be traded? It ended up being Brooklyn, and that ended up being the last time he was relevant to professional basketball. The latest update is there is no update, just Simmons’ agent, Bernie Lee, falling on his client’s sword. – Sean Beckwith Read More
It’s Oscars Week, which feels like as good a time as any to draw up the NBA storylines and characters which could double as Oscar nominees.
No NBA executive has a more interesting relationship with arcs than Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey. Friday was the opening day of MIT’s Sloan Analytics Conference, the annual haven for stat geeks he co-founded after he left the Boston Celtics to join the Houston Rockets front office in 2007. – DJ Dunson Read More
The buzz around Caitlin Clark eclipsing Pete Maravich’s record on Sunday was enough to get celebs to Iowa City for the occasion. I’m not talking about Travis Scott. Jake from State Farm might be sports’ Forrest Gump, but celebs walking into college arenas to dap up the TV insurance guy while neglecting to acknowledge Maya Moore like Scott did Sunday says something about the culture. If Jake from State Farm of all people has this sort of cultural crossover, the Caitlin Clark Effect will definitely travel to the WNBA as well. – DJ Dunson Read More
I’m not anti-analytics, because data matters, but there’s no way to factor in things like your best player missing tipoff because he was a late arrival, or a coach pulling his second-best player when he’s on pace for a 70 burger. The Minnesota Timberwolves are a very good basketball team, by record, the best in the Western Conference. However, if DraftKings forced you to wager your house on who will come out of the West, I bet you wouldn’t stake it on the T-Wolves. – Sean Beckwith Read More
The 1995-96 season was the end of the golden era for big men in the NBA. Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Shaquille O’Neal were stuffing opponents into lockers with their unstoppable back-to-the-basket games. They were the superstars in the paint, but Alonzo Mourning, Rik Smits, and many others dominated a league in which offense began on the inside and then went outside. – Stephen Knox Read More
