0 comments by justinwillard on 10/21/2014
Dallas has rarely missed the playoffs in the Dirk-era, but they’ll have another tough fight on their hands. Dallas should be in the mix for one of the lower seeds and the fight is so close that one wrong move or one injury at the wrong time could knock them out. They’re bringing in a […]
0 comments by justinwillard
Atlanta has an unfortunate off-season with insensitive remarks from General Manager Danny Ferry, but I hope this won’t dissuade people from the team, which is subtly unconventional and the highest paid player, Horford, is only getting 12 million dollars a year. Atlanta has had trouble finding relevancy for years, but there’s an opportunity here to […]
0 comments by justinwillard on 10/20/2014
In the process of trying to land a third star, Houston saw some of its talent drift away, and they scrambled to replace them without losing a season. Morey has infamously flipped his players quickly and used them like assets, never worrying about the role players who got away. This led to a rich cache […]
0 comments by justinwillard
The Bobcats have been transmogrified into the Hornets, complete with a makeover of their arena floor into a honeycomb. After making the playoffs and picking up a well-known free agent, spirits are high, but the bar is set awfully low in the east. As one of the more bizarre teams we’ve seen, they’re an all-defense […]
0 comments by justinwillard on 10/18/2014
We don’t know when a team’s reign is done until it’s done. That’s not a trivial truism, full of cliches and signifying nothing; it’s a conclusion reached after considering cognitive biases and the history of the league. Memphis may have already peaked when they reached the western conference finals and Marc Gasol won Defensive Player […]
0 comments by justinwillard on 10/17/2014
What’s distressing is how quickly the darkness can fall. With Paul George breaking out offensively and the Pacers playing some of the best defense ever along with Hibbert as a lock for Defensive Player of the Year, while remaining the Kryptonite for the Miami Heat, the future was bright. But in just a few months, […]
0 comments by justinwillard on 10/16/2014
Quietly one of history’s best franchises, the Suns rose from the ashes again and found success in the post-Nash era for the first time with a quick-hitting attack flanked by three-point shooting and a international dynamo of a point guard. The unfairness of the league is apparent because there’s a real chance they could miss […]
0 comments by justinwillard
After decades of involvement with Joe Dumars, the Pistons have gone their separate way and will bring in Stan Van Gundy as both the coach and president of basketball operations, a rare double-duty that’s difficult to properly cover objectively. The roster is a mess, and they invested heavily in selfish players who don’t mesh well. […]
0 comments by justinwillard on 10/15/2014
The future of the New Orleans Pelicans centers on Anthony Davis and how they can support him with talent. They’ve tried a reset with the franchise, giving the team a new name, and Chris Paul is now but a distant memory in New Orleans. But in a competitive west, the playoffs are as hard to […]
0 comments by justinwillard
Arguments about state superiority in the NBA are common. There are still west coast versus east coast fights with Chicago or the whole state of Illinois sneaking in. Sometimes there are articles on how many NBA players hail from each state, but they can lack detail or context: California has the population of a fairly […]
0 comments by justinwillard
After a brief period of semi-relevancy in the East, the Knicks have once again sunk to the lottery cellar despite a bloated budget. They’re a prime example of the dangers of short-term thinking and how you shouldn’t overpay for your second options (Amar’e after failing to bring in LeBron) just because you have the resources. […]
0 comments by justinwillard on 10/14/2014
Lost in the shuffle of a competitive playoff race last year was Denver, who were struck with major injuries and limped to the finish line. As impossible as it seems, the West could be even stronger, and Denver, healthier and with some new bodies, could push hard for a final playoff spot. They’ll be running […]
0 comments by justinwillard
With the Knicks missing the playoffs again, there’s room for Brooklyn to steal some of New York City’s attention and prestige, but an over-eager front office has stuffed the roster full of unmovable contracts and killed their ability to renew the process with draft picks or other assets. Russian billionaire Prokhorov can absorb these losses, […]
0 comments by justinwillard
For analysts who study basketball, the Timberwolves are an enticing experiment to gauge the value of Kevin Love and to test their historically poor clutch play in another season. The season will be a disappointment, but it’ll be interesting to see in which specific ways the dominoes crash. Rubio, as always, will be entertaining, and […]
0 comments by justinwillard on 10/13/2014
The Magic have yet to recover from losing Dwight Howard, but they’ve collected a cache of young talent and the future of the team is starting to emerge from the haze. They’ve released the last connection to their finals team, Jameer Nelson, and flipped their leading scorer for a 21 year-old shooting guard. It’s easy […]
