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With only a few games to go, the East is staging its usual crapfest for the eight seed.  The Knicks appear to be surging (relatively speaking), while the Hawks, who were once 25-21, have gone 7-21 since that point.  This leaves us with the Knicks at 33-43 with six games left against only playoff teams and the Hawks at 32-42 and eight games left, only four of which are with playoff teams. So who will win this battle? This is a hard race to handicap because there are so many variables.  Let’s … [Read more...] about Knicks-Hawks and The Worst Eight Seeds Ever

The Golden State Warriors are an interesting mix.  They have the enthusiastic new ownership of Joe Lacob, an ambitious coach Mark Jackson, and some pretty good young talent in Stephen Curry.  The Lacob/Jackson dynamic is particularly interesting because Lacob expects to contend and Jackson talks a very good game on this same issue.  The Warriors have steadily improved under Jackson but he is facing huge pressue to show that they are a potential serious title contender. In reality, the … [Read more...] about Too Much Hubris for Action Jackson?

Jeff Pearlman is a bestselling author and former Sports Illustrated writer.  He has written fascinating books on Barry Bonds, Walter Payton, the 1986 Mets, Roger Clemens and the 1990s Dallas Cowboys and also has a fun blog, Jeffpearlman.com, where he shares his unique thoughts on current events and the latest in sports.  When I saw that Jeff had just published his first NBA book, “Showtime: Magic Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s”, I was excited to read it and … [Read more...] about Q&A With Jeff Pearlman on Showtime

Down the stretch of the NBA season it seems that the issue on everyone’s mind is tanking.  The assumption is that Philadelphia purposely dumped its best players and is trying to lose to accrue ping pong balls for the lottery.  Many have called for the NBA to revisit the lottery system to see if there can be more done to encourage the bad teams to try harder for the final few months of the season or not make teams so quick to rebuild even in the off-season.  We’ve reviewed this issue before (most … [Read more...] about A Look At Tanking

1. Greek Freak Projected: Amidst the waste land that is Milwaukee’s horrible season, there are few rays of hope.  Somehow the Bucks have managed to pull off being horrible offensively (29th) and defensively (29th) and have done so at a slow boring pace (25th in the NBA).   Aside from a pending high draft pick, the most valued asset on the roster is probably Giannis Antetokounmpo.  As most know, Antetokounmpo is a lanky 19-year old, with a huge wing-span and great hops.  The eye test indicates … [Read more...] about Quick Thoughts

The trade deadline has come and gone and, yet again, we are underwhelmed with the results.  No big names were moved.  Rather, most of the trades came down to the dregs of the Eastern Conference trying desperately to eke into the playoffs or, perhaps equally desperately, trying to get above the seven seed and inevitable first round annihilation at the hands of Indiana or Miami.   Here’s our rundown of the recent moves: Indiana traded Danny Granger and a future second-round pick to Philadelphia … [Read more...] about Transactions: Deadline Round Up