Durant and James will pick their teams Thursday night as part of TNT’s “NBA All-Star Draft Show.” Durant will not be available for this year’s All-Star Game because he is recovering from a hamstring injury, but he will still be in charge of selecting a squad that will try to defeat James, who is a perfect 3-0 as an All-Star captain. Sporting News will compile the full rosters below as the picks are made....
Line: Chicago -8, Total: 199 (check our odds page for current spreads and totals) Los Angeles (12-34 SU, 21-23-2 ATS) is 5-5-1 ATS in its 11 games without Bryant this year, 16-18-1 ATS with him. The 36-year-old leads the team in scoring (22.3 PPG), but has the second worst field goal percentage in the league (37.3). The Lakers did play competitively in their most recent game, a 98-92 home loss to Washington as 9-point dogs on Tuesday....
“I didn’t realize that I had said the word ’thugs,’ but my staff told me later I did and so I must have said it,” Beilein told ESPN. “I meant to say slugs, as in slow moving. We weren’t playing hard before, and now we were playing harder. I meant it as a compliment. That’s what I was trying to say. I’ve already talked to eight of my players tonight, and they are telling me that they understand....
MORE: 15 scariest NBA free agents In a segment for Comcast Sports Net New England, former college basketball coach Tim Welsh said he wouldn’t want Howard on his team. When discussing why the Celtics wouldn’t want an improvement at their center position, Welsh revealed a conversation he had with an NBA coach earlier in the day. “He’s not motivated anymore. He’s just playing for money. He turned down $24 million ‘cause he thinks he can get a max deal....
Ahead of the 2022-23 season, several players will have opportunities to sign contract extensions with their current teams. A few stars have already locked down new extensions, including back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic and All-NBA First Team guard Devin Booker, but other situations are still up in the air. Let’s run through some of the big names before they become extension-eligible. MORE: Why haven’t the Jazz traded Donovan Mitchell to the Knicks?...
The Nets-Knicks game is the best example of why this is more of a GPP slate. Brooklyn averages a league best 121 ppg, with the Kicks the worst at 93 ppg. We also see a rematch from a buzzer beater earlier this year with the Thunder and T-Wolves, as well as what could be an interesting game between the Raptors and Lakers. Please make sure to listen to the FREE morning NBA podcast, and check out the site-specific advice and the rest of Fantasy Alarm’s great season-long and DFS tools available to subscribers....
And we’re not just talking about Zion Williamson and Ja Morant. We’re talking about the picks that genuinely will be debated in the months and years ahead, the ones that will make executives look like geniuses (the “steals”) and the ones that will be stains on their resumes (the “reaches”). NBA DRAFT 2019:Grades, analysis for first-round picks | Trade rumor roundup But why wait for five years to learn which players will turn out to be bargains and which will be busts?...
Some New York “talent evaluators are fans of” Blue Devils wing Cam Reddish, according to a report from SNY’s Ian Begley, which cites unidentified league sources. The team thinks his game will translate well at the next level, the report says. SNY’s report adds: The Knicks, along with the Suns and Cavaliers, have a 14% chance to land the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft. Whichever team ends up with that selection is widely projected to take Reddish’s Duke teammate, Zion Williamson....
The league’s annual event, which will take place from May 18-20 in Chicago, gives some of the top prospects in this year’s draft class an opportunity to impress general managers and coaches. Which young players will stand out at this year’s combine? The Sporting News will keep running lists of prospect measurements as they are revealed at the NBA Draft Combine. Check back here for the latest figures. NBA MOCK DRAFT: Who will Magic select with No....
Well, a good number of Sixers fans trusted the process and believed while Hinkie accumulated NBA Draft lottery picks. On Tuesday, they gave Hinkie his due. At a draft lottery party, of course. MORE: Embiid tops ranking of lottery team reps See, some fans understood Hinkie was playing eight-dimensional chess with all those trades and second-round picks and D-League guys playing big minutes. No doubt a statue of Hinkie will be made if Philly gets the Lakers’ pick this year and then goes 41-41 next season....
On Tuesday, the league will hold its annual lottery to determine the order of the top 14 picks in the 2022 NBA Draft, which will take place on June 23. Having finished the season with the three worst records, the Rockets, Magic and Pistons each have a 14.0 percent chance of coming away with the top pick in the draft. Following them, the Thunder (12.5 percent) and Pacers (10.5 percent) have the best odds of earning the top spot....
LIVE: Follow SN’s draft tracker for grades and analysis Because of moratorium periods on sign-and-trade deals, along with rules restricting how often first-round picks can be traded, teams often already have deals agreed upon and reported before they can actually be officially executed. That leads to teams selecting players that are requested by other teams for them to be officially moved following the conclusion of the draft. In 2020, that’s the case with at least the Lakers (reportedly picking for the Thunder) and the Trail Blazers (reportedly picking for the Rockets)....
Just as you realize all the Spurs players are free to attack the offensive glass, Kawhi Leonard comes into the screen and slams in a putback to push the lead to 22 points. The Spurs ended the half with a 19-point lead, 55-36.
Durant faced backlash throughout the NBA season because of his decision to leave Oklahoma City and join Golden State last offseason. Wanda Durant often came to her son’s defense. MORE: LeBron not ready to give opinion on KD joining Warriors Five years after her son fell short of a NBA title when the Thunder lost to LeBron James’ Heat, Wanda and Kevin took in a scene that Kevin said he promised his mother he’d one day share with her....
In sports, one of the most classless things a fan can do is cheer an opposing player’s injury, and that’s an unfortunate occurrence that happened during Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night. Early in the second quarter of Game 5, Kevin Durant appeared to re-aggravate the same calf injury that caused him to miss significant time during the 2019 NBA playoffs. Durant was down for a bit, favoring his lower right leg before being helped off the court — and to the locker room — by Warriors personnel and teammates....
Hayward has agreed to a four-year, $128 million deal to join the Celtics and former college coach Brad Stevens, according to The Vertical. Hayward broke the news via a Players’ Tribune article. MORE: How Hayward’s free agency decision went haywire “There were so many great things pulling me (to Boston),” Hayward wrote. “There was the winning culture of Boston, as a city — from the Sox, to the Pats, to the Bruins....
Although deals can’t be made official until July 6 when the moratorium ends, free agency season begins on June 30 when mutually-interested parties can negotiate terms with the intent of officially signing when business is allowed to resume a week later. There’s already been a flurry of movement, and things were made even more interesting when the Nets’ Kevin Durant requested a trade out of Brooklyn, meaning some free agency movement may be delayed until Durant has a new home....
While Oakley has been “quiet for a while” on his feud with Dolan, the bad blood has apparently boiled over. MORE: All-time 3-point contest | Kings looking to make changes | All-Stars get revenge on Fallon “As hard as I played for that motherf—–, and he don’t want to talk with me?” Oakley said Wednesday in New York, according to the New York Daily News. “I even asked the commissioner to set up a meeting with (Dolan), take a step forward…but he won’t look me in the eye....
After winning Tuesday night’s NBA Draft lottery drawing, Detroit is in position to land a franchise-changing prospect with the No. 1 overall pick. But the Pistons aren’t the only team whose fortunes may have been changed by some ping-pong balls. The Rockets, Cavaliers, Raptors and more could end up selecting key pieces of their rosters on July 29. This year’s draft class has some tremendous talent at the top, and a few of these young players will be expected to contribute immediately upon entering the league....
After the long NBA season has come to a close, the first tentpole event of the offseason is upon us with the NBA Draft taking place on Thursday, June 23rd. On the day of the big night, reports are flying around about the number of potential trades that could shake up the draft. While the first three picks appear to be locked in with Auburn’s Jabari Smith Jr., Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren and Duke’s Paolo Banchero going to the Magic, Thunder and Rockets, respectively, all signs point to chaos with the Kings at the No....
