The way we think now, Carmelo Anthony is a remarkable talent whose best years were squandered primarily on unremarkable teams. But turn that logic over in your head and let it settle into a fresh orientation: is beauty, rare as it is, ever really wasted? Read more »
Notes and observations on all 30 NBA teams from how they evaluated their offseason moves and what they saw from their Summer League prospects. Read more »
Losing David Griffin doesn't mean LeBron James is going to leave Cleveland next summer, but step one was getting rid of an executive who made sure the Cavs were as talented as they could possibly be every year. Read more »
There are a lot of ways to explain the why and how of the Warriors' dominance, but the most striking thing about them, as they occasionally toiled but mostly calmly outgunned the Cavaliers, was the wearying totality of their talent. Read more »
LeBron thinks he should have the strongest word on who LeBron is and what he stands for. Unfortunately, the subject can't control history and the celebrity can't marshall the minds of the contemporary masses. Read more »
Just as a rational person can't deny that LeBron James is the more evolved talent than Michael Jordan, an evidence-collecting observer knows that LeBron hasn't dominated the public imagination in the same way that his coolly bald predecessor did. Read more »
LeBron James will enter The Finals with 5,995 playoff points, eight more than Jordan and nearly 2,000 ahead of the closest active player (Tony Parker). Read more »
What's in store for Games 3 and 4 if the Cavaliers can play better? 140 points? More than 25 made threes? Can LeBron best Michael Jordan's 63, or is he playing too efficiently to take on that type of the scoring load? Read more »
The lack of a rim protector was something the Celtics were able to get away with during the regular season and the early rounds, but was a badly exposed flaw by LeBron and the Cavs. Read more »
The inevitability of it is only a problem in the run-up to the actual event: Golden State and Cleveland are the two best teams in the league, which is what we want in a Finals, right? And they often draw exquisite basketball out of each other. Read more »
On Dwane Casey's difficult decision on when and how much to play Jonas Valanciunas and whether the Cavaliers should trap DeMar DeRozan instead of continuing their conservative approach on defense. Read more »
Dion Waiters' piece made his omission from the playoffs hurt all the more by so eloquently reminding us of the alluring collision of man and myth and menace and Messiah. Dion has decisively won the war he thought he had won long ago. Read more »
We have always known the Cavs are sort of screwed up- or, put another way, that they're more excellent than optimized. Predicting their path is folly; they're defined by their inability to hew to any set course for long. Read more »
Beyond strictly looking at wins and losses, net rating gives a clear picture of team performance. The following infographics show the trajectory of every team in the NBA in terms of how they rank in the category. Read more »
Building his life around basketball was hurting Larry Sanders. Like a lot of tall, springy dudes, he was recruited into the sport because of his natural gifts, not because he spent his adolescence dreaming of becoming David Robinson. Read more »
With the NBA Trade Deadline behind us and rosters locked in for the most part, it is time for an updated look at what all 30 teams cap space picture looks likes for the summer of 2017. Read more »
The reason the additions of Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker have the potential to be so impactful are because they will give Toronto more options for combating the LeBron-related headaches that pop up not only game to game in playoff series, but possession to possession. Read more »
Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith chase their moments because sometimes they remind us all that they're good enough to catch them. And when they're not, well, that always seems to be worth documenting as well. Read more »
While the Knicks, Bulls, Hawks and Heat could be either buyers or sellers, there are a number of teams in the East that will be aggressive at the deadline. Read more »
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