Taking a flyer on Ersan Ilyasova without giving up any assets was a better outcome than most of their realistic free agent options in July, even with Greg Monroe almost certaining heading elsewhere. Read more »

In the midst of the predraft workouts and interviews, the tale of Darrell Willliams has struck NBA executives: In jail just three years ago, and now in the NBA 2015 Draft process. Williams was wrongly convicted on a sexual assault charge, a contributing reserve at Oklahoma State cut from his team and vanquished from a career in basketball. Read more »

The Bucks face a tougher rebuilding path than most on the quest for contention. Their budding pieces may very well come of age during a cap boom that sees the power shift back to the league's major markets. Read more »

Another high impact game for Matthew Dellavedova, Cleveland's defense preventing Curry and Thompson from going off, and how the Warriors came alive late with David Lee. Read more »

LeBron James is coming for the Warriors' championship now, and the mandate has crystallized through defeat for Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Find our games or pay dearly in having a dream year gone awry. Read more »

On Matthew Dellavedova's defense, the Cavaliers controlling the pace to limit Golden State's transition offense and whether LeBron has enough help on defense. Read more »

Timofey Mozgov is the first two-way 7'0 that LeBron has ever played with and if the Cavs are going to pull off one of the more remarkable upsets in NBA Finals history, their best bet is pairing LeBron with Mozgov and trying to win three more Bully Ball games. Read more »

Four years ago, the moment of truth overwhelmed LeBron James, sent him spiraling into a summer of study. James has delivered his 2015 MVP predecessor a tutorial of lessons learned, and Stephen Curry's Finals climax looms. Read more »

If LeBron James plays team basketball on offense, the Cavaliers still have a chance to win the title without Kyrie Irving. Read more »

On LeBron James' isolations and heavy usage, Stephen Curry's pick-and-rolls and the bench scoring of Marreese Speights. Read more »

This was an imperfect 108-100 win over Cleveland in an imperfect Warriors' season, giving the franchise a 1-0 lead in the Finals. Everyone has boasted on and on about the closeness of the Golden State players, and yes, winning brings a locker room together. Nevertheless, the season hasn't been without turbulence. Read more »

As the old saying goes, a seven-game series is like a heavyweight fight and Game 1 is usually the feeling-out process. Here are five adjustments apiece for the Warriors and Cavs. Read more »

All season long, the Warriors have thrived at producing and making open 3s. If they can maintain a similar level of proficiency against a newly stout Cavalier three-point defense, their title chances look very strong. Read more »

J.R. Smith is rejuvenated because his talents and production mean something again. It seems new, it feels fresh, but this version of Smith has been around for a while, the losing with the Knicks just made it harder to see. Read more »

The Warriors have a quintet of perimeter defenders capable of battling LeBron James, so they can certainly try to employ the same strategy as Atlanta. Yet at the same time, Andrew Bogut's presence on the backline and their overall team speed and 'switchability' makes forcing James to their defensive stalwart as the Bulls did. Read more »

There's only so much a coach can change about a team stocked with veteran players. If the Bulls are playing Noah and Pau together for most of the game, their ceiling isn't going to change whether or not Fred Hoiberg or Tom Thibodeau is on the sidelines. Read more »

Golden State's personnel and scheme match up well against LeBron James' preferred playing style of using isolations and pick-and-rolls to get inside. LeBron will need to get to the rim and draw fouls for the Cavs to score efficiently. Read more »

There's certainly scenarios where the Cavs can pull off the upset, most of them revolving around LeBron, JR and Shumpert winning their individual matchups. It just seems like there are many more routes to victory for Golden State. The NBA is becoming a wing's league and there's no team in the league with more quality wings than the Warriors. Read more »

There are so many surface contrasts of style and narrative between Stephen Curry and LeBron James, but they're remarkably related players carrying their teams and transfiguring basketball. Read more »

Only 42 of the 492 players that played in the NBA this season are lefty - just 8.53 percent of the league. It is an intriguing collection of players and we talked with dozens of players about what makes them unique to play against and how they could have an edge. Read more »