Monday morning, Jack Winter started Basketball Insiders’ newest series titled Trade Targets, where he looked at the best players that could potentially be on the trade market when the fateful Feb. 7 deadline arrives. Today, we take a look at the Northwest Division. Before we get to it, we need to set the stage. With
3:16 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leonard reached the halfway point of the season for the LA Clippers with his most explosive game, scoring 43 points in just under 29 minutes Tuesday night at Staples Center. But after helping the Clippers temporarily bust out of their recent funk and make quick work of the
The dictionary definition of a back to the basket big man might have his picture next to it but lately, LaMarcus Aldridge has become a proficient 3-point shooter. LaMarcus Aldridge has had a lot of success over the course of his career, averaging 19.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, as a traditional post-up, back to
7:35 PM ET EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — As Anthony Davis stood by the wall at the Los Angeles Lakers‘ practice facility and spoke to reporters for the first time since taking a nasty fall against the New York Knicks last week that has caused him to miss L.A.’s last three games, he said he was
The Miami Heat are looking primed for a deep playoff run. How can they add some extra depth at the trade deadline? The Heat are off to a strong start this season, currently holding the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and building momentum for what they hope will be a deep playoff run. However,
Monday morning, Jack Winter started Basketball Insiders’ newest series titled Trade Targets, where he looked at the best players that could potentially be on the trade market when the fateful Feb. 7 deadline arrives. Today, we take a look at the Northwest Division. Before we get to it, we need to set the stage. With
12:25 PM ET ESPN News Services Trailing by 16 in the fourth quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night, Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey benched center Andre Drummond. And Detroit responded, rallying to force overtime. “It wasn’t a message for Andre as much as a message for everyone who wasn’t on the floor,”
Maybe the answer to declining ratings is for the NBA to stop worrying about television ratings and realize itself as an extended universe for fans to interact with. At a base level, the NBA is a machine for making money. The inputs are players, coaches and organizations, run through the artificial mechanism of an extended,
3:30 AM ET LOS ANGELES — LeBron James and Kevin Love shared an intricate postgame handshake — a flurry of patted hands, fist pounds and high-fives — then hugged and made their way to separate locker rooms. The Los Angeles Lakers‘ 128-99 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday was the first time James and
The Milwaukee Bucks are a prime championship threat. The Indiana Pacers are solid as always. The Detroit Pistons are slowly crumbling and the Chicago Bulls are still fighting incompetence. The Cleveland Cavaliers, meanwhile, are a sad laughingstock. Nothing about the NBA’s Central Division is surprising relative to preseason expectations. Its teams, broadly speaking, are exactly
9:06 PM ET The Los Angeles Lakers said forward Anthony Davis will remain out Monday night against the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers, while guard Rajon Rondo is listed as day-to-day with a fracture on his right ring finger. This will be the Davis’ third consecutive missed game since suffering what the team is calling a gluteus
What looked to be a roster of low-risk, high-value young veterans to scaffold their young talent turned out to be a bloated developmental mess. How can the Knicks get value for that? A coaching change has helped the Knicks turn their season around to some degree, but the writing is still on the wall. Veterans
With Kyrie Irving back on the court for the Brooklyn Nets and Blake Griffin contemplating knee surgery, we explore what the two stars’ careers tell us about injury-prone NBA players. Not every NBA prospect labeled as “injury prone” follows a career trajectory worthy of a Disney movie. It’s not always the tragedy of Greg Oden
9:22 AM ET What has changed in the NBA Power Rankings this week? Our experts rank the best teams in the league, from No. 1 to No. 30, with the Utah Jazz rising and the Brooklyn Nets sliding. Throughout the regular season, our panel (ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Andre’ Snellings, Royce Young and Bobby Marks, and
There are many similarities between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ben Simmons. Both are extremely athletic, versatile wings with incredible length and defensive prowess. They are point forwards on elite teams in the Eastern Conference. They also once upon a time shared a common weakness — shooting. While Giannis has transformed himself into a respectable jump shooter
5:46 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN TORONTO — Before the Raptors faced the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday at Scotiabank Arena, Raptors coach Nick Nurse was concerned about Pascal Siakam needing to shake off several weeks’ worth of rust in his first game back from a groin injury. “I think it’ll be a challenge, to be
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – DECEMBER 09: Blake Griffin #23 of the Detroit Pistons in action against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center on December 09, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms
5:11 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — Kyrie Irving is back for the Brooklyn Nets, and his impact was immediate. Irving had 21 points on 10-of-11 shooting to go with four rebounds and three assists, leading the Nets to a 108-86 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday at Barclays Center. Although he
12:52 AM ET OKLAHOMA CITY — With LeBron James and Anthony Davis sitting out the same game for the first time all season, there was a new big two for the Los Angeles Lakers in Saturday’s 125-110 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder: Rajon Rondo and Kyle Kuzma. The pair combined for 57 points —
As the Knicks drift slowly back into the tank, fans need to find other events to keep them occupied. For the past two decades, Madison Square Garden’s mostly been a vacant lot full of errant litter. Sure, the Knicks have played better during Mike Miller’s stint behind the wheel. But the bar he raised was
2:16 AM ET Eric WoodyardESPN The Milwaukee Bucks boarded their private plane to take them to San Antonio sporting a 32-5 record, the best in the NBA this season. Their .865 win percentage had them on pace to win 71 games, putting them on par with the 1996-96 Chicago Bulls (72-10) and the 2015-16 Golden
8:51 PM ET ESPN News Services HOUSTON — James Harden scored 32 points in three quarters to surpass 20,000 and the Houston Rockets rolled to an easy 139-109 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. Not everything went smoothly for Harden, though, as he turned it over 11 times in the first half, the most
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid will be undergoing surgery to address his finger dislocation. He will be out indefinitely. You most likely saw the pictures floating around on Twitter or some other corner of the internet. In a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday evening, Philadelphia 76ers All-NBA center Joel Embiid gruesomely dislocated
2:57 AM ET DALLAS — While outdueling Luka Doncic on the court Friday, LeBron James also managed to one-up Michael Jordan in the record books. James passed Jordan for fourth place on the all-time field goals made list en route to a 35-point, 16-rebound, 7-assist night in the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 129-114 win over the
From the mental performance side, one of the most underexplored and underutilized parts of the game is bench time. The period during timeouts and when players wait to go into the game presents a huge opportunity to prime performance. Using this time inefficiently is missing a great opportunity. Here’s why. Beta Mind to Higher Flow
3:42 AM ET LOS ANGELES — After erasing a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit, Kawhi Leonard drove left around Glenn Robinson III and put the punctuation on his big night with his second monster dunk of the game as Omari Spellman thought about challenging before floating away from harm. The LA Clippers had four days off between
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – JANUARY 9: Russell Westbrook #0 of the Houston Rockets looks on during his welcoming back video to Oklahoma City before the game on January 9, 2020 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User
7:53 PM ET Associated Press DALLAS — Anthony Davis won’t play against Dallas in the opener of a road back-to-back after the Los Angeles Lakers star bruised his buttocks against the New York Knicks. The team made the announcement several hours before the Lakers played at the Mavericks on Friday night. Davis was injured on
After an eventful holiday season, the NBA now enters its middle third. With Christmas in the rearview, teams and players will push forward to the All-Star break over the next month-and-a-half. Over the last two weeks, many of the candidates for the year’s awards turned in performances that could help or hurt their positioning. Joel
10:40 AM ET Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam is expected to practice Friday with hopes of returning to the lineup in the next week, league sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Siakam has not played since Dec. 18, when he suffered a groin injury during an awkward landing. He is averaging a team-leading 25.1 points and