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The NBA Draft is designed to replenish bad teams with talented young players and restore parity into the league. Over the last 10 years, with a new generation of stars replacing the old guard, the draft has accomplished just that. With perennial laughing stocks such as the Cavaliers and Thunder being resurrected as stud teams in their respective conferences, the league must feel good about how well the draft has ...

You know it seems the more we talk about itIt only makes it worse to live without it But lets talk about itOh, wouldn't it be nice -The Beach Boys: Wouldn't It Be Nice Almost all teams, save the few teams that are so bad that they know it, go into the season with high hopes. "If Players X and Y can stay healthy, this is the year we will go far" is ...

In the NBA, the strength of benches is one of the most overlooked parts of a team. Looking at the top-notch teams, almost all have excellent benches other than the Lakers, whose struggles this year can be traced back to their bench failures all year. The Magic have Marcin Gortat, Jason Williams, Brandon Bass, and Mickael Pietrus, the Celtics have Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace, Michael Finley and Nate Robinson, and ...

Among all the buzz that has surrounded LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh's impending free agency, there have been many players that have fallen by the wayside. Either because of a lack of flashiness or being overshadowed on an already good team, plenty of guys will likely slip through the cracks in the bonanza that will be the summer of 2010. In the end, these players will be paid, as ...

With Yao Ming being non-committal about the subject of opting out this summer, the Rockets have been thrown for a loop. While the vast majority of basketball experts expected Yao would opt-in for the final year of his contract because of his injury issues this year, uncertainty regarding the CBA situation has caused Yao to reconsider. Before anyone panics, however, the likelihood that Yao is in any jersey except a Rockets ...

Just over two weeks ago on March 9, two key Rockets, Kyle Lowry and Trevor Ariza, returned from injuries and helped the Rockets start a four-game winning streak. All was going well, and the Rockets' playoff hopes were increasing by the day as the team was finally able to mesh after the addition of Kevin Martin. Then Shane Battier got injured and Jordan Hill, Jared Jeffries, and Kevin Martin soon followed ...

The 2009 NBA Draft was certainly a weekend full of major stories. From a near miss trade between the Warriors and the Suns to the puzzling draft David Kahn and the Timberwolves had, the draft was one to remember. In a draft labeled as the “draft of the point guards”, the rookies have certainly lived up to that expectation, as four of the first five and six of the first ...

Whether it was ponying up the $3 million in cold cash to acquire Ron Artest or the $8 million spending spree that netted the Rockets David Andersen, Chase Budinger, Jermaine Taylor, and Sergio Llull, Les Alexander has shown that he is willing to spend to improve his team.  However, with an offseason that could prove to be the most important and expensive in recent franchise history, how much will Alexander be ...

From Dick Bavetta and Bob Delaney's famous "creative" refereeing in Game 6 of the 2002 Conference Finals between the Kings and Mavericks, to Tim Donaghy's utter stupidity in betting on the sport he officiated, referees in the NBA have been a constant source of anger from fans of the sport. However, except from counting the number of times you screamed at the television at a puzzling call against your favorite team, ...

The Rockets are currently sitting one game above .500, 31-30, and are four-and-a-half games out of the playoff picture.  Not only does their current position look bleak, but they also have shown a complete lack of ability to consistently win since the losses of Trevor Ariza and Kyle Lowry. In fact, they have not put together a winning streak of more than two games in 2010, a sad fact for a team ...