Dan is a TBW staff writer. After playing college ball at Franciscan University, he covered the NBA and NBA Draft for Bleacher Report for four years and the FRS Network for three years. He now co-hosts the Unlimited Range podcast and continues to campaign for Doris Burke’s promotion to lead analyst at ESPN. Follow him on Twitter: @DanO_Bball
I was too young to appreciate the 1992 USA Olympic Men’s Basketball Dream Team. And although I was old enough to enjoy the 1996 and 2000 American gold medalists, I took their success for granted. It wasn’t until the disappointment of the 2004 bronze and the ensuing 2008 “Redeem Team” campaign that I understood the…
NBA scouts and executives are becoming increasingly picky about drafting big men. It’s rare to find centers and combo bigs who can operate as true rim protectors, switchable defenders and multidimensional offensive threats. Teams don’t base their decisions on size as much as they used to, either. They now gravitate toward the speed and interchangeability…
For young hoops fans, the 2003 NBA Draft was one of the most exciting offseason events of its era. High school phenom LeBron James was the headliner of the class, but there were several other potential stars in the mix. In Part I of our retrospective on this revolutionary group, I remembered James and Carmelo…
I had watched several NBA Drafts before this. But there was something special to me, and to a lot of people, about the 2003 version. It changed the way I view the draft as well as the way I look at prospects and their NBA potential. It was also a big part of the reason…
We’re used to basketball withdrawals in August or September, not mid-March. But here we are, feeling a weird emptiness without the NBA after the league rightfully and smartly shut things down on March 11. It didn’t take long for us to realize how much we love hoops and how much more we’ll cherish it once…
One of the most amazing things about today’s NBA is how many talented shooters there are. We’ve never seen so many prolific long-range threats in the league at one time. Most young gunslingers coming into the NBA have been practicing the three-ball their entire lives, and it shows. And those who haven’t been working on…
The top handful of international prospects in the 2020 NBA Draft offer intriguing skills. There aren’t any surefire megastars or franchise saviors in this year’s crop, yet there are a few worthwhile investments in the lottery range. Two of the top three international prospects are French, and arguably the best of the bunch is Israeli.…
While the NBA is littered with young offensive standouts, high-level defenders aren’t quite as abundant. It’s exceptionally difficult to shine defensively in today’s league. Scorers and playmakers are more skilled than ever while officiating lends itself toward a high-scoring brand of hoops. Nonetheless, I’m assessing the top young defensive weapons in the second part of…
NBA All-Star weekend is a great time to step back and take stock of the league, its stars and who’s making the biggest impact. The league is loaded with as many young studs as ever. In this two-part series, I’m examining which 25-and-under stars are the absolute best on offense and on defense. This week,…
Auburn’s explosive freshman Isaac Okoro wasn’t on everyone’s first-round NBA Draft projections entering the 2019-20 season. He wasn’t a McDonald’s All-American or a Jordan Brand Classic participant. But now he’s in nearly everyone’s lottery picture, thanks to an elite defensive profile and a resourceful offensive skill set. The 6’6” Georgia native has the makings of…
