Week 1 of the 2019 NBA season is officially in the books, and it didn’t take long for certain preseason expectations to go up in smoke. The Golden State Warriors opened the campaign with a pair of blowout losses that raised doubt about whether they’d even make the playoffs this season, while the Phoenix Suns…
The 2019-20 season is almost here, so it’s time to be bold about what we think will actually happen. For some, these predictions may not seem incredibly bold while they may be preposterous to others. But basketball is back, and that in itself is worth celebrating: 1. Ben Simmons makes 11 three-pointers Let’s dive right…
In this episode of The NBA Podcast, Morten Jensen (@msjnba), Bryan Toporek (@btoporek) and special guest Duncan Smith (@duncansmithnba) of Forbes preview the Central Division ahead of the 2019-20 season. How will the Chicago Bulls’ point guard rotation shake out? Are Cleveland Cavaliers guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland compatible? Will this be Andre Drummond’s…
The 2019-20 NBA season is just around the corner. After an offseason chock-full of player movement, the title race appears as wide-open as it has been in years. Over the coming weeks, we will examine one big question hanging over each team heading into the season. We’ll continue today with the Central Division, where the…
The Detroit Pistons had an understated but important summer in their quest to build upon last year’s playoffs appearance. Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond will still lead the line, at least for now, with the remaining role players filling in around them. It’s relatively rare in the modern NBA that a team’s two best players…
Detroit Pistons fans know that things are never quite as easy as they might look. So with a playoff likelihood of 99 percent for weeks now, per FiveThirtyEight, it hasn’t been a matter of if something would go wrong, but what would go wrong and when. What eventually went wrong was perhaps the most likely thing all…
The fantasy basketball playoffs have arrived in most leagues, which means you can no longer afford to keep dead weight on your roster. That means it’s time to say “Bye, Felicia” to the following players. Boston Celtics swingman Gordon Hayward (84.5% owned in ESPN.com leagues) has played better as of late, but you can’t depend…
And just like that, the Detroit Pistons are sitting in the 6th seed… After winning five in a row and eight of their last ten, the Pistons are also the hottest team in the Eastern Conference. Their surge includes an 8-1 record since the All-Star break, scoring an average of 118.3 points per game during that…
The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2018-19 season is effectively over. If their loss to the then-12-win Phoenix Suns on Saturday night wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, their ensuing two losses to the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets were. Facing a 6.5–game deficit in the Western Conference standings with 17 games to play, the…
Since the Detroit Pistons acquired Reggie Jackson at the 2015 trade deadline, the synergy between he and Andre Drummond has been one of the franchise’s bedrocks. There just hasn’t been enough of it for a foundation. In spite of a promising start during their first full season together in 2015-16 (when they led the Pistons…
