Blogs

Imagine, for a second, the Golden State Warriors lose in the NBA Finals. Might Kevin Durant, who owns a player option for next season, want to leave? Eh, no. The expectation has always been that he’ll return to Golden State no matter what. That hasn’t changed. He said so himself during the Warriors Plus/Minus podcast [...]

In the midst of seemingly endless stream of stories surrounding the 2016-17 NBA season, the sudden and unexpected revival of the Miami Heat franchise mid-season may have been the most surprising. The phrase “a tale of two seasons” may have never rang more true than it does for the Miami Heat this season, they started [...]

While it is always a difficult and unfortunate decision for an organization to fire their general manager and move forward in a different direction, it was time for the Magic to move on from Rob Hennigan. [tweet https://twitter.com/TheVertical/status/852537451268722688] The Magic never made the postseason in Hennigan’s five seasons and are currently on their 3rd head [...]

After all the New York Knicks have been through, Carmelo Anthony probably wants to leave. Derrick Rose doesn’t. He reiterated as much while speaking with The Undefeated’s Lonnae O’Neal: “I would love to stay here,” Rose said of New York. “I love my teammates, I love the coaches, I love the front office. But this will [...]

We have talked a lot about Manu Ginobili in this space over the last year. Stances on whether he’ll retire have changed, not daily, but they’ve moved. The latest: He’s undecided about whether he’ll return to the San Antonio Spurs in 2017-18. Per the San Antonio Express-News’ Jeff McDonald: It is a sentence no true Spurs fan [...]

The Denver Nuggets’ core is about to get really expensive. They only have one big free agent this year, Danilo Gallianari, who holds a player option. He’ll be a candidate for a short-term max, and that could price him out of Denver. The Nuggets, for their part, can afford to keep him. They’ll be able [...]

You know how it was basically assumed, for months, that the Cleveland Cavaliers would land two semi-impactful free agents on the buyout market after the NBA’s trade deadline? Yeah, that’s not cool with certain general managers around the league, according The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski: A predominance of the NBA’s general managers are pushing for the [...]

Ian Mahinmi is injured again, and it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be ready when the Washington Wizards tip off their first-round playoff series with the Atlanta Hawks. From The Washington Post‘s Candace Buckner: On Wednesday, Coach Scott Brooks announced that Ian Mahinmi will miss the team’s regular season finale in Miami, as well as upcoming [...]

A lot went wrong with the Detroit Pistons this season. Reggie Jackson dealt with knee issues and didn’t play up to snuff when he was on the floor. Andre Drummond looks like he has peaked. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was sensational for most of the year, but he trailed off near the end. Stanley Johnson didn’t find [...]

The 2016-17 NBA regular season felt more like an online season with friends on NBA 2K17 than acutal reality, as incredible performances were as routine as Dirk Nowitzki making a one-legged step back jump shot. You had two of the best single-season performances in NBA history in Russell Westbrook who averaged a triple-double and set [...]