Bench

Enes Kanter has been relegated to the second unit by New York Knicks head coach David Fizdale, and while he’s not being openly mutinous about the decision, he doesn’t exactly seem thrilled with it. From NorthJersey.com’s Chris Iseman: The usually outgoing and talkative Kanter gave short answers when he was asked about coming off the [...]

Well, that didn’t last long. Though it initially appeared Carmelo Anthony might be open to coming off the Houston Rockets’ bench, he pumped the brakes on that talk while speaking with TMZ Sports: Carmelo Anthony wants all the talk of him coming off the bench for the Houston Rockets to slooooow down … with the NBA superstar telling TMZ [...]

Carmelo Anthony is an official member of the Houston Rockets. Finally. And it seems as if his role could be different than most would’ve initially envisioned. Pretty much everyone and their third cousin twice removed by divorce assumed Anthony would join the Rockets’ starting five, and he still might. But there seems to be at [...]

A real shocker here: Carmelo Anthony does not sound like he’s willing to come off the bench for the Houston Rockets. Not yet anyway. Chew on this excerpt from Jemele Hill’s fantastic piece for The Undefeated: One of the moments that stood out from the Thunder’s tumultuous season was Anthony laughing when he was asked [...]

Dwyane Wade is back with the Miami Heat, and he’s genuinely happy about it. So happy, in fact, he doesn’t necessarily care about his role. He just wants to be in Miami. Even if it means coming off the bench. From the Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds: He raved about the player Heat guard Josh Richardson [...]

Dwyane Wade has come off the bench in 23 of his 26 appearances with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Really, though, he’s been part of the second unit for 25 of those 26 cameos. After all, as he told USA Today‘s Jeff Zillgitt, he knew almost right away that he needed to remove himself from the starting lineup: [...]

While Grizzles Center Marc Gasol has always been the consummate professional, the relationship between him and the organization may be a little rocky at the moment. The Grizzlies lost their 8th straight game on Sunday, at home to the Brooklyn Nets (yikes) and Marc Gasol was benched the entire 4th quarter. Gasol has been struggling [...]

Tristan Thompson appears to be taking the news that Kevin Love will replace him as the Cleveland Cavaliers’ starting center really well. Like, really, really, really ridiculously well. His response to the move, per ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin: “I’m going to go for Sixth Man of the Year, put myself in position to do that,” Thompson [...]

John Wall knows the Washington Wizards need to work on deepening their bench, which is to say, he has eyes. As he told CSN Mid-Atlantic’s Chris Miller (via CSN Mid-Atlantic’s Chase Hughes): Each time John Wall and the Wizards have made the playoffs, they have advanced past the first round and fallen in the Eastern Conference [...]

For those of us who thought Rajon Rondo’s situation with the Chicago Bulls couldn’t get any weirder, it turns out we were wrong. Leading into the Bulls’ Tuesday night loss to the Washington Wizards, Rondo hadn’t played in the last five games. A scheduled rest day for Dwyane Wade plus Jimmy Butler’s absence forced him back into [...]