Luol Deng

Pat Riley is an optimist. For this summer at least. Good ol’ Riles isn’t one to sugarcoat his opinion. He tells shit like it is, just as he did after the Miami Heat’s 2014 NBA Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs, delivering a purposeful, albeit subspoken, message to his Big Three, the entirety of [...]

Sometimes the basketball gods are cruel. This is one of those times. After surviving nearly 75 percent of the season, Derrick Rose has gone down. Again. He needs surgery to either repair or remove a torn meniscus in his right knee. Given that this is the second time he’s suffered the exact same injury on [...]

To the NBA trade-rumor mobile! Not two weeks ago, yours truly talked extensively about which teams would be the most aggressive buyers ahead of the Association’s Feb. 19 trade deadline. They were not excluded because I expected them to be sellers. No, no, no. It’s just that, since the Rudy Gay trade, they’ve prioritized stability [...]

Never say Pat Riley didn’t try to replace LeBron James with the next best superstar. No, we’re not talking about Luol Deng, who, in a way, actually is LeBron’s replacement. We’re talking about Carmelo Anthony, who Riley says the Miami Heat chased to no avail after King James took his crown and his throne and [...]

LeBron James broke the Miami Heat’s Big Three. He did not break Pat Riley’s spirit. There is no replacing King James, the best NBA player on the face of this planet, the point guard, point forward, stretch forward, power forward, small forward amalgam who will go down as one of the greatest, if not the [...]

Operation “Saving Face After Missing Out on Another Superstar Free Agent” is underway for the Dallas Mavericks. After whiffing on Deron Williams in 2012 and Dwight Howard in 2013, the Mavs set their sights on Carmelo Anthony. Once again, it appears their superstar venture isn’t going to pan out, so it’s on to the next [...]

Luol Deng, Cleveland barely knew ya. The Cleveland Cavaliers traded for the two-time All-Star midway through the regular season. No one was quite sure if he would want to stay in Cleveland, playing for a Cavs team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010. It was supposed to come down to money. Deng rejected a [...]

On the heels of another delusional tirade by banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the Clippers lost 104-98 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. How? How does the team with the best floor leader (Chris Paul), the best coach (Doc Rivers), and best frontcourt (Griffin/Jordan) lose a playoff series? In the critical game 5, the Clippers blew [...]

Playing for the Cavaliers is an adjustment for Luol Deng. Under Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau, Deng knew what he was going to get: lots of minutes, residual spittle flying off Thibs’ lips as he yelled, lots of minutes, a defensive cliche every now and then, lots of minutes, the keys to the team in [...]

Jimmy Butler thinks the Bulls are grimy—in a good way. Following Chicago’s triple-overtime victory over the Magic, Butler was exhausted. “Y’all can go with me right now because I can’t move,” he told reporters, according to The Chicago Tribune‘s K.C. Johnson. “Tired” probably isn’t the appropriate word. Butler logged a franchise-record 60 minutes, 20 seconds [...]