james-harden Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Who do you trust less: The Nets or the 76ers?
Can I interest you in a non-sexual game of “would you rather?” I know watching people ponder is not as fun as watching them squirm, but this is a sports site, not the living room of your college slum. So, who would you rather trust: The Brooklyn Nets or the Philadelphia 76ers?...

Wait, Luka Dončić did what?
How long are the Mavs going to keep doing this? We’re 11 years removed from 2011 (almost 12), and the organization still has a franchise player surrounded with just enough talent to keep him from demanding a trade. If you missed it, Luka Dončić broke the Dallas record for points in a single game, po...

The James Harden and Houston Rockets reunion is a pie-in-the-sky dream
James Harden is a deeply unserious franchise cornerstone. However, in the midst of a pivotal, legacy-defining season for his career, Harden may be eyeing a return in free agency to the Rockets franchise he forced his way out of two years ago, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. ...

The NBA’s poverty franchises
The competitive lifespan of an NBA franchise is delicate. A team’s championship relevance depends on many factors, including the front office’s competence, coaching staff, and the totality of star power on the court. “Poverty” in the NBA sense can be defined by the corrosion of the team’s ethics and...

The Nets soap opera has been replaced by prestige drama
Previously on The Brooklyn Nets…...

If Joel Embiid thinks Philly fans want him traded, he’s on the wrong Reddit threads
I don’t know who incepted Joel Embiid, but someone got him to question Philly fans’ faith in him. The All-NBA center has been strangely disconnected this season. The team is lifeless, and you wouldn’t suspect that Embiid leads the league in scoring if he didn’t pop up on the ticker with a 40- or 50-...

I’m not ready to go all in on the Brooklyn Nets — no matter how good they look currently
After so much turmoil to start the 2022 campaign, the Brooklyn Nets have finally begun to look like the contenders many expected. The Nets have had two different four-game win streaks since Nov. 27, winning eight of their last nine. Suddenly Brooklyn is five games over .500 (17-12) and in fourth pla...

Chris Paul is going to lose any argument that’s anti-Zion Williamson dunking
The NBA season is nearly one-third over, and the team with the best record in the Western Conference is… the New Orleans Pelicans. They have the highest average point differential of any team in the conference by almost two points, outscoring teams by 7.1 points per outing....

A decade-plus of Eastern Conference mediocrity can’t be easily forgotten
It’s weird how much energy goes into debating which conference is the NBA’s best. It makes sense in college football because schools can’t play all 100-plus teams each year, and strength of schedule determines playoff spots. But in basketball, with all 30 organizations facing each other at least twi...

Trae Young and Nate McMillan are surviving instead of thriving with each other
Here’s a multiple-choice essay question. You’ve got a blossoming superstar in Trae Young who has plateaued after some early career triumphs. Young is 24, played in a conference finals two seasons ago, but he’s also got a penchant for taking too many heat-check shots which are exhilarating to watch g...

Draymond Green eclipsing Michael Jordan illustrates how much offenses have evolved
In the opening minute of regulation against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, Jordan Poole picked up his between-the-legs dribble and whipped a pass to Draymond Green in the short corner. Green caught the pass and rose to drain his only points of the night. It had no effect on the final score, ...

Come home, Kevin Durant
The NBA’s greatest epics have been built around a meteoric star crash landing in a small market, galvanizing the city around their greatness in hopes of delivering glory. Think LeBron James in Cleveland, Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, Tim Duncan in San Antonio, Isiah Thomas in Detroit, Hakeem Olajuwon in ...

NBA Players As <i>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</i> Characters
Warning: Spoilers ahead...

Is there closure for Ben Simmons in Philly?
Maybe one day Philadelphia sports fans will forgive Ben Simmons for not taking the court at all for the 76ers last season, not shooting in four consecutive fourth quarters, and the play in which he passed the ball to the only Sixer who was arguably a worse shooter than him instead of dunking on Trae...

Luka Dončić can’t do it all himself
The Dallas Mavericks’ struggles this season are well-documented and likely won’t be put to rest anytime soon. Their All-World leader, Luka Dončić, is off to another hot start, but that’s only translated into a 9-7 record, and the team barely keeping their heads above water. While Dončić is playing a...

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the next big thing
Let’s get this out of the way. This is not a trend piece arguing why Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs to be playing in a bigger market. SGA is just fine where he is. Sure, he could “save” plenty of franchises like the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, or Los Angeles Lakers....

It appears Kevin Durant has made peace with treading water in a sea of Nets chaos
Kevin Durant most definitely wanted to be traded this past summer....

Why the 76ers’ Joel Embiid scored 101 points in 24 hours
In professional sports, team executives and coaches can over-complicate a situation by attempting to outthink the room. This frequently happens in the NBA when general managers are building teams. Or they just become so blinded by certain players that they fail to see their inadequacies clearly....

The Brooklyn Nets might be giving up on Ben Simmons already
Welp, that could be it, folks. ...

The Brooklyn Nets are the biggest basketball failure of the 21st Century
With Kyrie Irving dominating the news cycle in recent days, now seems like as good a time as any to remind you that even if you take all the Brooklyn Nets’ off-court issues out of the equation, they’re still a really bad basketball team....