Archives › Kurt Helin
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Dr. J was graceful. The game in the 1970s into the 1980s was evolving, Magic was just bringing Showtime and up tempo to the sport. It was moving from grinding toward beautiful (despite a setback in the 1990s). Guys were really just starting to play above the rim consistently (there had been a few guys,…
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Nets would draft John Wall with top pick, are already getting Devin Harris trade calls
May 11, 2010, 1:09 PM EDT
After the season the Nets had, it feels like the only way the karmic scales balance out is if New Jersey wins the draft lottery, if they get the top overall pick in June. The Nets may only have a 25 percent chance at a top spot, but somehow it just seems fair if they…
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Before last season started, the Memphis Grizzlies were expected to be a laughing stock. The team had talent — O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, and Zach Randolph could score. But they weren’t going to share the ball or play defense. Or be any good. Oh, yes they were. Coach Lionel Hollins gets some credit for that.…
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Spurs say they want to keep Parker. If they can is another question altogether.
May 11, 2010, 11:43 AM EDT
As was evident watching the Spurs got swept by the Suns, San Antonio needs to add some young legs and energy to the team, especially along the font line with Tim Duncan. A “stretch four” would be ideal, if you have one of those laying around they could have. However, as we discussed yesterday, helping…
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Intellectually, Knicks fans know LeBron James is not leaving Cleveland to help rebuild New York. He just applied to change his number next year — something he only needed to do if he stayed in Cleveland. New Yorkers’ heads tell them all hope is lost, despite the fact the Knicks hired a full time guy…
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It looked easy, but Stan Van Gundy said it wasn’t as easy as it looked, sweeping the Atlanta Hawks. Although, I think he was just being polite.
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Kevin McHale wants to coach the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls fanbase just hangs their heads.
May 11, 2010, 9:00 AM EDT
Kevin McHale was a smart basketball player, he is a smart man. He knows a good coaching gig when he sees one. And he sees and wants one — the Chicago Bulls. The entire city of Chicago just had a chill run up their spine like they walked out of a lakeside building on a…
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If Carlos Boozer walked around singing some Boomtown Rats — “I don’t like Mondays” — I would not blame him. And I’d give him a wide berth when I can across him. For the fourth game in the series he was utterly outplayed by Pau Gasol. Boozer was 4 of 11 from the floor and…
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NBA Playoffs, Lakers Jazz Game 4: Utah, now all hope is lost. Officially.
May 11, 2010, 2:41 AM EDT
It’s a simple but true basketball axiom — good tall will beat good small. The Jazz are good, they played hard and execute their offense well, but the Lakers were just a taller, longer team. A better team. In the first two games of the series Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom punished the…
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Ross Perot Jr. sues saying the Dallas Mavericks are "insolvent"
May 10, 2010, 9:03 PM EDT
Mark Cuban has said that there are two kinds of professional sports team owners: The kind that want to win and the kind that want to make money. You can guess where Cuban falls on that scale — the man spends. Remember, Cuban bought the Mavericks from Ross Perot Jr. (although Perot kept a minority…
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San Antonio Spurs: That looked like the end of an era, but can one big move revive it?
May 10, 2010, 5:09 PM EDT
Phoenix’s defense is getting a lot of attention — everyone from Gregg Popovich on down is saying it’s better, even if the stats don’t really say the same thing. Whatever. That’s not why the Suns swept the Spurs aside in four games. The sweep happened because the Spurs were not the same defensive team they…
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NBA Draft: Butler's Hayward stays in, but lots more drop out
May 10, 2010, 4:24 PM EDT
All sorts of NBA Draft movement in the last couple days. You know what that means? Bullet points. Who doesn’t love them some bullet points. * Butler’s Gordon Hayward is in — and he will sign with agent Mark Bartelstein. Good decision by Hayward, he is a first round pick likely to go in the…
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NBA Playoffs, Lakers Jazz Game 4: It's over, but the Jazz want it to be over on their terms
May 10, 2010, 3:12 PM EDT
Three losses. By a total of 14 points. All where the Jazz had a fourth-quarter lead. That is a tough out. Tonight the Lakers look to sweep the Jazz in a series that is decided. The only thing not decided is how much the Lakers get before the Game 1 with the Suns next Sunday…
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Robert Horry thinks the NBA has become a soft "quarterback league"
May 10, 2010, 2:24 PM EDT
Steve Nash was bloodied and injured, just another series for him against the San Antonio Spurs. Except this time it was an inadvertent Tim Duncan elbow that left him with an eye almost swollen shut. That brought back memories of Robert Horry. He has gone in the minds of some from being “Big Shot Bob”…
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NBA Playoffs, Cavaliers Celtics Game 4: Rondo was getting to the rim, but where was Shaq?
May 10, 2010, 2:01 PM EDT
Rajon Rondo had 21 official shot attempts (plus was fouled enough to get to the line 16 more times). Of that, 14 of those shots came in the paint. In game two, the Cavaliers did a good job of turning Rondo into a jump shooter — during the regular season his shot just 30 percent…
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Bulls new coach: playoff experience required. Apply within.
May 10, 2010, 12:57 PM EDT
The Bulls are taking their time with their coaching search — which is a smart thing. More than any other franchise out there looking right now, Chicago has the sexy foundation and chance to draw a top free agent that could bring coaches out of the woodwork. No need to rush and interview all the…
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Our homeboy Ira Winderman explained it on Friday — by the time July 1 comes around, team executives are already going to know what is going on with the top free agents. That’s because teams afraid of losing them for nothing will have already started talking sign-and-trades. That includes Chris Bosh. For now, we’re trying…
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Will the Jazz trade a key player to keep Boozer? Probably not.
May 10, 2010, 11:41 AM EDT
The Utah Jazz will get some offseason help thanks to Isiah Thomas — he traded them the Knicks first round pick this year. But who to draft will be the easy question for the Jazz, the bigger question is what to do about free agent to be Carlos Boozer. Sign him? A sign-and-trade with another…
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After a pathetic game three performance by the Atlanta Hawks — one that followed two other ugly losses to the Orlando Magic, which followed them getting pushed seven games by the Milwaukee Bucks — there are calls to break up the Hawks. There are calls to fire Mike Woodson (that one we’re down with). There…
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The Big Three. KG, PP and Ray Allen. The veteran All-Stars who got together to return Boston to glory. The men that hung a new banner in the Garden two years ago. Three men now part of Celtics lore. This is not their team any more. This is Rajon Rondo’s team. If they are going…
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Sixers continue effort to interview everyone on planet, Bill Laimbeer and Sam Mitchell are latest
May 10, 2010, 9:40 AM EDT
Philadelphia may or may not be any closer to finding a new head coach — that knowledge is only in the head of general manager Ed Stefanski and that is not a place I want to go — but they are getting their money’s worth out of the interview process. According to the Associated Press,…
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Rajon Rondo avoids being another LeBron James highlight, makes his own
May 10, 2010, 8:48 AM EDT
In the first game of the season, way back in October, Rajon Rondo had what looked like a breakaway layup, but instead it became a highlight chasedown block by LeBron James, who caught up with him and swatted it off the backboard. Fool me once… In the same situation in Game 4 Sunday, Rondo made…
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Joe Johnson backtracks on his comments on fans. Sort of. Not like they are keeping him anyway.
May 9, 2010, 10:08 PM EDT
Joe Johnson and his teammates were booed after game three. Well deserved, by the way, they quit. After the game Johnson said of the fans the kind of thing that a free agent to be says on his way out of town: “It’s about us in this locker room. We could care less if they…
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