Archives › Ira Winderman
-
Winderman: Lakers latest in trend to go with system regardless of personnel
Nov 13, 2012, 3:06 PM EDT
7 Comments
The system coaches used to be the minority, it is among the reasons opposing coaches marveled all those years at Jerry Sloan, how his teams did one thing well and did it over and over and over, even after Stockton and Malone left the building. The rest? They mostly adjusted. Oh, Phil Jackson was wedded…
-
The upshot of Wednesday’s prime injury news is that the Bulls’ injury news no longer is nearly as grim. No sooner had the Pacers sent out their release about Danny Granger likely missing three months following a knee procedure, then Tom Thibodeau certainly would have been within his rights to call Derrick Rose and tell…
-
On many levels it makes sense that the NBA’s deadline for rookie-scale extensions is Oct. 31. Because while there are many treats (for the players involved), there also can be more than a few tricks (down the road when it comes to teams’ salary caps and luxury taxes). James Harden? He deserved as much as…
-
Winderman: Replay officials in NBA — an idea whose time has come
Oct 23, 2012, 4:42 PM EDT
The comment came during one of those informal pregame chats NBA referees have been conducting with the media over the past month. “I think that replay is only going to be growing,” the veteran referee said. He wasn’t commenting on whether it was a good thing or otherwise, but rather that it was an inevitable…
-
Winderman: NBA fun police enter the building with handshake timer
Oct 17, 2012, 11:49 AM EDT
It is a curious thing, this NBA of ours. On one hand, it seemingly is all about the marketing, the highlight mixes, the creation of a cult of personality. On the other hand, there has to be structure, order, decorum. Or so the league now says, with the new edict that players must be ready…
-
Left unclear by Dwyane Wade‘s move from Jordan Brand to Chinese brand Li-Ning is whether he had opted for innovation or simply was not offered what he believed to be a commensurate deal. But that’s not the point. The point is this: When the Miami Heat, still arguably the NBA’s most high-profile team, take the…
-
How much do we miss the game? This much: We’re actually looking forward to the start of the preseason. Yes, in this space a week ago we said the process is too long, that it shortchanges players who spend the month working without pay (with the NBA calling to remind that 50 percent of revenue…
-
The list of players who will miss the start of training camp is significant, everyone from Chris Paul to Al Harrington to possibly Dwyane Wade. Each, though, could be back for the start of the regular season. Which either means the offseason is too short or camp is too long. Yet here we are, on…
-
Dwight Howard somehow now is friends with Stan Van Gundy and hopes to eventually be remembered fondly in Orlando. LeBron James returned to Cleveland last season saying he would not rule out perhaps one day again playing for the Cavaliers. Ray Allen took out a full-page ad in Boston to remind Celtics fans how much…
-
Winderman: Juwan Howard, other name players could fade away from NBA
Sep 10, 2012, 10:05 AM EDT
The fadeaway long has been an NBA fact of life. While the stars hold press conferences to announce enough is enough, their fame to keep them in the spotlight (and possibly part of broadcast teams) long after their playing days — something we soon might get from Ben Wallace — for the majority of those…
-
Winderman: New NBA head of officials doesn’t mean change, technology does
Sep 5, 2012, 3:19 PM EDT
Since the Tim Donaghy fiasco, we’ve had the NBA offer up a former referee and a retired two-star U.S. Army general to oversee officiating. Now, former NBA player Mike Bantom, a long-time NBA executive, takes over. Granted, Ronnie Nunn (the former referee) and Ronald Johnson (the retired general), mostly remained in the background as officiating…
-
Winderman: NBA’s new fiscal reality has veterans considering minimums
Aug 28, 2012, 9:08 PM EDT
More than 20 teams still have all or part of their mid-level exception, be it the full $5 million, the $3.1 million taxpayer version or the $2.6 million post-cap-space variety. More than 10 still can put their $2 million bi-annual exception into play. And yet, now a month from the start of training camps, veterans…
-
Donte Greene to the Nets, Martell Webster to the Wizards . . . If it seems like the NBA is in a bit of a personnel limbo, it is because, well, it is. For as much as the floodgates open with the July start of free agency, and for as much as things can change…
-
Winderman: Olympics far more compelling than Stern’s World Cup of Basketball dream
Aug 13, 2012, 10:17 PM EDT
Imagine if Sunday’s compelling doubleheader of United States-Spain and Argentina-Russia wasn’t the Olympics. Imagine if it was David Stern’s got-to-have World Cup of Basketball, the you-bet-it’s-on-the-way NBA-proposed tournament. Would the play have been as gripping? There is no reason to believe otherwise. Would national pride have been as paramount? National colors resonate no matter the…
-
Well, this was quite unexpected, but apparently we’ve arrived in the summer of three love. It started with the Heat dropping a championship-winning barrage of 3-pointers on the Thunder in the deciding game of the NBA Finals, Mike Miller somehow displaying anguish and rapture at the same time while hobbling from arc to arc on…
-
In a non-Dwight year, this is when it tends to stop, in August. As an NBA executive recently explained, there tend to be four stages to the offseason when it comes to personnel moves: – The start of the free-agency period and the resulting immediate frenzy. – The period shortly thereafter when offer sheets are…
-
Winderman: New CBA means role players will see short-term contracts
Jul 24, 2012, 1:05 PM EDT
As the NBA adjusts to its new collective-bargaining agreement, we’re beginning to see some short-term returns. Literally. With a more punitive luxury tax and free agents thinking twice about moving on to new teams (and therefore significantly smaller contracts than by remaining with their incumbent teams), we’re apparently in the era of incremental rebuilds. Example…
-
Winderman: Lin’s offer sheet not problem, Knicks entire payroll is
Jul 16, 2012, 2:25 PM EDT
This is where many get the NBA luxury tax wrong: The third year on the offer sheet extended by the Rockets to Jeremy Lin will not cost the Knicks $43 million when factoring in the luxury tax, as some have extrapolated. It will cost the Knicks the $15 million on the third year of that…
-
Winderman: Max contracts and amnesty, have the owners learned anything?
Jul 12, 2012, 7:26 PM EDT
With Elton Brand about to come off the market and Luis Scola about to go on the market, we’re reminded of why there is an NBA amnesty process in the first place: because of large-scale contracts that were shortsighted. And then we have Brook Lopez, Roy Hibbert and Eric Gordon getting maximum-scale offers this summer…
-
The Mavericks blew it up for this? To finish as runner-up for Deron Williams? The Mavericks put aside one of Dirk Nowitzki‘s precious few quality remaining seasons on the promise of potential hope? Yes, the Mavericks still could recover next summer, if Chris Paul doesn’t reach a new deal with the Clippers, if Dwight Howard…
-
Winderman: Heat official explains why teams take medical red flags seriously
Jun 27, 2012, 11:00 PM EDT
Sometimes it take a neutral, third party to offer perspective, a party that has no stake in what others might consider manipulation. So amid heightened concern that Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger is free-falling from what most previously viewed as a lottery fate due to concerns about a bad back, now not even invited to…
-
Winderman: Problem with Riley in Miami, Jackson in Orlando is they’re not coaching
Jun 6, 2012, 1:53 PM EDT
We have reached a compelling intersection of what is and what could be. The fact that the protagonists are Pat Riley and Phil Jackson makes it all the more intriguing of a case study. At the very moment when the Riley-as-front-office-sage approach is coming under fire 200 miles south on Florida’s Turnpike, there is increased…
-
Winderman: League’s silence on Rivers, Rondo comments speaks volumes
May 31, 2012, 11:05 AM EDT
Something rather curious happened in the two days leading to Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. Nothing. Silence. No NBA announcement of a fine for Doc Rivers. No statement from Stu Jackson, the league’s vice president of discipline. Nothing. Not even after the Celtics coach called his Game 1 technical foul from referee Ed…
-
Winderman: Haslem’s retaliation hurts Heat on court at key time
May 23, 2012, 7:18 PM EDT
Back in the day, when violence was king and Pat Riley was puppet-master, a colleague in New York warned me where the initial round of Heat-Knicks was headed. He said he had seen it before, the way Riley could wind up players with the Knicks and have them unleash frightening fury in the name of…
-
Winderman: LeBron’s comments on Lakers last play speak volumes
May 17, 2012, 3:49 PM EDT
LeBron James opened a window Thursday into how he views a game even when he’s not playing . . . And it’s remarkably similar to how he views it when he is. As he watched the closing seconds Game 2 of Lakers-Thunder from his Indianapolis hotel room, what caught James’ eye was not Kobe trying…
-
Play
Video: Grizzlies ready for 'running' Spurs
-
Play
Video: Durant won't 'compromise himself' like other stars
-
Play
Video: Knicks avoid elimination
-
Play
Video: Heat finish off Bulls, James 'has no energy left'
-
Play
Video: Health woes make Heat vulnerable
-
Play
Video: Good news for Sacramento, Kings stay
