Going into the 2021 NBA draft, the Toronto Raptors appeared perfectly positioned to select their point guard of the future, replacing soon-to-depart team legend Kyle Lowry. When Toronto’s pick came up, still on the board were Jalen Suggs, who led a Gonzaga team that was ranked No. 1 in the country throughout the regular season, […]
It was never supposed to take this long for Andrew Wiggins to become a valuable NBA player. Wiggins was the consensus No. 1 ranked prospect in his high school class, and he remained at the top even after he reclassified and went to college a year early. Before his sole season at Kansas even began, […]
There was no shortage of polish in the first college basketball game of Paolo Banchero’s career. The 19-year-old Duke forward picked apart a top-10 opponent with an array of skills seldom packaged in a 6-foot-10, 225-plus-pound frame: off-the-bounce jumpers, two-handed explosive dunks, patience and persistence, size and strength. There was a certain quietness to the […]
A typical NBA draft prospect’s scouting report is likely to include a few common attributes listed as strengths: “athletic,” “long wingspan,” “playmaker.” One characteristic that rarely appears as a strength? “Old.” It’s no secret that over the years, NBA teams have selected fewer and fewer players who spent four years at a U.S. college, prioritizing […]
We start with what’s going on in the NBA — and there is a lot. The moratorium on trade deals ended Monday, leading to a flurry of activity that included moves for Chris Paul and Jrue Holiday. The draft is on Wednesday. On Friday, free agency negotiations can officially begin. And training camps start in […]