3 Point Buzzer

25% of the teams that qualified for the playoffs have been eliminated. A tip of the cap to the Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Detroit Pistons and the mercifully eliminated Houston Rockets. The playoffs as a whole have been pretty depressing. The 1st round has been cluttered with boring blowouts, while the close games have been between boring teams to watch. The general conscious was, "Yeah, we have to live through this crap, but wait until the 2nd round. Clips v Warriors! Thunder-Spurs! Fun East matches! Welp. A chunk of that got taken away from us when the NBA society was hit with a brutal blow to the head. First, Steph Curry sprained his knee, and is out 2 weeks, but probably will not be back to full God mode for the rest of the playoffs. If losing one of the most electrifying and likable players in the history of the league wasn't enough, we also lost 2 OTHER studs in Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Poor Clippers, pulling the double whammy of losing two stars the sa

There is no agreed-upon moment when the Lakers began their downward spiral. Perhaps it was when Phil Jackson retired in 2011. Or when the Chris Paul trade was rescinded later that year. Possibly when Kobe’s achilles snapped in 2013. Whenever the exact moment was, what matters now is that this Laker franchise is swamped in as many questions as ever, with a long, winding path back to the Showtime era. With Kobe stepping away after 20 glorious years and the recent firing of coach Byron Scott, who went 38-126 in two forgettable seasons, the Lakers’ descension has continued. A legend is gone, with no clear heir (maybe D’Angelo Russell, but he has not showed enough yet to warrant the title of franchise savior) and the fourth coach in five years has just been pink-slipped, basically the opposite of consistency from the sidelines. The Lakers need to forge a new direction and stray from the path of the last few years. The key to implementing a successful and fresh identity is to get the

There are many ways to evaluate a general manager. One obvious one is to look at the team that they have built. Do they have a good record? How have they drafted? How do their trades look in retrospect? Have they had enough time to carry out their plan? These questions must have legitimate answers. If they do not, a general manager cannot possibly be evaluated correctly. I’ll count down from the worst to the best, because in life we like build ups, not let downs. With out further ado, your 2016 NBA General Manager Rankings… 30. Vlade Divac – Sacramento Kings: Owner Vivek Ranadive has not figured out that as an owner, one must hire a GM first, THEN the coach. Former GM Pete D’Allesandro ran away back to Denver and former advisor Chris Mullen is now coaching St. John’s. There seems to be no fluidity within the Kings’ organization. Last year, they drafted Michigan shooting guard Nik Stauskas, whom so far has been the biggest bust of the 2014 draft, and was traded, along with some ge

(1) Cavaliers vs (8) Pistons This series will be a lot closer than one thinks. While LeBron is inevitably going to do whatever he wants on the court, the Pistons can throw 3 quality wing defenders at him in Marcus Morris, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson. For the Pistons to steal a game or two, Drummond needs to turn into man; gobble up boards and gash Cleveland as the roller. In the end, the Cavs trump the Pistons in overall talent and experience. Also, they have LeBron so...yeah. Cavs in 5 (3) Heat vs (6) Hornets Two super deep teams that deserve a ton of credit by surviving hits to key players in the season. The Heat come into the series with the clear advantage in experience, coaching and having Dwyane Wade, who can still do his thing when well rested. The Hornets can make this a competitive series with ease, but for them to come out on top, Batum needs to overcome some nagging injuries, Big Al needs to emerge as a dominant post presence for a couple games a

(1) Warriors vs (8) Rockets Look, the Warriors have only lost nine games since last June. I just don't see a team that actually plays Mike Beasley big minutes being able to tack on loss number 10 for the Dubs. One promising aspect of this matchup that bodes well for the Rockets is that the have the stud wing defenders (Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza) to give the Splash Brothers fits. The Warriors are going to win this series. The only way the Rockets win a game is for Dwight to have a vintage-Dwight game. While Andrew Bogut is a fantastic defensive center, when push comes to shove the Warriors will always try to make the other team adapt to their style of play by going with the Death lineup, swapping Iggy in for Bogut. Donatas Montejunas has absolutely no shot against Draymond Green in this series, and while the Warriors have many other advantages, this one may be highlighted the most since its obvious Draymond just plays with more fire than Montejunas. Prediction: Warrior

The Process is over. After not even three seasons as general manager and president of basketball operations, Sam Hinkie stepped down via an interesting 13-page resignation letter. The reason he stepped down was that he was stripped of a great deal of decision-making power, by boss " advisor" Jerry Colangelo  and was about to be stripped of a whole lot more.   With Hinkie and his radical approach to team building, there were always going to be detractors and supporters. As with his legacy, that has two sides as well. On one hand, under the Hinkie-administration (sounds like he was a president), his team sported a pitiful record of 47-195, wasn't even two years away from being two years away toward a competent team, and had used its lottery picks on four consecutive big men, three of which have already misbehaved in concerning ways, who couldn't play together in today's NBA. Oh, and two of those picks have not played a second in a 76ers uniform.  On