Bruno Manrique Articles - Page 138

The Los Angeles Lakers have been awfully patient about seeking a tandem partner for LeBron James, failing to do so during free agency and instead putting a plethora of players on one-year deals around him. As Trevor Ariza slipped past them and joined the Washington Wizards, James has been reportedly contemplating the idea of teaming […]

The Washington Wizards paid a high price to get their locker room in order, trading away younger players in forward Kelly Oubre Jr. and guard Austin Rivers in return for veteran forward Trevor Ariza. However, Wizards head coach Scott Brooks likes the fit the once-Wizard brings to the floor, with the 33-year-old possessing some of […]

Recently-waived guard Austin Rivers is expected to finalize a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies after he is bought out by the Phoenix Suns, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. Rivers was part of a trade that sent him and former teammate Kelly Oubre Jr. to the Suns for veteran swingman Trevor Ariza. Phoenix is […]

The NBA referees admitted they missed a call on Houston Rockets forward James Harden, one that was cause to plenty of controversy, as Harden used a gathering step-back twice on Utah Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio. "It looked like he did two step backs." 😂 pic.twitter.com/k0V0AQLStB — NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 18, 2018 “The […]

It didn’t take long for Trevor Ariza to take a dig at his former team, the Phoenix Suns, doing so during an initial interview following his first practice with the Washington Wizards. Ariza was traded for Kelly Oubre Jr. and the recently-waived Austin Rivers and spoke to the media about his observations with this team. […]

The Boston Celtics railed off a season-high eight straight wins before a recent road loss to the Detroit Pistons, yet at the early stages of the season, they were forced to survive a challenging stretch. Mired in a 10-10 start and clawing their way into the Eastern Conference playoff picture, the Celtics needed resilience, and […]

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr wasn’t short of jokes after a 17-point win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday, one that saw his former player, Omri Casspi, trot out a season-high 20 points in 21 minutes against his old team. Dubbed as the “revenge game” — Casspi played the most minutes he’s played […]

The impending return of DeMarcus Cousins has been long awaited, as the Golden State Warriors have battled their share of injuries early on this season, waiting until he’s able to take the floor again. Head coach Steve Kerr has grown tired of the incessant questions about his potential return after the big man was assigned […]

Former Golden State Warriors center Zaza Pachulia got a quick jab in to his former teammate Kevin Durant, making note of another former Warriors player, as Omri Casspi of the Memphis Grizzlies went off for 20 points off the bench on Monday. Word didn’t take long to get around the NBA, using the narrative of […]

Longtime veteran Suns shooting guard Jamal Crawford is still doing amazing things on the court well onto the tail end of his NBA career. Monday night saw him add another milestone to his storied career, dishing out a career-high 14 assists, breaking his previous high of 12, which he achieved in the same Madison Square […]

Emmanuel Mudiay’s newfound success as the New York Knicks point guard has been more than just a welcome surprise, but one that has been the direct byproduct of making the most of his opportunity. Mudiay has put up two 30-point games in his last three games, equaling the total of 30-point outings he had during […]

Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Josh Okogie is rapidly staking his claim for more minutes under head coach Tom Thibodeau, one known to favor his starters and play them for heavy minutes. Standing at 6-foot-4, Okogie has had to battle for each and every one of his chances, stuck as a tweener between the point guard and […]

The Phoenix Suns and Trevor Ariza are no longer together. Despite a “mutual” decision to part ways, the mystery of a bottom-dwelling team willing to trade a recently acquired veteran is perplexing. While most of his former teammates have nothing negative to say about the veteran, Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic suggests Ariza wasn’t […]

Stephen Curry was asked before Monday’s home win against the Memphis Grizzlies if he planned to keep his soon-to-be 15,000-point ball, sitting only 10 points away from the milestone. The Golden State Warriors guard wouldn’t have to wait long, getting to the exact mark late in the first quarter after canning a deep pull-up 3-pointer, […]

Trevor Ariza exemplifies a lot of the characteristics NBA teams are hoping their players could embody as a group — toughness, grit, willingness to win at all costs and a veteran savvy that can only be earned with several years of service. The Phoenix Suns, a young team with plenty of lessons to learn, was […]

Coming off a season-long injury, Atlanta Hawks point guard Jeremy Lin finds himself in a familiar situation as he did with the Brooklyn Nets. Despite of it, he could find himself benefiting from a rather arid trade market, arising as one of the top targets for teams looking to make an addition prior to the […]

Stephen Curry is 10 points away from reaching 15,000 career points, a milestone that he’ll likely reach Monday when the Golden State Warriors take on the Grizzlies at home. While Curry has made most of his damage as a scorer in the back half of his career, he has kept a fair perspective of just […]

Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen has received plenty of flak for his methods coaching this young team, but he has been rather direct and transparent with his approach, his goals, and how he plans to achieve them. The 53-year-old helmsman made one thing clear: while he has confronted players on this roster, he hasn’t […]

Minnesota Timberwolves Taj Gibson called the reported Instagram snafu of “liking” some comments critical of coach Tom Thibodeau “fake news,” noting it wasn’t him or any of his associates running the account: “Yeah, man. It’s just crazy. Like I’m not really a social media kinda guy or believe anything. I love my teammates, I love […]

The Los Angeles Lakers could make use of third-year swingman Brandon Ingram as a pivotal trade chip in search of a star partner for LeBron James. The partnership consisting of Ingram and James has simply not worked out to the Lakers’ expectations, and it could force the team’s hand at trading their other second-overall pick […]

The partnership between LeBron James and Brandon Ingram hasn’t been what the Los Angeles Lakers had hoped for during this young stretch of the 2018-19 season, and executives around the league expect the third-year player to be dealt at one point or another. “You’ve got to make quick decisions [as a teammate of] LeBron. You […]

The Washington Wizards recently bounced back from a four-game skid after a statement win over the Los Angeles Lakers, but head coach Scott Brooks has known for a while that the intensity they brought into Sunday night is the same which will allow them to bounce back from a horrid 12-18 start to the season. […]

The trade between the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns became official Monday morning, sending longtime veteran Trevor Ariza to the nation’s capital in exchange for Austin Rivers and young wing Kelly Oubre Jr. President Ernie Grunfeld praised Ariza, who played for the Wizards for two full seasons (2012-14) during his journeyman career in the league […]

Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal was aware that some changes would come in the nation’s capital after an undesirable start to the regular season, and while it was tough to see a player like Kelly Oubre Jr. shipped away to the West, Beal has remained positive about the reinforcements coming back in longtime veteran […]

Despite the recent rumors that said Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver was unwilling to send forward Trevor Ariza to his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Suns were “willing to dance with the Lakers, but only on their terms.” According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, after the first Ariza trade proposal fell apart […]

Kawhi Leonard has been rumored to be zeroed into his potential return to his hometown of Los Angeles, despite enjoying an NBA-leading life with the Toronto Raptors and looking close to his prime form coming off a year-long injury. While the Raptors’ success and the endless support across the franchise could be a potential big […]

The Utah Jazz have risen as candidates for recently demoted Chicago Bulls forward Jabari Parker, according to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. Forward Derrick Favors has proven to be an awkward fit next to center Rudy Gobert, and the $16.9 million left on Favors’ contract for next season is non-guaranteed, which could make him an […]

Chicago Bulls forward Jabari Parker has been demoted in new coach Jim Boylen’s rotation, recently taking his first DNP of the season, with the likes of Bobby Portis and Lauri Markkanen soaking in most of his minutes in the frontcourt. Parker’s split from Boylen’s rotation was followed by news of the franchise dangling him on […]

The Jabari Parker experiment has come to a close very quickly for the Jim Boylen-led Chicago Bulls, as the new head coach said the homegrown product would no longer be part of the regular rotation, despite being eagerly signed by the team to a two-year, $40 million deal this offseason. His demotion has been accompanied […]

Dallas Mavericks rookie sensation Luka Doncic has already impressed plenty of players in the league, including Sacramento Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox, who’s grown impressed with his maturity at such a ripe stage of his career. “He is a great player who is playing extremely well for being a 19-year old rookie,” Fox said, according […]

The Indiana Pacers are set to hire longtime WNBA executive Kelly Krauskopf, who will become the first female assistant general manager in NBA history, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Krauskopf will join president Kevin Pritchard, general manager Chad Buchanan and assistant GM Peter Dinwiddie in the front office. The historical aspect of women as leaders in […]

LeBron James’ acumen at the free-throw line hasn’t been much to write home about, one of the very few aspects of his dominant career that could use some refinement at this stage of his game. Yet the recent struggles at the charity stripe have been dumbfounding after seeming to recover gracefully from an early-season slump. […]

Fox Sports 1 voice Colin Cowherd had some harsh words for Kawhi Leonard, claiming he is not a leader and the antithesis of LeBron James after the Toronto Raptors cruised past the Golden State Warriors without him on Wednesday night. The host of The Herd ripped into Leonard’s lack of charisma and reserved personality as […]

The Chicago Bulls have engaged teams in trade talks with several teams involving forward Jabari Parker, according to K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. This comes at the heels of Parker’s demotion from the Bulls’ regular rotation, as new head coach Jim Boylen hasn’t seen his defense pick up throughout 29 games played this season. […]

Chicago Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine is slated to undergo an MRI on his injured ankle after he said he heard a “pop” during Thursday night’s game against the Orlando Magic, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. LaVine expressed confidence after the loss, saying “he’d be fine” — yet the imaging is likely […]

The Denver Nuggets were avidly looking for answers at the start of the 2016-17 season, hoping to pair two skilled big men in Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic, kickstarting a twin tower experiment in the frontcourt. While coach Mike Malone ultimately decided to make Jokic his starter at center, relegating Nurkic to the bench, it […]

The Denver Nuggets were lined out to ride mediocrity with a young frontcourt tandem of Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic, playing the role of power forward and center, respectively, in a miscalculated equation that just didn’t add up to the desired results. On Dec. 15, 2016, the Nuggets made Jokic the team’s starting center and […]

Phoenix Suns fans have about had it with the franchise’s ineptitude and the recent string of losing seasons under owner Robert Sarver. The attempt to get $150 million of public funding to go toward the renovation of Talking Stick Resort Arena was the last straw for longtime fan Josh Miller, who opened the petition at change.org, […]

The numbers don’t lie — Paul George is playing the best basketball of his career and his stat line of 24.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.2 steals — all career-highs, reflect just that. Yet the Oklahoma City Thunder swingman feels it’s more than the numbers and having a second year under his wing […]