David Yapkowitz Articles - Page 54

The UConn women’s basketball team is getting a huge boost this upcoming season in the form of Paige Bueckers. The star point guard missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season due to an ACL injury she suffered in the offseason. She is set to return to the court for the 2023-24 season and is fresh […]

Heading into Sunday’s crucial Game 4 of the second round of the WNBA Playoffs, the Connecticut Sun were looking to avoid elimination and force a deciding Game 5 against the New York Liberty. The Sun have been a regular in the WNBA Finals over the last couple of seasons with appearances in 2019 and 2022. […]

The Boston Celtics shook up the NBA world on Sunday morning with their trade involving the Portland Trail Blazers for All-Star guard Jrue Holiday. The Celtics had been in the mix for Damian Lillard but Holiday is not a bad consolation prize. They’re now among the favorites to make it to the NBA Finals out […]

The Charlotte Hornets have been in the media recently and it hasn’t really been a good thing. Although they have a budding star in LaMelo Ball, the rest of the Hornets roster has a lot of unknowns. They have an intriguing young player in Brandon Miller, an improving young player in PJ Washington and some […]

Throughout the entire WNBA season, and even before the season began, the New York Liberty were projected to be the team to challenge the Las Vegas Aces for the WNBA championship. And for the most part, they’ve looked the part. But while the Aces have swept through the first two rounds of the WNBA Playoffs […]

The Boston Celtics just propelled themselves into possible title favorites with their Sunday trade for All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday. After the Celtics traded Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies and with rumors that Malcolm Brogdon was upset following the failed trade with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Celtics were seemingly in need of starting […]

The Portland Trail Blazers have dominated NBA headlines this week, first with their shocking Damian Lillard trade involving the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, and then following that up by trading Jrue Holiday to the Boston Celtics. The Blazers’ goal during this entire ordeal has been to get young pieces and draft picks. Now that […]

The Indiana Pacers are a team that is seemingly on the verge of making a leap in the Eastern Conference. For the majority of last season, they were in the mix for a playoff spot before eventually faltering as the season began to wind down. They have a rather strong nucleus with Tyrese Haliburton, Myles […]

Jason Kidd is the current head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, but during his playing days he was one of the best point guards in the league. After retirement, he was recognized as one of the greatest players to ever play the game being named to NBA’s top 75 team and being inducted in to […]

The Dallas Mavericks biggest goal of the offseason was re-signing Kyrie Irving which they managed to do. They locked up Irving on a three-year contract worth $120 million as they hope to build a championship contender around him and Luka Doncic. That’s not a bad duo to have, but the question has always been what […]

The Oklahoma City Thunder took a huge leap this past season. While many fans and media members alike were anticipating another lottery finish for the Thunder, they managed to make it to the play-in. A big reason why they had success was the phenomenal play of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander has blossomed into a franchise superstar. […]

Just by virtue of drafting Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs were one of the biggest winners of the 2023 offseason. Considered a generational talent, the Spurs are hoping he can be the latest in a strong group of No. 1 draft picks they’ve had. But to build up an eventual championship contender, the Spurs […]

The Golden State Warriors have a one burning question heading into training camp. That question is what will the starting lineup look like. The Warriors pulled off one of the biggest moves of the offseason bringing in future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul. The only issue is if they start him or bring […]

The Golden State Warriors have one major question heading into the 2023-24 NBA season and that’s what is the plan with Chris Paul. Paul has never come off the bench throughout his NBA career and the Warriors will either start him and have a potentially small lineup, or have him come off the bench and […]

The Minnesota Timberwolves have plenty of reason for optimism heading into the 2023-24 NBA season due to the projected leap for budding star Anthony Edwards. Edwards is coming off a strong showing at the 2023 FIBA World Cup even though Team USA failed to win a medal. The Wolves are hoping that production will translate […]

The San Antonio Spurs were one of the winners of the offseason as they acquired the No. 1 overall pick which they used on French phenom Victor Wembanyama. Even without any other moves, acquiring a generational talent gives them an A+ on their offseason report card. It’s still going to be a season with growth […]

For the majority of the 2022-23 NBA season, the Portland Trail Blazers were in contention for a playoff spot or play-in spot. With the roster they had compared to the rest of the Western Conference, that was a huge testament to how good Damian Lillard is. As the season began to wind down, however, the […]

When Damian Lillard first asked for a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers early in the offseason, he made it clear that his desired destination was the Miami Heat. Throughout his whole career, Lillard had professed his desire to remain with the Blazers despite outside calls from fans and media alike to push for a […]

The Orlando Magic are one of the more intriguing teams this coming NBA season in that they can take a step in either direction. They can either  and make a push for a play-in spot, or they can sink in the opposite direction and once again finish in the lottery. They have plenty of young […]

The Boston Celtics were one of the teams reportedly in discussions with the Portland Trail Blazers involving a potential Damian Lillard trade. The missed out on Lillard when the Blazers ended up trading him to the Milwaukee Bucks with Jrue Holiday being shipped to the Blazers. That in turn created another potential trade target for […]

When it comes to college basketball, the Kansas Jayhawks have long been a model of excellence. In the past few seasons under head coach Bill Self, they’ve been among the elite programs in the country. Self has guided the Jayhawks to nine Elite Eight appearances, four Final Fours and two NCAA championships in 2008 and […]

The dust from the Damian Lillard blockbuster is beginning to settle and with that comes the potential follow up moves from the teams who missed out. One of those teams is the Boston Celtics. The Celtics were mentioned as being one of the teams involved in discussions with the Portland Trail Blazers regarding a Lillard […]

Under head coach Nate Oats, the Alabama basketball team has been one of the best in the country the past couple of seasons. This past season they finished with a record of 31-6 overall and 16-2 in SEC play. They won the SEC tournament and headed into the NCAA Tournament with a lot of momentum. […]

With the start of the 2023-24 NBA season set begin next month and training camps set to get underway, teams are in the process of finalizing their rosters. NBA teams are permitted to bring up to 21 players to camp. Once the regular season begins, they must cut down their rosters to no more than […]

The Milwaukee Bucks sent shockwaves through the NBA world on Wednesday when they pulled off a massive three-team trade with the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns for superstar Damian Lillard. It was widely known that Lillard’s preferred destination was the Miami Heat while other teams such as the Toronto Raptors were mentioned in recent […]

With the 2023-24 NBA season rapidly approaching, teams are in the process of filling out their training camp roster. With the biggest domino left falling into place this week, the rest of the league can breathe and finish any roster questions they still have left. The Los Angeles Clippers were involved in trade discussions this […]

The NBA world received a major shake-up on Wednesday when the Portland Trail Blazers pulled off the long-anticipated Damian Lillard trade. Except it wasn’t to his desired destination of the Miami Heat, it was to the Milwaukee Bucks to form an exciting duo with Giannis Antetokounmpo. In recent weeks, the Toronto Raptors were rumored to […]

The Chicago Sky were stunned when head coach James Wade announced that he would be leaving the team to join the Toronto Raptors in the NBA as an assistant coach midway through the 2023 WNBA season. The Sky tabbed Emre Vatansever as the interim head coach and he guided the Sky to the playoffs where […]

While fans are accustomed to seeing what professional basketball players do on the court, they aren’t always aware of the off the court, behind the scenes [work] that goes into maintaining a career. A big part of that is having proper nutrition and a working meal plan on a daily basis. You can’t always just […]

The WNBA Playoffs continued this weekend with the second of the two semifinals matchups on schedule being between the No 1. seed Las Vegas Aces and No. 4 seed Dallas Wings. The Aces struck first in Game 1 with a 97-83 win to defend home court. The Aces have long been the favorite to repeat […]

The WNBA Playoffs continued this weekend with the first of the semifinals matchups between the No. 2 seed New York Liberty and the No. 3 seed Connecticut Sun. The Sun struck first with a 78-63 win in Game 1, stealing homecourt advantage away from the Liberty. It’s a significant win considering the fact that the […]

With the Connecticut Sun’s WNBA Playoffs series agains the New York Liberty set to tip-off on Sunday, everyone will be watching to see if they can knock off the team heralded as the biggest threat to the Las Vegas Aces crown. Ahead of their semifinal matchup, we’ll be making our Sun WNBA Playoffs prediction. Throughout […]

The Golden State Warriors made a controversial move this offseason when they pulled off a trade with the Washington Wizards and sent out Jordan Poole in exchange for Chris Paul. Poole had emerged as a budding star and had earned himself a significant new contract. Following his preseason scuffle with Draymond Green, it was assumed […]

The Sacramento Kings are coming off one of the most successful regular seasons in franchise history. They finished with a top three record in the Western Conference and ended the longest active playoff drought in the NBA. Mike Brown won the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award in his return to a head coaching role. […]

With NBA training camps set to open at the end of the month, teams are currently in the process of filling out their rosters. NBA teams are allowed a maximum of 20 players in camp. Teams essentially have an additional roster spot this season with the increase from two allowed two-way contracts up to three […]

With the 2023 FIBA World Cup having taken place this summer, there’s been a lot of talk regarding the state of basketball in the NBA and the rest of the world. Those talks only intensified after Team USA failed to win a medal losing to Germany in the semifinals and then losing to Canada in […]

The 2022-23 season was not so kind to the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels. The didn’t have a bad overall record. They managed to finish with a winning record of 19-13. But most of those wins came during the early part of the season. Once Mountain West Conference play began was where UNLV started to struggle. They […]

The 2023-24 NBA season is almost here with training camps set to open at the end of the month. For many NBA teams, the starting lineup is not set in stone. Training camp and preseason will likely decide who gets into the starting lineup once the regular season begins. For one of those teams, the […]

The NBA essentially added an extra roster spot for teams this season with the addition of a third two-way contract spot. That brings the total number of players teams can carry into the regular season to 18, 15 standard contracts and three two-way contracts. At this point in the offseason, so close to the start […]