David Yapkowitz Articles - Page 70

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 […]

The 2023 WNBA season was a tough one for the Washington Mystics. The suffered through a season chalk full of injuries during which Elena Delle Donne, Ariel Atkins, Shakira Austin and Kristi Toliver all missed significant time this year with Austin and Toliver unavailable for the playoffs. But despite that, the Mystics managed to keep […]

At this point in the offseason, the biggest roster moves NBA teams are making are training camp contracts. Roster hopefuls who will most likely end up playing for teams’ G League affiliates. Occasionally, there might be a big free agent signing or two from a player who was still unsigned, but there probably won’t be […]

The Las Vegas Aces have been the top team in the WNBA all season long and are the heavy favorites to repeat as WNBA champions. The Aces have no shortage of star power with a quartet of All-Stars in A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young. Wilson is an MVP candidate and is […]

With the New York Liberty’s 2023 WNBA Playoffs series coming up against the Connecticut Sun, the world will be watching to see if the Liberty can live up to their preseason billing as the biggest threat to the Las Vegas Aces’ throne. Ahead of that series, we’ll be making our Liberty predictions. It was a […]

With the Dallas Wings 2023 WNBA Playoffs series coming up against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, everyone will be watching to see if they can dethrone the reigning champs. Ahead of that series, we’ll be making our Wings predictions. While the Aces, New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun have been the consistent top three […]

This might be the first season since Kawhi Leonard and Paul George joined the Los Angeles Clippers that they don’t have any preseason hype. Injuries have dashed their championship aspirations the past couple of years and it seems like fans and pundits alike have jumped off the Clippers championship bandwagon. The fact remains that if […]

As per the NBA’s new CBA, teams are now allowed a maximum of three two-way contracts, up from the previous maximum of two. The addition of the two-way contract has essentially added up to three extra roster spots. There’s a catch though as players signed to two-way contracts are only able to suit up in […]

With the WNBA Playoffs underway, one of the most intriguing first round playoffs series is between the No. 3 Connecticut Sun and the No. 6 seed Minnesota Lynx. The Sun struck first with a Game 1 win, but the Lynx stormed back in Game 2 with an 82-75 win on the road. They now forced […]

The WNBA Playoffs are underway and unsurprisingly, the Las Vegas Aces became the first team to advance to the second round. The Aces locked up the No. 1 seed and homecourt advantage throughout the postseason. They drew the No. 8 seed Chicago Sky as their opponent in the first round and as expected, they had […]

The Minnesota Timberwolves have reason to be enthusiastic about this upcoming NBA season. Anthony Edwards is on the verge of becoming a true superstar as evidence by his recent play at the FIBA World Cup. He also gave a recent ringing endorsement of the Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert pairing in the frontcourt. With the 2023-24 […]

The New Orleans Pelicans had the best record in the Western Conference at one point in the 2022-23 NBA season. They weren’t able to sustain it though as they suffered multiple injuries including losing star player Zion Williamson for the remainder of the season after he suffered a hamstring injury. The Pelicans did not make […]

The Milwaukee Bucks and their fans have to be a little bit concerned regarding franchise player Giannis Antetokounmpo’s potential future with the franchise. Antetokounmpo has made a few comments recently suggesting that this long-term future with the Bucks may not be so certain. Antetokounmpo has been the face of the franchise for nearly a decade […]

It was a strong 2023-24 season for the Kansas State Wildcats men’s basketball team. Under first year head coach Jerome Tang, they finished with a winning record of 26-10 and 11-7 in Big 12 Conference play. They ended up losing to TCU in the first round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament, but they came […]

Simply making it to the NBA is no easy task. Earning and keeping a contract is just as difficult, if not more. While the NBA has essentially added three extra roster spots in the form of two-way contracts, there’s no shortage of players vying for a spot in the league. The Chicago Bulls brought in […]