Jack Winter Articles - Page 76

It’s only a matter of time until Zion Williamson officially becomes the New Orleans Pelicans’ franchise cornerstone. Even before being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft, though, he’s already building goodwill among his future team’s newest players. Williamson praised Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram on Wednesday, the top two players […]

Kyle Kuzma has made a habit out of roasting his yellow young Los Angeles Lakers teammates over the first two seasons of his NBA career. Now that Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Josh Hart will play for the New Orleans Pelicans going forward, though, the rising third-year forward is being forced to find new subjects […]

RJ Barrett has made abundantly clear where he wants to begin his NBA career. Whether the Duke swingman gets his wish, though, we won’t know for certain until Thursday night. Barrett, a surefire top-five pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, explained on Wednesday why he would be so thrilled to be selected by the New […]

Klay Thompson is broadly expected to re-sign with Golden State Warriors in free agency next month. Before both player and team commit to one another for the long haul, though, it stands to reason that both parties would prefer to have a timeline in place for Thompson’s return to the floor. One problem: He’s still […]

The Utah Jazz were a top-five team in the league after January 1st. They went 32-13 following a brutal opening two and-a-half months to the regular season, finishing sixth in offense and first in defense after the calendar flipped to 2019, good for a third-ranked +7.7 net rating, per NBA.com/stats. But another campaign marked by […]

The Utah Jazz have finally made the type of impact trade many have anticipated for months. Even better news? Quin Snyder’s roster will retain most of its core despite the deal’s tricky salary-cap complications. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Wednesday that Utah will send Grayson Allen, Jae Crowder, Kyle Korver, and draft compensation to […]

There’s only so much for teams to truly glean from athletic testing and on-field workouts at the NFL combine. A contact sport like football, after all, can never be properly simulated in a tank top and shorts, especially when attempting to deduce a player’s potential performance at the game’s highest level. Nothing about the 40-yard […]

Cole Beasley was hardly the highest-profile free agent to change teams this offseason. If his new quarterback’s appraisal is a harbinger of what’s to come with the Buffalo Bills, though, the seven-year veteran could be poised for a huge season in 2019. Asked by The Athletic’s Tim Graham how important Beasley’s addition is to Buffalo’s […]

The Boston Celtics haven’t given up on retaining Al Horford. Shortly after multiple reports surfaced that the All-Star big man had a change of heart about plans to opt out of his contract and sign a long-term deal with Boston, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe reports the Celtics have been aware of Horford’s discontent […]

The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t finished hunting for superstars. After already agreeing to a blockbuster trade with the New Orleans Pelicans for six-time All-Star Anthony Davis, the Lakers have begun “aggressively “exploring ways to expand the parameters of the trade to create as much cap space as possible, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Lakers […]

The latest intel suggests Al Horford has undergone a major change of heart. After previous reporting indicated the All-Star big man would opt out of his contract and work to sign a long-term deal with the Boston Celtics, he’s now expected to pursue a four-year contract from other teams in free agency, according to Steve […]

Mark Cuban has every reason to be excited about his team’s future. Searching for another superstar star since Dirk Nowitzki led them to a title all the way back in 2011, the Dallas Mavericks finally found one this time last year by trading their 2019 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks in order to move […]

Steve Nash knows RJ Barrett’s game better than most. Not only does he hail from Barrett’s native Canada, but Nash has also been keeping close tabs on the teenage phenom’s development as general manager of the Canadian national team over the past several years. Oh yeah, the two-time MVP is also Barrett’s godfather, having gotten […]

Free agency is the time every team in the NBA gets to dream big and hope for the best. Just because teams are flush with cap space and have holes on the roster to fill, though, never means the most prudent approach to free agency is spending big money at the expense of price and […]

Additional endorsement opportunities in the NBA’s glitziest media market aren’t the only reason why Anthony Davis wanted to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Now that his wish has come true, though, it’s likely no coincidence that the six-time All-Star is already taking advantage of that reality. According to Front Office Sports, Davis will […]

There’s an argument to be made that the New Orleans Pelicans have as bright a long-term future as any team in the NBA. Just because his team figures to be at its utmost best during the prime of surefire No. 1 overall draft pick Zion Williamson, though, doesn’t mean Pelicans president of basketball operations David […]

The Toronto Raptors came out of nowhere to win the title. Just more than a year ago, the organization’s best team in franchise history was swept out of the Eastern Conference Finals by a thirty-something LeBron James, leading arguably the most undermanned group of his two-stint tenure with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Calls were even made […]

Lonzo Ball has yet to live up to his father’s boasts about imminent NBA superstardom. Still, his oldest son’s comparatively slow acclimation to the league certainly hasn’t temped LaVar Ball’s expectations for his youngest son, LaMelo. During a Monday appearance on ESPN’s First Take, the Ball patriarch predicted that LaMelo would be the No. 1 pick in […]

Steve Nash is basketball royalty in Canada. Not only is he first the NBA All-Star to ever hail from America’s neighbor to the north, but the Phoenix Suns icon was also general manager of Team Canada for four years until stepping back this year to take a senior advisory role with the national program. As […]

Lonzo Ball isn’t the only high-profile member of his family who will continue his basketball career anew next season. According to Marc Stein of The New York Times, LaMelo Ball, the younger brother of the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, is being courted by Australia’s National Basketball League to sign a […]

The Toronto Raptors’ title doesn’t deserve an asterisk. Most every championship team in recent memory has been the beneficiary of injuries to opponents on its run to the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Considering context of the injuries suffered by the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, though, it’s certainly understandable why some league followers deem […]

Dallas Cowboys tight end Rico Gathers has been suspended without pay for the first game of the 2019 NFL season for violating the league’s policy on substances of abuse, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The suspension stems from Gathers’ arrest for marijuana possession in September of last year. He was detained by police in […]

Nick Caserio is staying put after all. Less than 48 hours after the New England Patriots filed tampering charges against them with the league office, the Houston Texans announced on Friday that they are no longer pursuing Caserio to fill the team’s void at general manager. “When we started the process to interview Nick Caserio […]

Bruce Irvin is already establishing himself as a leader with the Carolina Panthers. Less than three months after signing with Carolina in free agency, the veteran pass-rusher has become a mentor of sorts to his new team’s young defenders, delighting Panthers coach Ron Rivera in the process. Not that he’s surprised Irvin has made an […]

Jason Garrett’s contract expires after the 2019 season. Instead of addressing the situation by negotiating an extension with his team’s longtime coach, though, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has initiated a holding pattern on Garrett’s future. “I’m satisfied with where we are with his contract right now,” he said of Garrett on The Rich Eisen […]

The Chicago Bears would have preferred to hold on to Adrian Amos. After the rock-solid safety signed with the division-rival Green Bay Packers in free agency, though, Chicago rebounded by coming to terms with former Pro Bowler Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, quickly replacing one proven defender with another. Not everyone in the football world, however, believes […]

Byron Murphy didn’t expect to start as a rookie when the Arizona Cardinals made him the 33rd overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. But with superstar cornerback Patrick Peterson suspended for the first six games of the season, the University of Washington product suddenly finds himself locked in a battle with veteran Tremaine Brock, […]

The Indianapolis Colts came out of nowhere during the second half of last season to establish themselves as one of the most promising teams in the NFL going forward. Indianapolis took a major step toward cementing that status this week, signing star cornerback Kenny Moore to a four-year, $36 million extension. Coach Frank Reich is […]

The Green Bay Packers are counting on Aaron Rodgers to regain the form in 2019 that makes him a two-time NFL MVP. Fully recovered from multiple injuries that afflicted him last season and acclimating well to the offensive system implemented by rookie head coach Matt LaFleur, Rodgers seems poised for a monster campaign come kick […]

Kawhi Leonard is vindicated. Less than a year after his contentious departure from the San Antonio Spurs, he’s back on the NBA mountaintop, celebrating his second championship and Finals MVP award as a member of the Toronto Raptors. After Game 6, Leonard was asked to reflect on what it means to achieve NBA basketball’s holy […]

Kawhi Leonard is a deserving winner of Finals MVP. He averaged 28.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game against the Golden State Warriors, fighting through dogged individual defense from the likes of Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson en route to 60.2 percent true shooting – the mark of elite […]

Drake was going to win no matter how the NBA Finals played out. Not only is he sports fandom’s most famous frontrunner, but Drake grew up in Toronto rooting for his native Toronto Raptors, and grew close with several members of the Golden State Warriors over their half-decade of dominance. Needless to say, he would […]

Klay Thompson was playing like everyone knew he could in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Having established himself as one of basketball’s preeminent big-game players during the Golden State Warriors’ half-decade of dominance, no one was going to be surprised if he put together another epic outing with his team’s back against the proverbial […]

It’s almost hard to remember that Drake was one of the biggest stories during the early portion of the NBA Finals. He went chest to chest with Steph Curry in Game 1, and after the final buzzer signaled a Toronto Raptors victory, the music mogul exchanged words with Draymond Green on the Scotiabank Arena floor. […]

There’s an argument to be made that Klay Thompson has been the Golden State Warriors’ best player in the NBA Finals. He comes into Game 6 averaging 25.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.0 assists while shooting 52.1 percent overall and 57.1 percent from beyond the arc – on nearly nine tries per game. Considering his […]

If the Toronto Raptors win Game 6 of the NBA Finals, the 2018-19 season will officially end on Thursday night. If the Golden State Warriors rebound from the devastating injury to Kevin Durant to force a Game 7, the season will come to a close on Sunday one way or another. League  followers certainly won’t […]

There’s a championship on the line in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Fans of the Golden State Warriors aren’t only watching their team try and stave off elimination, but their emotions are even higher than normal following the devastating injury to Kevin Durant. The cherry on top at Oracle Arena on Thursday night? This […]

The basketball world has been here before with regard to the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis. How quickly we forget that the six-time All-Star, in the immediate aftermath of his late January trade demand, seemed well on his way to being sent to the team of his choice as reports emerged that the Lakers […]

Darius Slay lived up to his word about skipping the Detroit Lions’ mandatory minicamp this offseason if he didn’t land a more lucrative contract. With training camp fast approaching, he seems to be broaching making a similar threat. During an appearance on Thursday’s edition of The Pride Podcast, Slay wouldn’t commit to reporting to training […]