Jedd Pagaduan Articles - Page 114

Fans of the Oklahoma City Thunder see the light at the end of their rebuilding tunnel; they nearly made the playoffs as the eight-seed this past season, and with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, fresh off a first team All-NBA selection, still only 24 years old, better things are yet to come for the youngest team in the […]

The Denver Nuggets certainly did not underestimate the Miami Heat entering the 2023 NBA Finals. The Heat have earned the world’s respect after a blistering playoff run that included slaying two giants in the Eastern Conference. But as Michael Porter Jr. pointed out, the respect the Heat are earning from their opponents grow even further […]

Grant Williams is not the flashiest player ever. He doesn’t have highlight-reel hops or handles, and casual fans simply think he’s just taking up space on the court as an instigator for the Boston Celtics. However, every team needs their own version of Williams — a hard-nosed, unselfish player willing to do the little things […]

Christian Wood was always a per-minute stud; back when he was languishing on the Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans and Detroit Pistons’ bench, many thought all he needed to break out as a star was opportunity. Fantasy basketball players know this all too well. And to some extent, Wood did break out after the Pistons […]

The Houston Astros may not be leading the AL West at the moment; for five of the past six seasons, the Astros have been the best team in their division. (Now that the Oakland Athletics are the undisputed worst team in baseball, it’s a sight to see them being the team that broke the Astros’ […]

The clock is ticking on the Los Angeles Angels. Dual threat extraordinaire Shohei Ohtani is in the last year of team control, which means that the Angels will have greater urgency to bolster the roster ahead of the August 1 trade deadline so they could make Ohtani’s potential last season in Orange County as fruitful […]

The Indiana Pacers are in the middle of a crucial window in their rebuilding phase. Tyrese Haliburton, the crown jewel of their rebuilding effort, will soon command a max contract when he’s up for a rookie extension. Thus, before that happens, the Pacers may be able to make the most out of their existing cap […]

The Charlotte Hornets franchise isn’t exactly one that can afford to be picky in free agency. Charlotte is not a hot free agent destination, and to top it all off, the Hornets are coming off a terrible 27-win season. Nevertheless, there are plenty of reasons why some mid-tier free agents could opt to take their […]

It has been a strong decade for the Toronto Raptors; since the 2013-14 season, they have only missed the playoffs twice, even winning the NBA championship in 2019 as the culmination of years of roster building. However, the two times they have missed the playoffs have come in the past three seasons, which means that […]

Brock Purdy or Trey Lance? That is a question the San Francisco 49ers don’t know the definitive answer to just yet. But they drafted Lance third overall in 2021 for a reason — and they’re ready to see what they have in the 23-year old QB. Lance hasn’t had too many opportunities to prove his […]

No one, outside of perhaps the most loyal fans, expected the Sacramento Kings to put up as great of a campaign as they did during the 2022-23 regular season. But in the end, the Kings shattered all expectations, winning 48 games en route to becoming the third seed in the Western Conference. Alas, the Kings […]

Use whatever metaphor or imagery that suits one’s tastes, but there’s no more question about it: the 2022-23 iteration of the Miami Heat simply refuses to die — like that piece of turd that won’t go down the drain, or like the part of the back that itches no matter how hard you try and […]

The Denver Nuggets certainly have not underestimated the Miami Heat for even a single second, but now they know all too well the pain the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics experienced in the past month. No lead is ever quite safe against this pesky Heat squad, and the […]

Miami Heat shooting guards simply cannot contain their facial expressions deep into the playoffs, huh? During the 2020 NBA Finals, it was Tyler Herro who made waves with an instantly iconic snarl against the Los Angeles Lakers. And nearly three years later, it’s Duncan Robinson’s turn to twist the knife, as he dropped a mean […]

Cameron Johnson has come a long way. Many scouts thought that Johnson wouldn’t amount to much when the Phoenix Suns grabbed him with the 11th overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft, but here the sweet-shooting forward is, emerging as one of the more valuable forwards in the league due to his lethal efficiency from […]

Russell Westbrook took his fair share of licks throughout the past two seasons. But for seemingly the first time in years, Westbrook did not end the season with his stock taking a nosedive. In fact, after every pundit and their mother thought that Westbrook’s days as an impact player for a contending team were over, […]

It’s not too often that a role player that hasn’t featured heavily in the rotation requests a trade. Furkan Korkmaz, who once was an important sharpshooter off the Philadelphia 76ers’ bench, is an example of a fringe rotation player who tried — and failed — to convince his current employer to send him elsewhere. And […]

Ja Morant, through the first three years of his career, was on a rapid ascent towards superstardom. His emergence as one of the best point guards in the NBA has lifted the Memphis Grizzlies to serious playoff contention. But in Year 4, Morant has been involved in a slew of troubling off-court incidents, the most […]

Time certainly does fly. It’s been six seasons since Shohei Ohtani first appeared in the MLB for the Los Angeles Angels, with every passing day putting perhaps the biggest star in the game today that much closer to free agency. With the Angels not necessarily being one of the best teams in the league, as […]

Nothing is given in professional sports. And the Philadelphia Phillies are certainly learning of this unfortunate reality. After coming off a Cinderella run during the 2022 postseason that heartbreakingly came up short against the eventual World Series champion Houston Astros, the Phillies have sputtered in 2023. Through the first two months of the season, they […]

Jerami Grant is at an interesting point in his career. As one would recall, he turned down the opportunity to re-sign with the Denver Nuggets — a team that’s three wins away from winning it all — back in 2020 for the chance to spread his wings as a scorer with the Detroit Pistons. On […]

There is no other prison that pundits like to willingly incarcerate themselves in than that of the moment. Nikola Jokic’s playoff-long heater has turned analysts’ heads to the point where they could be mistaken for owls. And some, as a result of Jokic’s recent greatness, may be straying on the side of overreaction. At least […]

The best players in the NBA stand out due to their ability to show up for their team on a consistent basis. Thus, having players that could at least slow them down is imperative for any team looking to win a championship. But when the Denver Nuggets traded for Aaron Gordon in 2021, they didn’t […]

For much of the playoffs, the stellar performances of the Miami Heat’s unsung role players — or as Jimmy Butler would call them, his “teammates” — have been the talk of the town. After all, the likes of Caleb Martin (who almost won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP over Butler) and Max Strus went undrafted […]

Kyle Kuzma, despite all the criticisms pundits and fans have towards his game, has always been a rock-solid player. Everyone knows about his ability to score the ball, but in recent years, he has proven his worth as a rebounder and as a team defender. But is there a chance that Kuzma, as talented of […]

Brook Lopez did not have a good 2021-22 season. He suffered a back injury that kept him out for all but 13 games of the regular season. But in the playoffs, Lopez turned up for the Milwaukee Bucks, starting all 12 of their postseason games, showing glimpses of returning to form even though he was […]

It may not have been a clash between two of the most marketable teams in the NBA, but there remains an air of anticipation when it comes to the 2023 NBA Finals. The Denver Nuggets have not made the NBA Finals in their 47-year history prior to this season, while the Miami Heat have a […]

The Denver Nuggets have come as far as they have done thanks to the unselfish brand of basketball that they play. The Nuggets take after their best player Nikola Jokic to such a great degree, and it showed in how they won Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. From the […]

The Denver Nuggets are in uncharted territory in the 47 years of the franchise since the NBA-ABA merger. Not only did they break their NBA Finals drought by sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers, they are now just three wins away from achieving the pinnacle of team success after dominating the Miami Heat in Game 1 […]

The Miami Heat may have entered the 2023 NBA Finals riding the high of thrashing the Boston Celtics on the road in Game 7, but they quickly discovered that this iteration of the Denver Nuggets is a different beast. For much of Game 1, the Nuggets stamped their class over the Heat, quickly running out […]

The concept of the generational curse is becoming more well-known in the vernacular. Trauma has roots in genetics, and thanks to how humans reproduce, parents pass down certain characteristics to their offspring. As a result, these offspring are vulnerable to continuing the cycle of their ancestors’ behavior. But does the same phenomenon happen in the […]

By and large it was a fruitful rookie season for Indiana Pacers youngster Bennedict Mathurin. Even though he spent most of his first professional season coming off the bench, he still stood out for his ability to put the ball through the hoop. In fact, no one should have been surprised by Mathurin’s burst into […]

Sports franchises may be built off the blood and sweat of its greatest players, but teams cannot afford to grow too sentimental. After all, franchises outlast their star players all the time. Thus, when the time came for the Green Bay Packers to start preparing for its future sans longtime quarterback Aaron Rodgers, they took […]

The 2022-23 iteration of the Boston Celtics, from top to bottom, is one of the most talented teams in the league on paper. At first glance, it seems like the team has everything it needs to contend: a bonafide top-10 player on the wing in Jayson Tatum, an elite secondary option in Jaylen Brown, versatile […]

Entering their 2023 Eastern Conference Finals matchup against the Boston Celtics, it seemed like the stars were aligning for Caleb Martin, the undrafted forward out of Nevada, to have a big series. The Miami Heat were unable to keep ahold of PJ Tucker this past offseason, gutting their forward depth, which meant that Martin would […]

It may have taken the Miami Heat far longer than they would have liked, but they have finally overcome the pesky Boston Celtics, defeating them in seven games and avoiding being on the wrong end of history in the process. They entered Game 7 with the momentum in their opponent’s hands, but they remained mentally […]

Every single year, it seems like the playoffs devolves from a battle between some of the best teams in the NBA to a war of attrition. The Miami Heat, in particular, know this all too well, as they lost Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo to injuries in this postseason run alone. Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics, […]

The Boston Celtics were on the precipice of history. But their quest to sealing their fate as the first-ever NBA team to come back from a 3-0 series deficit in the playoffs started off on the worst note. On the very first play of Game 7 against the Miami Heat, Jayson Tatum turned his left […]

Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat were in real danger of being on the wrong end of history against the Boston Celtics. They allowed the Celtics to storm back and force a Game 7, but here they are, having taken care of business on the road to continue this sensational Cinderella playoff run all the […]