Jedd Pagaduan Articles - Page 116

The Washington Wizards simply have not been able to escape the web of mediocrity ever since they lost former franchise icon John Wall to an injury in late 2018. Since then, the Wizards have not finished a season with a record above .500. While that looks promising from a certain perspective, since NBA teams get […]

For a few minutes, the Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, Charlotte Hornets, and San Antonio Spurs all believed that drafting Victor Wembanyama — essentially guaranteeing a franchise turnaround if he pans out like many think he would — was within their grasp. However, reality quickly struck the Rockets, as deputy commissioner Mark Tatum first pulled […]

For the past year or so, Victor Wembanyama sat in anticipation regarding his future NBA destination. Surely the team that wins the lottery will end up being the French sensation’s home for years to come. And on Tuesday night, Wembanyama finally had more clarity regarding the matter, as, barring an unforeseen turn of events, he […]

The Dallas Mavericks, in the process of wanting to expedite their contending timeline by trading for Kyrie Irving, shot themselves on the foot. As a result, they embarrassingly had to throw the final few games of the regular season just so they could keep their first-round pick that would have gone to the New York […]

The Portland Trail Blazers are currently at a crossroads; will they pursue a trade for another star to bolster the team’s chances of competing, or will they finally face the music and blow it up, beginning by trading away face of the franchise Damian Lillard? The results of the NBA Draft Lottery certainly clarified the […]

The Charlotte Hornets entered the NBA Draft Lottery with 12.5 percent odds of winning the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. While they may have fallen short of that goal, losing out to the San Antonio Spurs, a team that will get yet another chance to draft a generational big man prospect, they still managed to nab the […]

The San Antonio Spurs may have exited the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery as the biggest winners of the night, but the Charlotte Hornets won’t be too far behind with the jubilation they surely felt when they leapt two spots to bring home the second overall pick. It may not net the Hornets Wembanyama, but having […]

Will the Joel Embiid-led Philadelphia 76ers ever get over the hump? It definitely seemed like going up 3-2 against the Boston Celtics in the 2023 NBA playoffs was their best chance to do so, especially when they took a lead heading into fourth quarter of Game 6 while Jayson Tatum was in the middle of […]

When the Phoenix Suns traded the farm, along with Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson, for Kevin Durant, they surely expected to achieve more than a second-round exit. After all, that’s where their season came to an end in 2022, when they suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks. But a year […]

At first glance, Nikola Jokic and LeBron James could not be more different. Jokic isn’t exactly the athlete James is as the Los Angeles Lakers star has lived above the rim and made a living off putting pressure on the opposing paint. However, as Denver Nuggets wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said, that is the “only” difference […]

The NBA playoffs is almost always a competition between which team can make the necessary adjustments at the most opportune moments. Talent almost always wins out in the end, but matchups, coverages and rotation choices matter. This means that coaching matters. And it definitely seemed like Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham stumbled upon […]

The New York Knicks did not inspire much confidence among fans and pundits entering the 2022-23 season. After all, they only added Jalen Brunson to the core of their 37-win team the past season. But Brunson, despite not having the longest track record of stellar play, proved to be a transformative force as the Knicks […]

For most of the world, 2020 is a reminder of a painful and overly long wasted year, what with the rapid spread of COVID-19 forcing lockdowns all over the globe and effectively changing life as we know it. But fans of the Los Angeles Lakers, at the very least, have something to fondly look back […]

It was in October 2012 when the Houston Rockets, a franchise that’s always on the lookout for stars available on the trade market, swung a deal for James Harden that changed the course of the franchise. With Harden leading the way, the Rockets made the playoffs in every season from 2013 to 2020. In fact, […]

The Miami Heat did not enter the 2023 NBA playoffs with much fanfare. But now, after making quick work of the team with the best record in the NBA this past season in the Milwaukee Bucks and following that up with a hard-fought six-game series victory over the New York Knicks, it’s difficult to doubt […]

It’s difficult to imagine the NBA existing without the draft lottery, but there indeed was a time when the league decided which team would get the number one draft pick with a coin toss. Prior to the institution of the lottery in 1985, the teams with the worst record in each conference had a 50 […]

The Philadelphia 76ers have once again fallen short of their goal of winning an NBA championship. Despite taking a 3-2 series lead at home against division rival Boston Celtics, they proceeded to crap the bed, choking away a fourth quarter lead at home in Game 6 while lacking the requisite effort to keep up with […]

The Philadelphia 76ers came within one solid quarter away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. Alas, the Sixers allowed Jayson Tatum to snap out of his funk late in Game 6 and they paid for it dearly in Game 7, with Tatum scoring 51 points to lead the Boston Celtics to victory all the […]

In the NBA, it’s never too early to speculate about the future. During this past season alone, even with the Philadelphia 76ers in the midst of a strong midseason run, many credible reporters, such as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, linked James Harden to a potential return to the Houston Rockets during his expected foray into free […]

It certainly was shaping up to be the New York Knicks’ year. They made quick work of series favorite Cleveland Cavaliers, overcoming them in five games during the first round, and then the Miami Heat demolished the Milwaukee Bucks, paving the way for the Knicks’ first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000 if they took […]

For every contending team, the bill comes due eventually. Such is the life in salary-capped North American professional leagues, and the NBA is no exception. Thus, every aspiring championship team must make the most out of their stint on the NBA’s mountaintop, and to their credit, the Golden State Warriors — winner of four championships […]

The Los Angeles Lakers began the 2022-23 season looking like they were likely to convey a first-round pick to the New Orleans Pelicans that would have brought them Victor Wembanyama. But now, the Lakers are heading to the Western Conference Finals in a rematch of their 2020 playoff series against the Denver Nuggets. And one […]

There’s no room for sentimentality in the NBA. The Golden State Warriors franchise know as much, as they would not have gone as far as they did over the past decade had they clung onto Mark Jackson as their head coach. But with the Warriors core, led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green […]

The Golden State Warriors, entering Game 6 on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers, remained on the backfoot. However, there was no one in the world who would dare count them out, given the presences of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and their collective playoff pedigree. Thompson, in particular, has shown in the […]

Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker surely isn’t having the best of times at the moment. The Suns, despite acquiring Kevin Durant, ran into their demons they thought they had already exorcised, losing in embarrassing fashion at home to the Denver Nuggets not even a year after they the Dallas Mavericks ran them out of the […]

The Chicago Bears are in the middle of a rebuild; led by GM Ryan Poles, the Bears are intent on building the best team possible around franchise quarterback Justin Fields. As a result of their belief in Fields, the Bears did not hesitate to trade down during the 2023 NFL Draft, amassing as much draft […]

The Los Angeles Dodgers, as everyone expected entering the 2023 season, are sitting comfortably atop the NL West. At the time of writing, the Dodgers have a 23-15 record heading into their Friday night tilt against division rival San Diego Padres. And now, as if the Dodgers didn’t already boast an embarrassment of riches, they […]

The Boston Celtics have been in this position before. Almost a year has passed since the Celtics came back from a 3-2 series deficit against the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 2022 NBA playoffs, and they will have a golden opportunity to do the same against the Philadelphia 76ers, as they battle […]

The fates of the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns seem like they’ll be intertwined for years to come. This intertwinement began in 2004, when the Mavs let Steve Nash walk for nothing in free agency, and it continued in 2018, when the Suns drafted Deandre Ayton first overall instead of pairing Devin Booker with […]

The Philadelphia 76ers, over the past five seasons, have had their fair share of struggles against the Boston Celtics in the playoffs. Thus, it wasn’t a surprise to see that the Celtics entered their second-round matchup as the favorite to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. But heading into Game 6, it was the Sixers […]

It won’t be long until 58 young men achieve their lifelong dream and hear commissioner Adam Silver (or deputy commissioner Mark Tatum) announce their names for selection in the NBA Draft. But until then, some of the most talented young basketball prospects around the world will still jockey for draft position, as they look to […]

The Phoenix Suns entered the 2023 NBA playoffs with high hopes. In fact, the Suns have not known hope like this in quite a while, as the addition of Kevin Durant has made them one of the favorites to win it all, even if it came at the expense of their depth. However, the more […]

In a seven-game series, playoff teams pick up on even the most subtle tendencies of their opponents. Thus, misdirection is sometimes key. This seemed to be the case prior to the Denver Nuggets’ dominant Game 6 victory over the Phoenix Suns, as they announced that Jamal Murray might be limited as he’s dealing with a […]

The 2022-23 season was an abject disaster for Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. That’s simply the truth; missing the playoffs is inexcusable, especially after they made the Western Conference Finals last year. Nevertheless, as the old adage goes, “misery loves company”. And boy oh boy, did the Phoenix Suns’ Game 6 demise against the […]

With the NBA Draft fast approaching, it’s not long before the lives of many young men drastically change for good. Given how young these draft prospects are, the transition from being a student-athlete to becoming one of the highest-earning individuals on the planet isn’t always the most seamless. Rookies simply learn some lessons the hard […]

It wasn’t pretty, but they got the job done. That is the story of the Boston Celtics’ spirited Game 6 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, forcing a Game 7 and putting them in position to replicate their 2022 second-round escape act. Game 6 was a slugfest defined by ugly turnovers and poor shooting, but in […]

Time is a flat circle. As much as it evokes dread, history does tend to repeat itself. And now, 360 days after the Phoenix Suns’ inexplicable Game 7 collapse against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2022 NBA playoffs, which happened at home no less, they find themselves in familiar territory despite adding one of the […]

The Los Angeles Lakers’ job is not finished. They may have entered their Wednesday night contest up 3-1 against the Golden State Warriors in their second-round matchup, but LeBron James, of all people, knows just how dangerous this Warriors squad is. After all, he lost thrice to them in the NBA Finals. However, despite this […]

Overall, this season has just been an extremely trying one for the Golden State Warriors. Thus, this makes them no strangers to adversity. As the old adage goes, there is no better teacher than experience, and the Warriors’ collective playoff pedigree has helped them remain calm under pressure. This showed in the Warriors’ 121-106 victory […]