Jedd Pagaduan Articles - Page 131

The Indiana Pacers are in as good a position as any rebuilding team entering the 2023 NBA Draft. Even though the lottery gods didn’t find favor in them, with the Pacers having to settle for the seventh pick, they have four other picks that they can use either to add to their collection of talented […]

The Los Angeles Clippers are always a team to look out for when it comes to trades that could swing the league’s contending picture. It may not have been the smoothest ride for the Clippers ever since they acquired both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in July 2019, but their front office almost always makes […]

Mike Dunleavy Jr., the new general manager of the Golden State Warriors, will be have a plethora of pivotal decisions to make with the franchise’s future of contention in mind. And with the 2023 NBA Draft looming, it will be interesting to see what the Warriors do with the 19th pick and whether they continue […]

The Phoenix Suns may have exited the two previous playoffs in the most embarrassing fashion possible, but they are not a franchise that stays down for long. The Suns acquired Kevin Durant in the middle of last season, and now, following a crushing Game 6 defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets in the […]

The Bradley Beal trade saga did not take long. Not even a week after Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Washington Wizards and Beal’s camp will be working on a suitable course of action regarding both the three-time All-Star and the franchise’s future, the Wizards have dealt away their franchise star to the […]

Are the Phoenix Suns the favorite to win the 2023-24 NBA championship after swinging yet another blockbuster trade, this time for star shooting guard Bradley Beal? Not quite yet. They certainly have a ton of glaring holes on their roster at the moment that they may not have the financial might to fill with the […]

The Phoenix Suns are cooking. Not only did they acquire three-time All-Star Bradley Beal from the Washington Wizards, they did so for the low price of Chris Paul (a player they would have waived anyway), Landry Shamet (is he really worth $11+ million?), and some low-value draft picks and swaps. That is incredible value for […]

James Harden, during last year’s offseason, took a huge pay cut to stay with the Philadelphia 76ers in hopes that the front office could make an addition that would help the Joel Embiid-led core get over the hump. Not even a year later, and here the Sixers are, having exited the playoffs in the second […]

The Houston Rockets are approaching the fourth year of the rebuild they began to embark on when they dealt James Harden in early 2021. However, the Rockets are nowhere near the playoff contention picture yet. Missing out on a top-three pick in the 2023 NBA Draft only rubbed salt on their wounds. But with new […]

Despite making the Round of 16 in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, things didn’t go exactly as well Christian Pulisic and the USMNT as hoped. The Gio Reyna-Gregg Berhalter drama cast a huge shadow over the the team during that time, with Pulisic even saying that circumstances unfolded as if children were involved in the […]

The Miami Heat may have fallen short in the NBA Finals for the second time in four years, but no one truly expected them to mount this deep of a playoff run anyway. After all, they had to fight for their playoff lives in the play-in tournament. Nevertheless, even with the Heat not really in […]

Will anyone still doubt how great Nikola Jokic is in the game of basketball after lifting the Denver Nuggets to the franchise’s first-ever championship? Jokic dazzled with both the stat sheet and the eye test. Not only did he fill up the points, rebounds, and assists column to such a historic degree, he also silenced […]

With the Denver Nuggets having won the 2023 NBA championship, a new season is right around the corner. For 29 other NBA teams, the offseason provides a beacon of hope, an opportunity to bolster the roster in hopes of winning a championship the following year. And one of the most obvious ways for any team […]

The Denver Nuggets have done it. They have finally won the franchise’s first NBA championship, and they did so without having to break the bank in free agency or swing a trade for a generational superstar. The Nuggets earned their championship by building their roster the “right way”, drafting Nikola Jokic with the 41st pick […]

For the second time in a four-year span, the Miami Heat were the NBA’s bridesmaid, not its bride. But it hasn’t been for a lack of trying. In fact, the path the Heat took on their way to their defeat against the Denver Nuggets during the 2023 NBA Finals certainly was far from ordinary and […]

The primary pieces of the 2023 Denver Nuggets’ championship-winning team were already in place as early as 2016. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray weren’t yet the players they are now, but they had bright futures ahead of them, while Michael Malone was already instilling an unselfish team culture in the Mile High City. But it’s […]

After coaching the Winnipeg Jets for around nine seasons, Paul Maurice took a six-month break from December 2021 to June 2022 before signing with the Florida Panthers. Maurice implied that the Jets may have already peaked with him as the leading voice in the locker room, and he also alluded to the fact that he […]

Phil Kessel spent six of the first nine years of his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs. During that time, the now-member of the Vegas Golden Knights faced criticism left and right due to his inability to take the Leafs over the hump. Never mind the fact that hockey is a team sport; Kessel became […]

The Vegas Golden Knights have done it. (Oh their fans have waited quite the long time for this…) Following a convincing 9-3 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights, after just six seasons of existence, finally earn the right to hoist up Lord Stanley’s mug. […]

The historic playoff run of the 2023 Miami Heat may have finally met its doom at the hands of Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. But that doesn’t mean that what Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and the rest of the Heat team did is anything short of impressive. After all, the Heat vanquished two Eastern […]

The New Orleans Pelicans front office is reportedly looking to make a huge splash with the 2023 NBA Draft beckoning. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Pelicans are looking to trade up for either the second or third overall pick of the upcoming draft with the intention of drafting Scoot Henderson in mind. […]

For months, the prospect of reuniting with James Harden seemed ever so possible for the Houston Rockets. However, reports have since come out stating that Harden’s camp may just be using the Rockets as leverage to earn a max contract elsewhere, perhaps with the Philadelphia 76ers. With that in mind, the Rockets may have to […]

The Milwaukee Bucks may still be reeling from the embarrassing way they exited the 2023 NBA playoffs (to a full-blown choke job against the Miami Heat), but it’s not like they need to make wholesale changes to compete for a championship next season. If the Bucks decide to run it back, they should still be […]

Did you know that the Denver Nuggets almost threw their hat in the ring in the Kyrie Irving sweepstakes back in 2017? The Nuggets, at that point, had missed the playoffs four years in a row. They were already building an impressive young core involving Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Gary Harris, with the likes […]

One man has come to define the Miami Heat franchise’s culture of grit, hard work, and determination over the years. No, he may not have been the most talented player ever to don a Heat uniform, but Udonis Haslem has been a role model to emulate for the past 20 years — and until the […]

Some fans love putting asterisks next to every team that manages to break through and win the NBA championship. The asterisk for the Denver Nuggets, the 2023 NBA champion, is that apparently they did not face the toughest opposition en route to a championship. Setting aside the fact that the Nuggets literally do not have […]

The discussion surrounding Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic turned sour to end the regular season. But that simply may have fueled Jokic to put up a historic run in the 2023 NBA playoffs. In this postseason alone, the Nuggets center put up 10 triple-doubles, with at least two coming in each round en route to […]

When the Denver Nuggets drafted Jamal Murray with the seventh overall pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, it wasn’t quite clear yet which position he’d be playing for the long haul. He excelled in a more off-ball role, as he played more as a shooting guard to begin his career. But seven years later, and […]

When the Denver Nuggets inked Michael Porter Jr. to a five-year extension in 2021 worth up to $207 million, the then-23-year old forward was on a rapid ascent in his career. Porter had emerged from a bench forward to one of the more highly-regarded starters in the NBA, with room to grow as the third […]

Winning a championship is the most difficult task for any NBA player. Just ask the laundry list of Hall of Famers who failed to achieve the pinnacle of team success. Thus, Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Denver Nuggets could do whatever they so please (as long as they remain within legal and ethical boundaries) […]

It’s not always easy to make an impact for a contending team in one’s first year in the NBA. But that’s exactly what Christian Braun did. Braun, the 21st pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, was a huge part of the Denver Nuggets rotation all season long. And now his (and the entire Nuggets team’s) […]

The end of the 2022-23 regular season was dominated by pro-Joel Embiid and anti-Nikola Jokic narratives. Talking heads and even other NBA players believed that Embiid deserved to win the 2023 NBA MVP because the Philadelphia 76ers star was better defensively, and that the gap between the two on offense wasn’t that big for the […]

It’s unclear what the exact figure is, but the city of Sombor in Serbia has a population of around 40-70,000 people depending on where one draws boundary lines. And yet from Sombor hails one of the greatest NBA players in history, and the latest to achieve basketball immortality, Nikola Jokic, the winner of the 2023 […]

Winning an NBA championship is never easy — even for teams with plenty of talented players. But the Denver Nuggets have done it. After 56 years of the franchise’s existence, the Nuggets have finally reached the pinnacle of team success, closing out the 2023 NBA Finals with a 94-89 victory over the Miami Heat. Understandably, […]

The Portland Trail Blazers have been unable to get over the playoff hump over the past two seasons, instead choosing to punt on the end of the season for the sake of receiving a much better draft pick. And it worked; the Blazers drafted promising youngster Shaedon Sharpe in 2022, and they’re now in position […]

Even with the clock close to striking midnight on the Miami Heat’s Cinderella playoff run, Jimmy Butler will be receiving plenty of praise for months, or perhaps even years, after proving once again that he is one of the game’s premier playoff performers. However, Butler hasn’t had the best of performances through the first four […]

The Miami Heat’s backs are against the wall for only the second time in this year’s playoffs. But this time, the end of their blistering postseason run may be imminent, as Jimmy Butler and company have found it difficult coping with the sheer talent and cohesion of the Denver Nuggets team. But a series isn’t […]

The Chicago White Sox simply have not been able to build off of their strong 2021 season. Not even two years ago, the White Sox won 93 games on the back of strong seasons from the likes of Tim Anderson, Lucas Giolito, and other noteworthy players who remain in a White Sox uniform, such as […]

The Golden State Warriors front office will have crucial decisions to make this offseason. Will they bring back Draymond Green, a player who proved just how valuable his defense and playmaking are to the Warriors’ chances of competing, in free agency? And will they choose to deal away players not named Stephen Curry, such as […]