What Can We Realistically Expect from the New-Look Celtics?

With Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward in the fold, talent won't be a problem for Boston. But, with so many new faces, chemistry might be.

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

The Boston Celtics will tip off the 2017-18 season in a week's time when they visit Quicken Loans Arena to take on the defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers. Kyrie Irving will visit his not-so-old stomping grounds and the only NBA stadium that he called home for his first six professional seasons.

The Green has not fared well in Cleveland recently. Though Brad Stevens’ squad had Avery Bradley’s miracle shot fall in to give the coach his only ever conference finals victory, Boston has dropped six of its last eight games at “the Q.”

Previewing All the NBA's Christmas Day Action

A Finals rematch between the Cavs and Warriors headlines a jam-packed NBA Christmas.

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

For an in-depth preview of the Celtics and Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day, you can read my separate preview article here. Now, onto the rest of a packed Christmas Day!

2:30 PM ET, ABC: Golden State Warriors @ Cleveland Cavaliers

The long-awaited regular season rematch of the previous two NBA Finals comes to a television, phone, tablet or computer near you on Christmas Day.

The Warriors and Cavaliers represent two of the top three teams in terms of offensive efficiency and two of the four best squads in scoring differential this season. Golden State’s league-leading effective field goal and true shooting percentages have propelled the Warriors to a gargantuan lead in scoring differential this season.

Is Cleveland Finally Getting Its Due? The Numbers Say Not Yet

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Cleveland went 52 years without a major sports championship, but is now on the cusp of, perhaps, winning two titles in the same year. With the Indians capturing the ALCS last night, they will open the World Series the same night the Cavaliers will raise their championship banner, next Tuesday.

Cleveland's past futility was on full display in the ESPN 30 for 30 "Believeland," which debuted just before the Cavs won the 2016 NBA Finals. The film not only listed the town's numerous on-field heartbreaks (of which there are many), but also the off-field issues that have shaped the psyche of Cleveland fandom. The Browns skipping town and "The Decision" were chief among them, obviously.

But now that Cleveland may be ready to win two titles in one year, a feat that only rival Pittsburgh has achieved in the last decade, is the math finally catching up? Well, sort of, but as you'll see, Cleveland will need far more success just to reach the average performance of a major sports market over the past 50+ years.

Listed below are the 19 other American markets with three or more professional sports teams, and all of their titles since 1964 (the last Cleveland championship before this year). We've then broken it down and listed an "average titles per team" figure for each market over that time span, and averaged out what a given market could have expected to win since 1964.

All this to give you an idea of how far below the mean Cleveland was/is.

LeBron & the Cavs Make History in Game 7

It was a bad night to be a LeBron hater, as the King orchestrated the first ever comeback from down 3-1 in NBA Finals history, and averaged 29-11-9 throughout the series, with back-to-back 40 point games facing elimination in Games 5 & 6, and a triple-double in Game 7. That's a mouth full, and it earned LeBron his third ever championship, and third Finals MVP, where he was a unanimous selection.

By Andy Dougherty (@AndyDougherty10)

Finally a close game! It had been over a month since the last NBA game decided by five points or fewer, but what better time for a nail-biter than Game 7 of the NBA Finals?

After 52 long years, Cleveland has won a major professional sports championship, as the Cavs edged Golden State 93-89 in front of a raucous crowd inside Oakland's Oracle Arena.

Cleveland's residents can now forget about LeBron James's infamous decision to take his talents to South Beach and focus instead on his triumphant return. James delivered on his promise to bring a championship to his home state, and he more than earned his 3rd career NBA Finals MVP. James took over, becoming the first player in any series to lead both teams in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.

Your NBA Eastern Conference Semifinal Primer

After carrying Toronto past Indiana in Game 7, can DeMar DeRozan top Hassan Whiteside and the Miami Heat?

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

Ed. Note- We know that the second round has already begun in the West, but we wanted to wait until all the NBA's playoff matchups were set to post our previews. Deal with it.

Anyways, here are Adam's breakdowns of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

#1 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. #4 Atlanta Hawks

After sweeping the Detroit Pistons in arguably the closest four-game, best-of-seven, series in NBA history, the Cavaliers are well on their way to consecutive Eastern Conference titles.

Although the Cavaliers are under a different head coach this postseason, they have a stronger, healthier roster in 2016. Of course, they have LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, but Kevin Love seems to be the x-factor.

Jeremy's Best- and/or Worst-Case NBA Preview

Stephen Curry took home an MVP Award and an NBA Title last season, but can he repeat?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Every year I make NBA picks. Every year I'm wrong. Like, yeah, I picked Cleveland to make the Finals last year, and yeah, I picked Miami to make the Finals in each of the previous four years. But how hard was that? The East is always super-easy to predict. I've whiffed on the West pretty much every year, sometimes spectacularly so.

So, I'm just taking a wide lens this year. I'm making no official predictions, whether with regards to win-loss records or who's going to win which conference or the title. If I'm just going to be wrong anyway, what's the point? So, like I did with my NFL preview back in September, I'm going to take a look at every team's best-case scenario, every team's worst-case scenario, and finally, a middle-ground look that (I suppose) will serve as my unoffically official prediction (but again, I'm not going to explicitly say a win total or an exact finish).

As I sometimes do, I've arranged the teams in a random order, so please don't spend time worrying about why I picked the order that I picked, or searching for hidden meaning. There isn't any. Also, it is long (in total, it runs a cool 8800 words), so feel free to skip ahead and just find your favorite team. I won't be offended.

Do LeBron's Cavs Have a Chance Against the Rising Hawks?

Due to an injury to Heat star Dwyane Wade, Atlanta's Kyle Korver was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team, giving the Hawks four All-Stars for the first time in franchise history.

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

With their 117-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center on Monday night, the 43-10 Atlanta Hawks once again avoided a losing streak. Mike Budenholzer’s squad has not lost consecutive games since mid-November when the Hawks lost their fourth and fifth ballgames of the season.

They enter Wednesday evening’s contest in Boston having played 38-5 basketball since that two-game losing streak, their longest skid of the season.

Al Horford, DeMarre Carroll, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague and newly-added all-star Kyle Korver scored 97 of the Hawks’ 117 points in the victory. With Dwyane Wade sitting out the 2015 All-Star game, commissioner Adam Silver chose Korver to replace the Miami Heat veteran to give the Hawks their first year with four all-stars in franchise history.

What To Make of these Boston Celtics

While mostly known for his beautiful hair, Kelly Olynyk has proven to not be terrible at basketball this year.

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

For most of Wednesday, I was ready to entitle this article, “How About These Above-.500 Celtics.” Then, for most of Friday, I still could have used “How About These Celtics.” If the men in green would have finished off both the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Cleveland Cava-LeBrons, then Celtics Nation would be pondering, “Maybe I want the Celtics to make the playoffs.”

Those two victories would have allowed Boston to match its longest winning streak in the Brad Stevens era. Coincidentally, it was King James and his Miami Heat that were a part of the Celtics’ four-game winning streak in early November last year. If the 2014-15 team matched the streak, all the Celtics talk would be positive: it would be about Kelly Olynyk putting up among the league’s best offensive numbers and Rajon Rondo passing Paul Pierce for the fourth-most assists in franchise history.

The Official (Way Too Long) SuiteSports 2014-2015 NBA Preview: Part V - The Finals Favorites

As long as these guys are walking, the Spurs are contenders. And they'll still probably be contenders even with these guys in wheelchairs.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

With opening day upon us, it's time to finish up the season preview, and this final section features the last six teams. They aren't the teams with the six best records in the league, as I explained briefly in Monday's section. The last six teams are the teams with the best "Finals equity," as I have taken to calling it. Strictly speaking, I think Golden State will finish with a better record, and is a better overall team that the first team up today. But because Golden State plays in the loaded West (and is unlikely to come up with a top 3 seed), they have less of a chance to make the Finals than the team that seems likely to grab a top 3 seed in the more volatile conference.

Even within this section, the teams don't run in order of win totals. They run in the order from least likely to make the Finals to most likely. There are two Western Conference teams that might seem out of order, but that's because one projects to be a better regular season team, while the other will probably be better in the playoffs. But that will all become clear when we get there. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's just roll through these:

I Like This Team - A Glass Half-Full NBA Preview (Part III)

LeBron has Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love thinking Championship

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

This is the third and final installment of the positive half of our extreme NBA previews. Last Week, I told you why all 30 teams are terrible. Friday and Monday, I told you why 20 teams are great. Here are the last ten, featuring some of the best teams from a season ago (plus the new-look Cavaliers).

As with the first two sections, I've included each team's best-case scenario for the season. With most of these teams, the talent level is close enough that everyone's best-case scenario is to win the title. As such, I've tried to be as specific as possible as to how and why those best-case scenarios might manifest themselves. Put on a pair of rose-colored glasses and look on the bright side. 

Your NBA Team Sucks - A Glass Half-Empty Season Preview (Part III)

Kevin Durant's foot injury could de-rail Oklahoma City's season before it even starts.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Ready for one more round of bad feelings? I know I am. Let's throw our stink on the last ten teams in the league. If you missed Part I (the ten worst teams from last year), it's here. For Part II (with the last few lottery teams and the first bunch of playoff teams), it's over there. And this is Part III, covering the best of the best. Well, the worst of the best. These teams suck.

Miami Heat

In case you didn’t hear, LeBron isn’t playing for the team any longer.

The team completely and totally fell apart in the playoffs last year whenever LeBron wasn’t on the floor. How are they going to survive a whole season without him? Dwyane Wade is pretty much guaranteed to break down. The last time Chris Bosh carried a team, the 2010 Raptors went 40-42. At least they can take solace in the fact that everything bad going on is Mario Chalmers’ fault.

Worst-Case Scenario: Wade’s knees fall apart as he tries to shoulder a greater load. Bosh can’t step up, Luol Deng and Danny Granger are washed up, Josh McRoberts never fits in, and the Heat lose 55 games.

Love To Cleveland: Now What?

Two of these guys will be wearing different jerseys next year. But they'll all be wearing the same one.

By Bennett Corcoran (@SportsBennett)

The Cavaliers have a much different team surrounding LeBron this time around than during his last stint in Cleveland. With Kyrie Irving inking a five-year maximum extension this summer and Kevin Love officially heading to the Cavs, LeBron now has the opportunity to play alongside two young stars in his hometown.

Although it’s easy to jab at the lack of playoff experience for Love (and Irving for that matter), it’s also easy to use this as an excuse to overlook his individual accomplishments. Love was everything to Minnesota. This is a guy who was third in the NBA in win shares (14.29), better than Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Joakim Noah, Dirk Nowitzki, and a slew of other household names who don’t hear those types of criticisms.

One of the best players in the league last season, Love will contribute by splashing open jumpers and tenaciously crashing the glass. The number of attempts from deep will likely decrease this season after Love hoisted 505 threes in 2014, the sixth-most in the NBA. However, the quality of looks will increase with playmakers like LeBron and Irving around, and fewer attempts from three could lead to more offensive boards, as Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland suggested a few weeks ago.

Eight Potential LeBron Landing Spots Ranked by "Fun Factor"

LeBron returning to Miami with Bosh and Wade seems like the most likely outcome, but that's no fun...

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

As you may or may not know, I am a fair weather Heat fan, so my obvious preference in this game of LeBachelor would be for King James to give the final rose to Pat Riley and re-up for another run with his boys D-Wade and Bosh.

That being said, LBJ returning to the Heat, as presently constructed, is just about the least interesting result in the entire LeBron derby. So, in the interest of "fun," I am removing my slight bias and ranking LeBron's potential free agency destinations based on which would be the most interesting.

Here we go!

Sports Questions Asked by Terrible Hip-Hop and R&B Artists

Actually, people were way too hard on Ja. He wasn't that bad.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

I'm running out of click bait subjects, so now I'm going to just post things for my own amusement.

A few weekends back, during the Mayweather-Maidana fight, I was discussing how old I am with our boxing correspondent Warren Rodriguez and my co-editor Jeremy Conlin.

I told them that I felt old because Kanye West's brilliant debut album "The College Dropout" was now 11-years old, and that the 10-Year Anniversary of the "Jesus Walks" single dropping was coming up (May 25).

I said that, say what you want about Kanye and his craziness since then, that album brought real rap back. Soul beats and sick verses. There's nothing better than that combo, in my opinion.

Jeremy asked if real rap ever left, so I am here to present the terrible Hip-Hop and R&B artists that ruled the roost in between Dr. Dre's "Chronic 2001" (which came out in 1999, duh) and Kanye's debut in 2003.

NBA Trade Deadline Recap

The Pacers added Evan Turner, but will he be enough to put them into the Finals?

By Bennett Corcoran

After J.J. Redick was the prize last February, it appears this unfortunate trend continues; another year under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, another unbearably slow NBA trade deadline. Luckily, the last minute Evan Turner-Danny Granger swap has serious playoff implications, so it wasn’t a total flop. Let’s take a look at each trade and see which teams are stockpiling for a playoff run.

NBA Early Season Trends

Kevin Love's hot start has the Wolves looking like playoff contenders. (flickr)

By Bennett Corcoran

With most teams about ten games into the NBA season, tendencies and team styles are beginning to emerge. However, as it is still very early, it can be difficult to determine which of these trends are worth buying into, and which will fade fast. Let’s take a look at a few noticeable observations from the first few games of the season, and attempt to conclude whether these trends will continue or end abruptly.

I Like This Team - A Glass-Half-Full NBA Preview (Part I)

Kyrie Irving and John Wall are both poised to turn their franchises around.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Last week, we ran through all 30 teams and took the most pessimistic angle possible. We did this because we are a sports blog, and thus contractually obligated by the laws of the internet to be snarky and sarcastic.

However, like Fox News, SuiteSports is fair and balanced. If we spend nearly 5000 words saying the worst thing about every NBA team, it's only right that we spend the same amount saying nice things about every NBA team. Hopefully, reading this series makes you think of Jon Gruden's penchant for saying how much he likes "this guy." For now, I am Jon Gruden, and the 30 NBA teams are the scrappy, unheralded, or otherwise non-traditional players that Gruden gushes over during Monday Night Football broadcasts.

Orlando Magic

They used the No. 2 overall pick on a promising young player with seemingly unlimited upside. He’ll be playing out of position, but that actually might not be such a bad thing – he’ll take his lumps at point guard long before Orlando is expecting to be a playoff contender, so by the time they are expecting to be, he’ll have all the wrinkles ironed out.

Moe Harkless and Tobias Harris are each skilled forwards who have plenty of time to figure out how they complement each other. Nikola Vucevic is a 22-year old double-double machine. They don’t have the central star that can tie everything together yet, but it seems like they have several pieces that can assemble together easily if they ever do get the superstar they’re looking for.

Best-Case Scenario: Victor Oladipo is a revelation at point guard - he picks up on the intricacies of the position overnight and uses his athleticism to cover up his weaknesses. Harkless and Harris effortlessly float back and forth between the two forward spots, and Arron Afflalo returns to his 2009 form on defense, giving them a legitimate perimeter stopper. Nikola Vucevic holds down the paint and Orlando is in the mix for the 8th playoff spot all the way into April.

Your NBA Team Sucks - A Glass-Half-Empty Season Preivew (Part I)

Hey. Charlotte Bobcats. You Suck.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Welcome to the first edition of "Your NBA Team Sucks." Deadspin has done an NFL version, but we've gone ahead and borrowed the idea for the NBA. We aren't going as in-depth as Deadspin does with their NFL series - ours is broken into three parts, outlining 10 teams each. And, in the interest of fairness and positivity, we're going to follow it up with another three-part series "Your NBA Team Is Awesome" once this is finished.

The list runs in reverse order of last year's standings, so Part I will cover Orlando through Portland, Part II will cover Philadelphia through Golden State, and Part III will cover Brooklyn through Miami. Let's get started.

Orlando Magic

They won 20 games last year, the fewest in the league. They got the No. 2 pick in the draft and used it on Victor Oladipo, a shooting guard with limited ball handling and passing skills. Naturally, he’s going to start at point guard.

Taking You To School Podcast: Allen Iverson Retires, Surprises Nobody

Allen Iverson announced he would no longer play in the NBA. He has not played since 2010.

By SuiteSports Staff

On the podcast this week, the gang discusses a report that claims Dwight Howard asked for Mike D'Antoni to be fired and Kobe Bryant to be amnestied. Should the report be taken seriously, and if so, is Howard justified in his demands? Also, Joe, Jeremy, and Kels discuss teams that should improve next season and the (not so) shocking retirement of Allen Iverson.

Check Out Sports Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with RF Sports Radio on BlogTalkRadio

Eight Weird Moments from The 2013 NBA Draft

The Cavaliers surprised everyone by taking Anthony Bennett with the first overall pick (flickr)

By Jeremy Conlin

Here are eight of the weirdest moments from the weirdest NBA draft I can remember:

1. The Cavaliers select Anthony Bennett first overall

All day and in the week leading up, the Cavs had been engaging in some savvy misinformation. Various reports were getting leaked that they were either shopping the pick (to Minnesota, Portland, New Orleans, to name three) or that they were still undecided who they were going to take if they kept the pick.