Yardbarker

Pat Heery

Pat Heery began his sports writing career in 2016 for The Has Been Sports Blog. He practices real estate law during the day and runs pick & rolls at night. Follow him on Twitter: @pheery12

The most intriguing player on every NBA team

Every team - even the Wizards and Pistons - has at least one intriguing player for the rest of the season. Here they are...

20 NBA rookies who caught my eye this season

These are not rookie rankings or projections, simply those rookies who have jumped off the screen.

The trends that explain the NBA season

Regardless of whether you tend to remember the positives or negatives, here are the 25 trends that help explain the crazy six months that were the 2020-21 NBA season.

30 NBA players who are having breakout seasons

It's pretty easy to be bummed out about the 2020-21 NBA season - the compressed schedule has led to injuries galore to important players and very uneven results from game to game.

2021 NBA mock draft: First round

Future mock drafts may focus more on the fit with and needs of the team making the selection, but for this first version, an introduction to each prospect containing a short summary of the player's strengths and weaknesses seemed most appropriate. Enjoy!

Which players should be buyout targets for NBA contenders?

Here's a list of 10 players (along with their potential suitors) you should expect to see as prime buyout targets over the next month of the season.

Who are the favorites for each major NBA award?

With the season a little past its halfway point, here's a snapshot of what the awards races would look like if the season ended today.

What every NBA team should focus on at the trade deadline

Because this is a pandemic-shortened season with plenty of COVID-19 and contract-tracing absences, and because there will be a Play-In Tournament in each conference for the seven-, eight-, nine- and 10-seeds, fewer teams than usual have crossed over into the trade deadline "seller" threshold.

Breaking down the entire NBA into tiers

The NBA is closing in on its All-Star Break and halfway point of the season. The first quarter of the season yielded some unusual results (remember when

Checking in on how the NBA's biggest offseason acquisitions are working out so far

A lot happened during the shortest, strangest offseason in NBA history. We saw a number of impactful players change teams, a number of teams hire new head coaches and a number of teams select intriguing draft prospects.

NBA players who deserve to go to the All-Star Game, but won't

The NBA has never been so talented. The league is so loaded with great players this season that there could literally be a third All-Star team with a roster of 15 players. Don't believe me? To illustrate this point, this slideshow will be naming 15 All-Star-caliber players who will probably end up being All-Star snubs this season.

NBA players who will be trade targets in 2021

The 2020-21 NBA trade deadline is a lot later than usual this season: March 25, 2021. And while the league has yet to release the schedule beyond the first couple of days in March, every team should have played around 40 games by that point and should have a better idea of whether they're a buyer or seller at the deadline.

The 15 rookies who have caught my eye so far this NBA season

After getting compared to the woeful 2000 and 2013 NBA Draft Classes leading up to draft night, the 2020 Draft Class has actually been one of the better classes in recent memory.

Surprising trends to keep an eye on the rest of the NBA season

A handful of the surprising trends that every new season brings about have a chance to become a reality and help tell the story of the 2020-21 NBA season should they continue much longer.

NBA award watch at the quarter-season mark

As most of the NBA approaches the quarter-season mark of what is supposed to be a 72-game season, the NBA's awards races are starting to take form. In

Predicting the award winners for the 2020-21 NBA season

It's time for everyone's favorite preseason exercise: Awards predictions...

The most intriguing player on every NBA team

It might be the player who has the ability to raise the ceiling of the roster from a lottery team to a playoff team, from a playoff team to a conference finals contender, from pseudo-contender to contender, or, in one case, from contender to blossoming dynasty.

25 bold predictions for the 2020-21 NBA season

With the NBA's Opening Night drawing near, here are 25 bold predictions for the upcoming 2020-21 season. 

Old faces in new places for the 2020-21 NBA season

After the shortest offseason in league history, the NBA's 2020-21 season will begin on December 22nd. Despite its brevity, there was a ton of transactional action.

Redrafting the 2017 NBA Draft

The 2017 NBA Draft will go down as one of the more infamous drafts in the past decade as it featured a monumental bust at the top of the draft in Markelle

Redrafting the 2016 NBA Draft

Knowing what we know now, let's give everyone another shot and see how the picks would play out in a redraft of the 2016 NBA Draft.

Redrafting the 2014 NBA Draft

The 2014 NBA Draft is a memorable one because it featured two superstar centers, one of which (Nikola Jokic) wasn't drafted until the middle of the second round.

2020 NBA first-round mock draft: Minnesota selects...

The 2020 NBA Draft might not have any superstar prospects, but that doesn't mean it's devoid of talent. In fact, this draft should produce a number of solid contributors, and maybe even a couple of All-Star-level players.

Redrafting the 2011 NBA Draft

The 2011 NBA Draft class will go down as one of the greatest in NBA history. As many as five players will make the Hall of Fame. A number of other players made All-Star teams and/or major contributions to championship teams...