The 10-man rotation, starring Kevin Garnett, slipping out through the side door

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: SB Nation. Every time Paul Flannery writes about Kevin Garnett, you should read it. Every time.

PF: The Sports Fan Journal. Justin Tinsley on Dajuan Wagner and "what could and should have been."

SF: The Point Forward and HoopSpeak. There are reasons to be skeptical about Josh Smith's fit on the Detroit Pistons, but Rob Mahoney and Beckley Mason think the naysaying of the acquisition of Smoove's gone a bit overboard, and come in defense of Joe Dumars' move.

SG: The Basketball Jones. I dug Andrew Rafner's chaparral wildfire-themed take on the chaos engulfing the Los Angeles Lakers right now.

PG: A Wolf Among Wolves. A little bit late on this one, but Zach Harper's look at how the Minnesota Timberwolves (and other non-glamour-market teams) could benefit from the team-building model employed by the San Antonio Spurs was a fun read, focusing on several key questions that San Antonio seems to ask (and to which it seems to find answers) better than just about anyone else year after year: "What are you good at doing? How do you benefit a team when you’re on the court? How do we adjust what we do to fit you into a successful game plan?"

6th: USA TODAY Sports. Sam Amick sits down for a Q&A with new Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, who talks about leaving the Boston Celtics, coming to a team with title aspirations and his relationship to new Boston head coach Brad Stevens.

7th: Liberty Ballers. With Andrew Bynum headed to Cleveland and his one-year haunting of the Philadelphia 76ers officially at its end, Michael Levin looks back, feels bitter and, weirdly, gets thankful: "In an decade where Mediocracy defined the Sixers and refused to relinquish its choke hold, it took Andrew Bynum missing 82 games to get them to a better place."

8th: The Dream Shake. An interesting take from Ethan Rothstein on the unique position in which James Harden finds himself in a post-Dwight Howard-signing world: "The transition from first to second banana has to be harder than the transition from third to first."

9th: Hoop76. Tom Sunnergren knows 76ers rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams has a terrible jump shot, and he wants to shoot it, and then shoot it some more, and then shoot it some more after that, and if more MCW jumpers means bigger Sixer losses, then so much the better.

10th: Woodcutting Fool. This is a cool piece of art and personal story about Chick Hearn, the late, great, longtime play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Lakers.

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