Joseph Casciaro
theScore
Toronto, ON, Canada
Contact Joseph
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Joseph:
The best thing we can do for Ja Morant is hold him accountable
Ja Morant's meteoric rise has come to a halt, derailed for the moment by one decision in Denver.Memphis' superstar guard has missed the Grizzlies' last three games and will miss at least three more because he flashed a gun while recording an early-morning Instagram Live in a club following a March 3 loss to the Nuggets. Though police in Glendale, Colorado, found no proof that Morant committed a… → Read More
Lauri Legend: Markkanen's shocking offensive explosion
New NBA stars emerge every year, but the basketball gods usually pluck these fresh faces from a specific subset of players.The candidate pool for the league's Most Improved Player award often consists of promising youngsters coming into their own, or veterans finding a new gear after several years in the league. But Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen has done more than merely find another gear… → Read More
Buyout bets: Can Westbrook, Love, and Beverley help their new teams?
Every year after the trade deadline, a slew of former NBA All-Stars and aging veterans find new homes via the buyout market. But despite the name recognition, the players involved rarely provide their new teams with a significant boost.There are still plenty of recognizable names on the board for contenders and playoff hopefuls to add before the end of the regular season, but the three biggest… → Read More
After trading Durant and Irving, is Brooklyn primed to land another star?
When the Brooklyn Nets traded Kevin Durant, the 13-time All-Star became perhaps the greatest player ever moved mid-season. Naturally, much of the discussion stemming from that deadline-week blockbuster has focused on Durant's new team in Phoenix rather than the Nets squad he left behind.The Suns added one of the best hoopers of his generation to a team already boasting Devin Booker and Chris… → Read More
'Pick your poison': How LeBron's scoring endured and evolved
As LeBron James marched towards the NBA's all-time scoring record, which he claimed from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Feb. 7, the basketball world collectively reflected on the weight of the moment. With every additional James bucket, every ferocious drive that inched him closer, a greater sense of awe enveloped fans.Wherever James ranks on your list of all-time greats, his chase for basketball… → Read More
Ranking the West's contenders after a wild NBA trade deadline
The NBA's 2023 trade deadline has come and gone, with the balance of power in an already condensed Western Conference upended over the last week. In the past five days, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving moved from Brooklyn to separate West contenders, D'Angelo Russell replaced Russell Westbrook in Laker Land, the Warriors reacquired Gary Payton II, and almost every team in the postseason mix got… → Read More
NBA trade deadline: Breaking down every major deal
The NBA trade deadline was Thursday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. ET. Below, theScore's NBA feature writers, Joseph Casciaro and Joe Wolfond, break down every significant deal.Three early blockbusters were analyzed in detail in their own posts - tap the links to see the full breakdowns: Mavs roll the dice on Kyrie Lakers shed Westbrook, Wolves swap PGs in 3-teamer with Jazz Suns go all-in for KD as Nets… → Read More
Deal or no deal? Porzingis makes sense for the Pelicans
Welcome to Deal or no deal?, a series we're running ahead of the NBA's Feb. 9 trade deadline. Its purpose is to find sensible trade partners, both from a team-to-team and team-to-player perspective.As a reminder, these aren't necessarily trades that have been reported or speculated about in the past, but rather trade scenarios we've come up with that we believe all parties involved should look… → Read More
Sorting out the muddled morass in the West
While the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies have separated themselves at the top of the West standings, the rest of the conference is as condensed as ever. More than halfway through the season, only two games separate the West's 6-through-13 seeds.That's eight teams, all within spitting distance of a locked-in playoff spot, and all at risk of tumbling out of the play-in picture entirely. At… → Read More
The NBA's season of parity is living up to the hype
As the NBA season tipped off, there was reason to believe that a league traditionally comprised of clearly defined haves and have-nots was finally set for an unprecedented season of parity. Preseason betting odds and projection systems indicated that 2022-23 could see the most wide-open title race in NBA history. But it's one thing to echo such conjecture before any games have been played and… → Read More
Deal or no deal? Pacers should make a play for John Collins
Welcome to Deal or no deal?, a series we're running ahead of the NBA's Feb. 9 trade deadline. Its purpose is to find sensible trade partners, both from a team-to-team and team-to-player perspective.As a reminder, these aren't necessarily trades that have been reported or speculated about in the past, but rather trade scenarios we've come up with that we believe all parties involved should look… → Read More
Deal or no deal? Lakers, Suns should talk blockbuster AD trade
Welcome to Deal or no deal?, a series we're launching ahead of the NBA's Feb. 9 trade deadline. Its purpose is to find sensible trade partners, both from a team-to-team and team-to-player perspective.These aren't necessarily trades that have been reported or speculated about in the past, but rather trade scenarios we've come up with, and ones we believe all parties involved should look… → Read More
The All-Nobody Team: 5 NBA players making a name for themselves
Welcome to the third annual All-Nobody Team, an exercise meant to identify a handful of NBA players making a name for themselves. Hardcore hoop heads may already know these players, but the point of this list is to make casual fans of the Assocation familiar with each player's name and game.Who we're searching for: Players who most fans had never heard of before the season and whose NBA futures… → Read More
Sour grapes: Unwritten rules are hypocritical, which suits the Suns
A loud but otherwise meaningless basket scored in New Orleans last Friday has become the dunk heard around the world after the Phoenix Suns cried foul.Those who believe Zion Williamson wronged the Suns with his last-second jam will tell you he broke one of basketball's unwritten rules: that you don't run up the score with the shot clock turned off at the end of a guaranteed victory. But given… → Read More
No smoke and mirrors: Paolo Banchero is the real deal
Paolo Banchero announced his NBA arrival in thunderous fashion. Just ask Cory Joseph.With 27 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and two blocks in his pro debut, the Orlando Magic forward made it clear he would not be easing his way into the league. The No. 1 pick in the draft immediately playing up to the hype is hardly a stunner, but there were questions surrounding the former Duke… → Read More
Haliburton's Pacers are too good to tank, and that's just fine
When the Indiana Pacers were awarded the sixth overall selection in the 2022 NBA Draft, it marked the franchise's highest pick in 34 years. In finishing with the league's fifth-worst record last season (25-57), the Pacers suffered only their third 50-loss campaign in the last 36 seasons.Despite Indiana's aversion to bottoming out under owner Herb Simon, the Pacers have always managed to retool… → Read More
All that Jazz: 4 reasons to believe in Utah's hot start
The Utah Jazz have been a revelation to start the season.Almost unanimously projected to toil at the bottom of the standings after trading Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Royce O'Neale to stockpile draft picks, the Jazz have instead raced to a 10-3 start.With the NBA approximately 15% of the way through its 2022-23 schedule, Utah sits atop the Western Conference and trails… → Read More
The NBA doesn't need a hard cap. Don't let owners tell you otherwise
By most accounts, the NBA is doing better than ever.Whether your evaluation is based on the product on the court or the massive dollars it generates, the league appears poised for its own version of the roaring '20s.Yet some owners may be prepared to jeopardize that momentum in pursuit of a hard salary cap, or as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported, an "upper spending limit." Sources on the… → Read More
Leaving the circus: Nash's Nets tenure ends in predictable fashion
Steve Nash's firing - or his mutual parting of ways with the Brooklyn Nets, depending on your perspective - was completed Tuesday. In reality, it was always going to end this way for the Hall of Fame point guard when he agreed to coach a team led by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.You can make the argument that all coaches begin their journey toward dismissal the day they're hired, but not many… → Read More
10 observations from the first 10 days of the NBA season
theScore's NBA feature writers, Joseph Casciaro and Joe Wolfond, dig into 10 intriguing trends from the first week and a half of the 2022-23 season.Ben Simmons faces a long climb Gary Dineen / National Basketball Association / GettyEarly-season samples should always be taken with several grains of salt, doubly so when the player in question is coming off a 17-month layoff and clearly needs time… → Read More