The NBA one month in.

The NBA is becoming a league that revolves around two things point guards and big men. A league where the wing players get all the attention but the teams that have championship aspirations don’t just have wing players they either have a fantastic floor general or a dominate big man. You look at how the Miami heat are struggling and you realize they don’t have either of those ingredients but we’ll get to them later. What we’re going to talk about is how a month into the season this is becoming undoubtedly the season of the big and the little. The resurgence of Shaq, CP3 reminding us why he was unquestionably titled the best point guard in the league, Rajon Rondo making a run for the all time season assist record there’s a lot of good stuff to go over with this NBA season still young but here are the things I’m burning on. (Insert Jim Rome impersonation)

Maybe we should ease off of that 72 win talk

"Did you really think you could beat us with Joel Anthony at Center??"

In a story line that not many would have predicted the Miami Heat have been just……average. They’re currently sitting at 8-7 and have only beaten one good team out of those 8 wins blowing out Orlando at home. Miami has beaten, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Phoenix, Toronto, and New Jersey so they're not really proving themselves against the NBA's elite. While the Heat have played a rather tough schedule they haven’t really won any of their tough games and to me you only get credit for a tough schedule if you do. Speaking of needing an elite point guard or an elite big man the heat have neither, they’re starting Carlos Arroyo at point and Joel Anthony at Center. Honestly both of those guys are borderline NBA players and the heat have them starting. People will talk about how the Celtics had the unproven Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins for their championship run but both of those guys were unproven high draft picks in their early years,  while Carlos Arroyo is a 31 year old veteran who has played his way out of the NBA two times. Joel Anthony is a 28 year old 6’9 center who has career averages of 2.6 and 3.2. Comparing those two guys to Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins is not only an insult to the Celtics it’s an insult to your basketball intelligence. However you pair a dynamic wing combo of Lebron and Dwayne Wade with a big man like Chris Bosh and they should still be more effective than they our except for the fact Chris Bosh really isn’t a big man. He’s 6’11 but only 235 and the majority of his shots come from outside of 15 feet. Lebron is averaging 2 less rebounds than he has the past few years while Bosh is averaging 3 less. As Pat Riley said “No rebounds no rings” and a team that rebounds the way the Heat do aren’t going to win an NBA title. However we’re only a month into the season so its too early  to write an obituary for a team with this much talent. While things may not look good now for the Miami Thrice now, maybe the addition of a 35 year old Erik Dampier that about 10 other teams turned down could be what they’ve been looking for all along.

Just a heads up but Chris Paul is ridiculously good.

I have to admit I was among the people who completely forgot about how ridiculously good Chris Paul is and predicted the same doom and gloom for the Hornets that enveloped them last year. When you look back at the team Chris Paul took to the Western Conference semi-finals 3 years ago and compare it to this team it isn’t really better any many significant ways. That 2008 team was lead by Paul, David West, Peja Stojakovic, Jannero Pargo, Tyson Chandler, Mo Peterson, Bobby Jackson, Bonzi Wells, and Julian Wright. I doubt anybody gets them confused with the 88 Lakers. How he took a team with that much talent to the western conference semi finals is anyone’s guess, and it seems will be left guessing again as to how he’ll take this team into the 2^nd month of the season with the best record in the NBA. The most significant addition the Hornets made in the offseason to me was adding Dell Demps as their GM. He comes from the Spurs tree of personnel men that has spawned everyones favorite NBA GM Sam Presti and Portland's new GM Rich Cho. His aggressive style of management has lead to multiple trades in both the off season and this young NBA season that have net them Marco Belinelli who has become a solid rotational player and shooter for them as well as Jarret Jack who's good friends with Chris Paul and who can back up both guard positions.  Chris Paul is putting up his normal 16 and 10 the difference being he’s doing it while shooting 47% from 3 which if form holds would be his season high by more than 10 percent. Even if the percentage drops over the season he’ll still more than likely be shooting at a career high to go along with a solid 4 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.  Despite all this talk of Chris Paul’s offensive numbers this Hornets team is doing it with their defense ranked 1^st in points allowed per game. The addition of Trevor Ariza at the wing has helped but the past two years when Chris Paul was healthy they were a top 5 defensive club, the Hornets always seem to be a good defensive team and when a team can count on their defense you can count on them being a contender.

 A battle of #1 Draft Picks for rookie of the year

This is why you watch Blake Griffin

This will probably be the most exciting rookie of the year battle since Lebron and Carmelo battled it out back in 2003 although it seems like ages now. Blake Griffin and John Wall both seem like legitimate franchise players, and I know that it’s only a month into the season but when someone has that special it factor that can change a team its apparent pretty early and both of these guys have it. If you haven’t watched at least 2 Blake Griffin games this year than #1 shame on you, #2 either get NBA League pass or steal some games off an internet stream but seriously watch this guy now or you’ll end up missing awesome stuff like this, and this, and then this, and probably some of this too. John Wall right now is averaging 18 points 9 assists 4 rebounds and 3 steals. He’s already compiled a triple double that was 4 steals away from being the first ever rookie quadruple double. Watching John Wall run a fast break it almost seems like he’s running downhill with the otherworldly speed he seems to possess on the break, he almost has a Lebron like quality in how he seems to have a gear that other players simply don’t possess. The most confusing part of this whole equation is that their respective teams are both horrible. It’s even more perplexing for the Clippers because they have so much talent you would think they would be a competitive team. They have one of the best young nuclei in basketball with Griffin, Eric Gordon, Eric Bledsoe, Al Farouq Aminu, and DeAndre Jordan. The oldest one of those guys is Gordon at 22 and he seems to be coming into his own after the team USA experience.  I look at that team and it all comes down to two things, #1 their two biggest contracts are two absolute bums in Chris Kaman and Baron Davis they should be arrested on the bench for stealing from the Clippers. #2 Vinny Del Negro is not an NBA coach he got the Bulls to the playoffs which people thought was an accomplishment but looking at the way the Bulls are playing right now with basically the same line up minus Ben Gordon and John Salmons and its clear to me he had that team underachieving. Its sad to say but despite all of the talent this Clippers team has it seems that the hex of the Clippers is still upon them. 

Lakers Celtics 3: This time it’s for keeps

Looking at both of our NBA finals competitors from the previous year I find it hard to predict anything other than a Finals rematch at this point in the season. A lot of people me included thought the Lakers would come out and sort of Boston Celtics this season and cruise to a 50 something win season probably not have home court throughout and just turn it on in the playoffs.  However so far this season they’ve come out like a team that not only got significantly better in the offseason with the additions of Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, but has also gotten internal improvement from players like Lamar Odom, Shannon Brown, and Pau Gasol which has pushed this team even further than the Champions from last year. All of this is without Andrew Bynum who on one leg was still absolutely crucial in their 2010 finals run. The Celtics are also without their anchor in the middle in Kendrick Perkins but they don’t have the luxury of sliding their 7 foot power forward over a position so instead they picked up 2 players I thought were absolutely washed up in Jermaine and Shaquille O’Neal. Well apparently I was only half right Jermaine O’Neal is an absolute corpse and him getting the mid level exception is a travesty beyond words, but so far Shaq has been a revelation at Center for the Celtics. While he’s missed 5 games for them he’s put up 12 and 7 in the games he’s played with a 25 and 11 in his past game against the Nets. Another revelation of sorts for them has been Kevin Garnett basically returning to 2008 form, after I saw this in last year’s NBA finals I thought that would be the nail in the coffin of KG’s career but so far this year he seems to be back to the defensive player of the year form he showed in 2008. Despite all this talk about Shaq and KG this is Rajon Rondo's team now, I joked a couple of weeks ago with my brother they should be called Rajon Rondo featuring the big 3. The way he orchestrates that team is a beauty to behold, not only on the fast break but in the half court as well. We've all talked about how dangerous Rondo would be if he ever got a jump shot but if he doesn't have one at this point I don't think he ever develops one, and the scary part is I don't think he needs one. If both of these teams can maintain their current form the first decade of 2000’s would truly compare to the 80’s as far as the Celtics vs. Lakers rivalry goes.