The NBA season is off to a hot start after the dreadful lockout robbed us of about two months of action. As the season goes on the quality of game will most likely drop since so many people will be worn down thanks to the brutal 66-game schedule, but for now the games have been pretty good. Some players aren’t totally in game shape again - *COUGH* Mavericks *COUGH* - but in spite of that there have already been some crazy games and moments. Most teams have played seven to nine games at this point, and while that isn’t a huge sample size to determine how this season will go, there are still details that can be picked from the games. Sadly I haven’t watched many games thus far, but from what I’ve been paying attention to, here are the players that I’ve had on my mind:
Kobe Bryant: Dude is taking a LOT of shots. Granted Andrew Bynum was suspended for the first four games, but still Pau Gasol is there dude. LA’s offense is a lot of Kobe standing around then jacking up some shots he shouldn’t. I wonder if Mike Brown is coaching! Kobe has been scoring a ton and looked to be efficient in three of the first four games, but then he shot 12-46 over the course of two games before rebounding with a 48% shooting performance on Tuesday night. Here are the causes for concern: Kobe is getting injections in his torn wrist before every game, he has a dead finger, and bad knees. His body is not going to last during this brutal schedule. At least he had a great quote after his 6-28 shooting performance in a loss to the Nuggets. Kobe Bean said, “I do what I do. If guys are open, I kick it to them, if they're not, I shoot it. I play my game." He plays his game. A lot of the time that will be going into multiple defenders and shooting, often times missing as he’s lost a great deal of his explosiveness. But he plays his game. Neat stat: When the Lakers were on a three game win streak, Kobe took 17 shots then 17 again then 18. They’ve since gone 2-2 and Kobe has attempted an average of 27.25 shots per game, taking no fewer than 24 in a loss to Portland. A loss where if you check the play by play you’ll see he started taking too many shots he missed after getting dunked on by Gerald Wallace and looking for revenge. But he plays his game.
LeBron James: I hate the guy, but my sweet lord am I happy to have him on my fantasy team! The self-proclaimed King is shooting a ridiculous 59.5% and has attempted only one three so far. He had attempted 23 threes at this point last season. His free throw percentage is up as is his scoring. LeBron has been playing like an animal so far and if he can keep this going through the rest of the season he will probably be MVP. With Dwyane Wade already missing games because of injury, LeBron will have to handle a great deal of the work for Miami. The only problem is that Miami has won two games thanks to big shots late, and both were from Wade. LeBron filling up a stat sheet is nothing new, and after only seven games we can’t make too big of a deal out of how he’s been doing, but he’s still going to need to prove the Heat can count on him when the chips are down. He also missed the other night’s game with an ankle sprain so depending on how that heals we may see a change in his game. After all it was only last season Derrick Rose sprained his ankle and stopped driving and began settling for far too many jumpers, sending his field goal percentage down and costing his team.
Kevin Durant: He is a great man and has the Thunder tied for the top seed in the West. His scoring ability is ridiculous and he is currently shooting 50% from the floor, including 42% from deep. The only thing worth worrying about right now is the fact he has as many turnovers (26) as assists, but he does average more turnovers than assists for his career so this isn’t out of the norm. It is however horribly inefficient. Durant’s bigger issue here is...
Russell Westbrook: The ball hog of ball hogs, Westbrook is undoubtedly my least favorite player in the league. Why? When you have the best scorer in the NBA on your team you don’t need to take every shot in the fourth quarter, bro. Though it is still early, Westbrook’s shooting percentage is down, his three point percentage has dropped to 13%, his free throw percentage is down, his assists are down, and his turnovers are up. Eek! I guess him and Durant got in a fight on the bench during a game too. They say they are fine, but Kobe and Shaq said they were fine too and look how that ended. The Thunder are going to need to trade Westbrook if they want to contend for real, because when the chips are down and the alpha dog needs to take over, there is too great a risk that Westbrook is going to want to be that guy over Durant.
Derrick Rose: Wow. Granted I am an unabashed biased Bulls fan, even though I said they would lose to Miami last year, but is this kid good or is this kid good? Twice in eight games he has come two rebounds shy of a triple double. His assist average is up so that makes up for his shooting percentages going down. His big problem is that he takes too many threes. There is no reason for Rose to attempt 4.8 threes a game, and that is why his field goal percentage is down since he doesn’t exactly have his legs back yet and is taking a shot he’s only decent at. Enough with the threes. LeBron has grown out of that phase evidently, but it took a few years. I hope Rose can do it much quicker since it is not a good habit to have and could cost the Bulls. His free throw percentage is up though, and while some may be concerned about his scoring being down we must point out that CARLOS BOOZER IS PLAYING WELL. Booz can be relied on for 20 points some nights, Deng can score, and the addition of Rip Hamilton, even though he’s missed a few games, has taken some scoring pressure off Rose. And even if Rose isn’t shooting as well as he did last year in these first eight games, he has still been a killer. LA found out on Christmas, then against the Hawks the other night Rose turned into the Hulk in the fourth and scored 17 of his 30 points in the quarter including two highlight drives over Josh Smith to put the Bulls up. He is clutch and as long as he’s passing more then the scoring average going down isn’t a big deal, but he needs to shoot better. He elevated his game against Chris Paul, going 8-14 to the tune of 29 points, 16 assists, and 8 rebounds, but he needs to do that every night, not just in big match ups. It is also a bit of a cause for concern that Rose hurt his elbow the other night and has been wearing a compression sleeve and won’t say if the x-rays were negative or not.
That’s it for now. Games have been pretty entertaining thus far, except the injury bug has already hit a lot of people. If Rose is hurt bad I’m going to be done with basketball since that is about the worst thing that could happen in life. I wanted to talk about the Clippers in here but I don’t have much to say other than they are a great team in 2k12 and hopefully they can replicate that success in real life. Either way, I’m glad the NBA is finally back.
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