From my main blog www.chewbaccaball.com

I missed a week of NBA action while i was away on holiday in a place where there is no internet. It nearly killed me.
That is why the update is a week late.


Without further ado, here is the top ten
(My apologies to Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, and the toughest omission, Am’a’r’e Stoudemire)

10. Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Wade never ceases to amaze

Every time D-Wade gets ready to challenge LeBron for the title of being the Heats best player, he either gets injured or drops a stinkbomb like he did against New York this week. His stat’s seemed great at a glance (34, 16 and 5) but he missed all 7 of his shots in the 4th and was 6/14 at the line.
He is rebounding at a career high, but his assists are a career low, the opposites of what you would assume, playing with Bosh and LeBron.

9. Kobe Bryant

Could this be the Black Mamba again this year?

Mad props to the Black Mumba for his All-Star selection. The guy will still be voted as started even when he’s 40.
The Lakers have gone 3:4 over their last 7 games, and while many are calling for the Lakers to have a roster shakeup, it will be on Kobe to steer the ship through this current rough patch.
His play of late has been phenomenal, as he dominated with 37 a game during the 3 games this week. If only the Lakers could get a win against a great team, as they have lost to the Celtics and Heat convincingly.

8. Kevin Durant

KD had a MASSIVE week

As much as i’m down on the Durantula (and that nickname) even i can’t deny his play.
Watching him you gaina real understanding of how good a shooter he is. His length give’s him a tremendous advantage, and there is only one player in the world that can stop him (see James, LeBron).
Wonder who Western Conference player of the week will be in the week just gone?
Maybe the guy that averaged 40.8 points and 11.3 rebounds over 4 games. Insane.

7. Paul Pierce

Boston Saviour circa 1998

The weakest statistically on this list, The Truth’s value lies in his teams record.
He has career highs in all shooting categories (FG, 3FG, FT) and his 19.1 per game are up from last year.
Whilst Rondo, Garnett, and both O’neal’s have missed time, Pierce and buddy Allen are turning back the clock. The Celtics are sitting pretty with the 2nd best record in the league, and the Celtic of the decade has been the reason why.

6. Russell Westbrook

Best player on the Thunder? You know it

The MVP award is a lot about perception. The perception is that Kevin Durant is a MVP calibre player. I’m not sure if this is true just yet.
Russell Westbrook is currently the best player (although its very close) on the OKC Thunder, who have a 31-17 record, 4th in the West.
Kevin Durant is an amazing scorer, but lets face it, he isn’t as versatile as Russ.
Proof to the pudding? His 35 point, 13 rebound, 13 assist performance he dropped on the Wizards this week.

5. Deron Williams

Always underrated, D-Will needs more respect

I have D-Will a lot higher than most in the rankings, but i have no idea why. Even though the Jazz have lost 8 of their last 10, their record is still ok as they sit 7th in the West, and you would rather have a slump now instead of April or June.
After going off for 39, Deron has now missed 3 games in a row with injury. Lets hope he gets back soon to steer the Jazz back on track.

4. Chris Paul

CP3 is still the best PG in the game… When healthy.

Same story here. His stat’s are down, but he has led the Poo Orleans Hornets to a better record then the Magic, who have a far superior roster.
Cp3 is nearly a 50-40-90 guy and has hit 53 three’s this year at a clip of 45%.
You can often compare a player’s value against another by hypothetically switching them. Is it just me or does the New Orlean’s led by Derrick Rose only win 40 games?
And the Chicago Bulls with a core of Paul, Deng, Boozer and Noah win the title?

3. Dwight Howard

Superman #2 needs to channel some Superman #1 for the Magic to be successful

The gap between 3rd and 4th is the largest on this list. Dwight and the above two are the only legit candidates at this stage.
D12 is getting it done on defence (as usual) as well as dropping a career high in points. He will have to lift his game up another level though, to 90’s Shaq dominance, for the Magic to do as well in the post-season as they have the last two years. They are now woeful on D, and with the emergence of the Bulls, strength of Boston and Miami, and the dark horses (Atlanta, NY, Milwaukee) the Magic may not be able to go past the 1st round.
Superman is going big of late, with averages of 25 and 16 in his last 5, though sadly, 3 were Losses.
Two side notes:

• Is there actually any player that will challenge Dwight for DPOY in the future? He could be the first 10 time winner. If people don’t get sick of voting for him.
• Shaq (best year): 29.7, 13.6, 3.8 and 3.0 blocks
  Dwight (best): 22.4, 13.6, 1.2 and 2.2 blocks
  2000 Shaq could lead this Magic team to the Title.

2. LeBron James

The King Without a Ring, but lots of MVP Bling

King James is the best player in the world. He could challenge Dwight for Defensive player of the year every season for the next 10 years if he didn’t have to expend so much energy playing point forward on the offensive end. He has been arguably the best player in the NBA for the last 5 years, highlighted by his 7th place finish in the MVP voting in his second season as a 20 year old, then a 2nd place finish when he was only 21.

The fact that he may finish lower this year when he is in his prime, compared to the 2nd place finish in 2005 when he was barely reaching his ceiling shows the MVP award has some serios flaws.
The Heat have won 4 of 5 and LeBron is averaging 30 ppg in that span.

1. Derrick Rose

Will Derrick Rose Dethrone the King?

At this stage, LeBron’s play has probably been superior, as well as superior stats, but you can’t deny the impact Rose as made on the injury riddled Chicago team. His value to his team, right now, is more than any other player in the league.

While Boozer missed games to start the season, and Noah’s current 12 week hiatus, Rose has led the Bulls to 3rd in the East, only half a game behind the Heat Elite.
He went to LA yesterday to take on the surprisingly good-at-home Clippers team, and in a marquee match-up of the 2nd and 3rd most exciting players in the NBA, he dropped 32 and 11 and took the W over Blake Griffin.

http://www.chewbaccaball.com/nba/the-carmelodrama/

With the Carmelo Anthony blockbuster trade getting closer and closer,

it’s time to analyse whether it is actually worth the New Jersey nets to potentially throwing away their future for the 7 year pro.

Why Yao being voted an all-star is a good thing….

After the second ballot returns came in, it is clear that Yao Ming will hold on to the top spot in the western conference center category, even though he will not play for the rest of the season.

Yao has been voted a starter every year of his career, except last year when he was not on the ballot due to injury.
The moronic thing is, even though Yao will not play, he will keep racking up votes due to his immense popularity in China.

But is this such a bad thing?

Rookie 5

Picking 5 Rookies this year seems a little irrelevant since the only rookie anyone wants to know about is Blake Griffin. But John Wall is not a bed, don’t sleep on him, he is going to have a big 2nd half of the season. The race for ROY is not over yet.

http://www.chewbaccaball.com/nba/the-rookie-5-080111/

I know it’s a weird time to be starting an MVP race article…

but really, how often does the best player in the first trimester actually win it?

So after some time to let the season’s first two months settle in my belly, here is the first MVP race.

http://www.chewbaccaball.com/nba/mvp-race-08-01-2011/

I have decided that the best AAU team of all time featured Elton Brand, Lamar Odom, and Ron Artest way back in 1997.

Now looking at this 15 years later, it is hard to imagine 3 such high calibre players, all from the same area, all the same age, teaming up to play ball back when they barely had whiskers on their faces. (I still don’t)

After splitting up and going to different colleges, they all entered the NBA draft after their sophomore seasons. Brand went 1st, Odom 4th, and Artest 16th.

Now I pose the question: if they came in a package AAU deal, would they be good enough to be the core of a championship team?

This is a test post