The Hawks are the one's that surprised me. They scraped into the playoffs last year as a result of team's like the Bulls playing idiotic ball. Bulls, not too surprising. Gooden is better than any of their big men from 06-07, kind of like the 05-06 Bulls team, with Gordon being better and Rose obviously being a big upgrade over Hinrich. Cavs, at least early on, look like a legit championship contender. They have put some really nice pieces around Lebron. They have that nice post player in Ilgauskus, Mo Williams for some more scoring, lots of shooters, good rebounders. About as well built of a team as you can have for not having a second star on it. They did a nice job putting the right pieces around Lebron with the hand they were dealt. Out West, the Lakers look by far the best team in the league. San Antonio is good, but just has injuries to deal with now. Dallas looks toast. Phoenix looks like a pretty good team. It'll be fun to see how the rest of the season looks out. But thanks to the Nets re-transferring a lot of talent to the Bucks, Knicks getting a good coach, and the Bulls/Heat getting superstar rookies, the East is making a come back, and fast. What we are seeing right now is how the East won the 2003/2004 drafts, and then were handed the top 2 picks in the 2008 draft, over the top 2 picks in the 2007 draft, and the players were better in the 2008 draft. 2003: Lebron to Cavs, Bosh to Raptors, Wade to Heat 2004: Howard to Magic, Gordon/Deng to Bulls, Iguodala to the 76ers, Al Jefferson to the Celtics (turned into Garnett). 2008: Rose to Bulls, Beasley to Heat. These were the draft picks that helped in contributing to 7 teams turning around. Then you have the Hawks picking off some pretty good prospects throughout a bunch of drafts in Josh Smith, Al Horford, etc. then got Johnson in free agency, Bibb in a trade. 76ers of course added Brand as a 2nd piece, Miller through trading off Iverson. Detroit is a holdover.
How can you attribute Chicago as having a turnaround? Last year you guys overwhelmingly underperformed, and now your hanging around .500. Yippee! Not to mention Mayo is on Rose's level, and Rudy is on the same level as Beasley right now. So having the top 2 picks in the 08 draft means null. It's not like the East is making a comeback, as much as it's that the West has teams with players that are getting super old.
Kevin Durant is not a very good player first of all. Oden looks pretty good defensively, and pretty meh on offense. Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo are definitely both outplaying Oden/Durant right now.
Give Oden some time on offense, it will improve. His last two games haven't been all too bad on offense. I think Oden will be better than Rose or Mayo, but I think Mayo and Rose will be better than Durant.
Durant's pretty much hot garbage as far as I'm concerned right now. 49.3 TS% is ridiculous. Greg Oden, Beasley, Rose, and Mayo all get a break on scoring efficiency since they are rookies, and rookies typically struggle (Lebron was below 50% his rookie year)...and of course all of those 4 are above 50% (Rose is sitting at a little above average, Oden at slightly below average, but in limited, Beasley below average, and Mayo is doing good scoring efficiency wise). As a second year player, there aren't excuses to be made for Durant's crappy scoring efficiency. It's either put up or shut up. He doesn't even look all that good with the eye test anymore, as he is beginning to get that loser aura about him.
as i said, oden and durant are better basketball players than anyone from this class. durant isn't going to have great shooting percentages until he either leaves that team or someone in the front office and coaching staff figures out what the hell they are doing. other than durant that team is a joke. as for oden, just give him a little time. a few more games and you can put him down for a nightly double double with a couple of blocks. really? when the 2nd and 3rd best players on your team might be jeff green and russell westbrook and you are being played out of position so a role player(green) can play a spot that fits him better there are no excuses for being inefficient on offense? like i said, that team is a joke. rose has a few guys on chicago that makes things a lot easier for him. mayo gets to play with gay. beasley doesn't have to worry about anyone worrying about him as everyone is focused on wade. durant is that entire team. right him off if you want, but you're going to look stupid.
Oden will have the biggest impact than any rookie - and it will not even be close - and this is not a knock on Rose (who is about as fabulous as one can expect) or OJ (who plays much better as an NBA player than he did in college - which is again, not a big surprise - the NBA defensive rules allow perimeter players with an athletic advantage over their opponents and real skill to shine - you can not box them as you do in the college game - the same thing happened to Brandon Roy). This article shows what a big deal Oden is on the defensive end of the floor - beyond his obvious blocks recorded or rebounds pulled. http://columbian.com/article/20081116/BLOGS05/811169997/-1/BLAZERBANTER Oden is so big and strong and he clogs the middle so well on both the offense and the defense - that he takes away what 26 of the other 29 teams want to do in the paint, night in and night out. He is really a game changer for Portland. He technically played in 4 games - in the first one he was wounded less than 4 minutes into the game, the game against Miami he just came back and was very tentative - and yet, when you look at his statistics - he is already the 7th rookie in PER, 1st in rebounding rate and he is still playing limited minutes and his conditioning is not where it needs to be. Personally, I am disappointed in what Beasley has done so far - he is still a skilled scorer - but his size really shows with his rebounding prowess in the professional game and he is a very limited defender. Durant should get a nod over Beasley just for the fact that he is not a defensive liability. My gut feeling, when all is said and done - it will probably be Oden followed by Rose and either Durant or OJ Mayo as the order we will think of these players - once they are well into their careers.
I really don't think there has been a rookie that has made a bigger impact than Rose. His abilities in the open court have really pushed the tempo of that team (at least a little) and his ability to get to the hoop is almost uncanny for a guy his size. He has really solidified that Bulls backcourt and his presence alone has made them a better team this year than what they ever were last year.
He's on the Thunder. Put him on a team where he won't be the focus of the defense and he would probably be shooting atleast 45%. How can you already call him a loser, too? Yet again, he is on the Thunder. Last year he was on the Sonics as a rookie and they had just traded Lewis and Allen. He hasn't had a chance to win.
I agree with you 100% on the offensive end of the floor - but basketball in played on both sides of the floor and it is clear that few players have the impact we saw from Greg Oden in his last 2 games - he is simply a game changer on defense and while he is not a polished offensive player - he scores efficiently (to the tune that power dunks are efficient) and puts the opposing team's bigs in foul trouble. While Portland had a pretty decent start before Oden came back - they did not look much different from last year's .500 team - among the league leaders in offensive efficiency, among the league worst in defensive efficiency. The article I posted showed how much harder it is to opposing teams to penetrate and finish at the rim when Oden is in the game - and he only plays half games at 60% speed now...
Portland getting no respect. Three teams they have beaten are in front of them. Second hardest schedule in the western conference as well.
