NBA mid season awards

Half way through a shortened NBA season, some players are making more noise than others.
Here are my top 5 MVP candidates of the first half of this season.
#5: Tony Parker
Many of you may be surprised with this choice, but lets take a look at the Spurs season thus far. The Spurs rank 2nd in the Western Conference behind the Thunder, and without Parker this wouldn't be possible. The Spurs were said to be old and beat up. With Time Duncan on the down side of his career and Manu Ginobli getting hurt for a majority of this season, the Spurs have relied heavily on their veteran point guard to lead them. He has averaged 25 points in the month of February while the Spurs held the league's longest win streak of the NBA season at 11 games.

#4: Kobe Bryant
Not much to say here. The Lakers are getting old and everyone knows it. They don't have a point guard and no one on there bench can give Kobe a break when needed. Averaging 29 points a game at 33 years old and keeping his team in the middle to upper pack in the Western Conference, this guy always belongs in the MVP conversation

#3: Lebron James
The Heat are probably the favorites to win the NBA Championship right now, and they show no signs of letting up on the gas. Lebron continues to be the leagues overall best player, playing with more confidence than ever. He is third in scoring this year behind Kobe and Kevin Durant and has showed he is the best player in Miami. He fits the definition of giving the award to the best player on the best team and half way through the Heat are certainly the NBA's best team.

#2: Chris Paul
Lob City wouldn't be possible without the best point guard in the league and with the season he is having, Chris Paul deserves that recognition. Paul took that team from only highlight reels to potential Western Conference Champs. All the talk seems to go back to Blake Griffin, but the Clippers will go as far as Paul will take him. Without Paul, the Clippers are an average team that would probably miss out on the playoffs again. Averaging over 18 points, 8 assists and 2 steals a game, Paul may take the MVP award if the Clippers make a run at the top seed in the West.

#1: Kevin Durant
How can you ignore the scoring machine Kevin Durant has become, not to mention his team is in first place in the Western Conference. Durant has shown he can score in a variety of ways this season and is virtually one of the hardest players to guard in the league. He is second in the league in scoring and averages almost 9 rebounds a game. Not to bad for a player who is only 23 years old.

New York's Savior? is Lin the Answer for the Knicks?

As you all have probably heard, Jeremy Lin has taken New York City and the NBA by storm. Selling millions of jerseys, averaging 26.8 ppg in 5 starts and in those starts the New York Knicks are 5 and 0. So why all the questions? The guy scored 38 on Kobe and the Lakers, he is a legit 6 '3' 200lbs and is undefeated as a starter. Not to mention he knows how to play the point guard position the right way, and until Lin, the Knicks didn't have a point guard to run Mike D'Antoni's offense.

I want everyone to think back to when D'Antoni was the coach of the Phoenix Suns. There he had one of the best point guards of all time in Steve Nash, partnered with Amare Stoudemire and role players such as Shawn Marion and Boris Diaw. That offense was a work of art as Nash averaged about 11 assists per game and the Suns were legit contenders in the Western Conference almost every year. Now let’s fast forward to the present, where D'Antoni finally has a true point guard. For the time being, Lin will be given the opportunity to run this offense along side Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler.

If you ask me, that’s about as good as it is going to get. Sure, Lin is no Steve Nash, but the guy has proven he can lead a team to victories and put up some good numbers. Now the Knicks aren’t forced to run an isolation offense through Anthony and Stoudemire. They still have that option, but now they can beat teams in multiple ways. The point guard should always run the offense and Lin is the type of point guard who will make everyone around him better.

The questions should no longer be about Lin, but instead they should be if Anthony and Stoudemire can put their egos aside and let Lin run this offense. Their numbers may fall a little, but wins will build. D'Antoni is a good coach and knows how to have success in this league and now with the essential tools, look for the Knicks to rise in the east as legit contenders as long as they all buy into this system. For now...Lin is the answer in the Big Apple.

Creighton shows no signs of slowing down

For those of you who go to Creighton like myself, the talk around campus is about our up and coming basketball team, that stands at #12 in the USA Today poll. It’s evident that Creighton is on its way to the “Big Dance” in March as they continue to roll through Missouri Valley opponents.
Though I am just as stoked as everyone else on campus, there are those people who are still skeptical about this team but let me tell you there is nothing to be skeptical about. Ok… are they really the 12th best college team in the nation? Who really knows is the better question… but they are ranked there now and these Jays are a team to be reckoned with. They are what I like to call the “Dirty Dozen”, which was the name of a 1967 war film, where a U.S. Army Major is assigned 12 convicts. His goal is to turn them into soldiers and lead them into battle. What is unique about the 12 is that each of them has something different they excel in. Each character in the film is unique in his own way. Each person has their own role and they realize each person must do his role in order to have success.
This seems to be a fair comparison to the Creighton Basketball team. Obviously this team doesn’t go 12 players deep but what team in the nation can actually do that? The point I am trying to get across is the fact that each individual has bought into the team. They rely on one another and encourage one another. They don’t play for the spot light or for a chance to make it big in the NBA someday, not to say that isn’t on their minds, but they play for their school, their coaches and for one another. Creighton leads the nation in field goal percentage, is 2nd in assists per game and is 5th in points scored per game. These are attributed to the team oriented basketball that Gregg McDermott has instilled in these young men. Each player does their role exceptionally well: Grant Gibbs is the glue of the team and keeps everyone on the same page, Jahenns Manigat knocks down the open three every time he gets his chance, Antoine Young is clutch down the stretch in either scoring a big bucket or knocking down free throws and it makes things a lot easier when you have a consistent scorer and player of the year candidate in Doug McDermott. The matter is, however you look at it, Creighton finds ways to win games. It may not be pretty sometimes and sometimes they may blow out a team but they always find a way to get the job done because they believe and trust in one another.
The Jays head to Northern Iowa tonight for another road test, but they should be able to get the job done. #rolljays