And So It Begins...

Opening day has come and gone, so the journey is officially underway.  For a lot of people the MLB season is too long especially for how many teams make the playoffs.  I like the length of the season but I do think more teams need to make the playoffs.  It isn’t worth it to play 162 games and only have 8 teams in the postseason.  One good thing about the season is that it allows teams to come back if they start off slow.  There is enough time and games for any team to have a chance regardless of their record after the first 30 games.  I am going to give a few thoughts on what has taken place thus far.

Derrick Rose

With the NBA Season coming to an end, everyone is in playoff-mode, from the 5 player ejection Lakers-Mavs game, to the Grizzlies hanging on for a playoff berth.  The Spurs are on a 6 game slide and the East is looking like a tighter race for the top spots than it has in years.  In addition to these teams making their final push before the playoffs, the players are also making their push for MVP candidacies.

Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durrant have all made impressive runs for the MVP title.  However, Derrick Rose should be named this season's MVP.  Here's why:

The Knicks...

Tonight we will find out who runs New York... The Knicks or the Nets.  Both teams have some new acquisitions, and have had about 20 or so games to get used to the new line-ups.  The Nets now sporting point guard superstar Deron Williams, and the Knicks have scoring machine Carmelo Anthony to help out with Amare Stoudemire, not to mention old faithful, Chauncey Billups.  The Knicks definitly have the better roster, however they have been struggling as of late, and their win against the Magic doesn't quite make them whole again.  So what is the reason for their recent slump?

Miami Heat

When the NBA season began, all eyes were on the Miami Heat and how they were going to perform with the new arrivals of all-stars Lebron James and Chris Bosh.  Many people figured these guys would win an astounding number of games and even Jeff Van Gundy said they would break the wins mark for a single season.  Eventually the season started and they came out of the gates very slow starting 9-8 and that had people talking and wondering what was going wrong.  Many people thought Pat Riley was going to wind up on the bench coaching these guys. After the rough start they went on an impressive run winning 12 in a row and 21 of 22 games.  As the season has progressed they have turned into the team I thought they would.  They are a good team but not a great team.  I am going to discuss a few reasons why I think they are still just good and not great.

NBA Trades

The NBA trade deadline ended last Thursday resulting in a shift of power.  The East is starting to become stronger, while the west begins to slide.  This power shift was expected eventually, but many of the trades that occurred last weekend were anything but expected.  Ask Deron Williams, former Utah Jazz, now playing for the New Jersey Nets.  He found out Thursday morning from SportsCenter on ESPN in the training room at the Jazz practice facility while getting tapped up. 

Melo going to the Knicks wasn't a surprise, as it ranked second next to Brett Favre's "to play or not to play" episodes as most annoying SportsCenter repeat story.  However, Billups joining him in NY was a surprise.  Billups had been a Denver hero since his high school days at Denver's George Washington High School. 

Another big name to hire movers this past week was Kendrick Perkins.  He was such an intricate part of the Celtics "team-oriented" chemistry that it was surprising to see him leave.  The question is will he still be able to preform at the same level with the OK Thunder without having his Celtic buddies with him? How long till he develops similar chemistry and relationships with his new Thunder?

Mo Williams is now a Clipper.  Baron Davis now a Cav.

The Jazz and Nuggets seems to be hanging in there despite having lost their big players, however don't expect to see them come May.

All-Star Weekend: L.A. Style

This weekend the NBA all-star festivities will be taking place.  It will be a nice break from the regular schedule of the NBA.  All-star weekend is always a well deserved break not only for the players but also the fans.  This year should be an exciting weekend will all that is taking place.  It all begins Friday with the celebrity game followed by the rookie-sophomores game.  This game should be very exciting with the likes of Blake Griffin and John Wall leading the rookies and Brandon Jennings and Stephen Curry to name a couple of sophomore.

Looking Forward, NBA

Now that the football season has come to an end, Long Rangers and sports fans everywhere will turn our attention to the rest of the basketball season. A few things to notice from the first half of the NBA season.