NBA story lines
The first two months of the 2016-2017 National Basketball Association (NBA) season has been an eventful one, with notable story lines to chew on brimming. For this space, foremost of the narratives in The Association so far is the interesting race for the most valuable player award.
While in seasons past the award was pretty much locked up for certain players with their play in the first fourth of the tournament year, this time around the race has been an open one to date with a number of players making strong cases for themselves.
Setting the pace as the best player is Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, who is on track to finish the season with a tripledouble average. Now the lone alpha dog in Thunder-land with the departure of Kevin Durant, Westbrook has busted loose to average 30.9 points (first in the league), 10.5 rebounds (11th) and 10.7 assists (2nd) so far.
Not since the great Oscar Robertson back in the day has the NBA- dom seen such a player dominate the game in so many ways.
And the thing about what Westbrook is doing is that he is not only filling up the stat sheets but is also helping his team win, with the Thunder inside the playoff picture with a 21-14 record. To think that many thought OKC was doomed to fail with Durant out of the picture. Then there is James Harden of the Houston Rockets. Like Westbrook, Harden has been a stat stuffer with norms of 28.5 points (4th), 8.2 rebounds and 12 assists (1st) while leading his team to the third-best record in the Western Conference of 26-9.
Scary still, with Harden you just do not how explosive he can be. Just look at how he torched the New York Knicks on Jan. 1 with jaw- dropping numbers of 53 points, 16 rebounds and 17 assists.
Of course there is still LeBron James, who may not be hogging the spotlight the way the two aforementioned players have been but nonetheless a steady force for top Eastern Conference team Cleveland Cavaliers (26-7).
“King James” has been good for 25.6 points ( 9th), 7.9 rebounds and 8.7 assists (5th). But one knows his value is beyond the numbers.
Also steady has been Durant, who has made the Golden State Warriors better than what most expected.
“KD” has been solid for 25.9 points (8th), 8.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists in a “controlled” setting in West top team Golden State (29-5) with All- Stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Others contending for MVP include DeMar DeRozan (27.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg and 4 apg) of the Toronto Raptors (23-10), Isaiah Thomas ( 27.7 ppg and 6.1 apg) of the Boston Celtics ( 20-14), Giannis Antetokounmpo (23.8 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 5.9 apg, 2 spg and 2 bpg) of the Milwaukee Bucks (17-16) and Kawhi Leonard (24 ppg, 6 rpg and 2 spg) of the San Antonio Spurs (27-7).
Another story line worth noting is how big men have made their presence felt in the ongoing NBA season.
Considered as a guard league for a decade or so, the big guys are balling this year.
Guys like Anthony Davis (29.2 ppg, 11.6 rpg and 2.6 bpg) of New Orleans and DeMarcus Cousins (29 ppg, 10.2 rpg and 1.4 bpg) of Sacramento have been steady as ever.
But they have had company to date in taking center stage in the likes of Karl Anthony Towns (21.5 ppg, 11.5 rpg and 1.4 bpg) of Minnesota, Hassan Whiteside (17.3 ppg, 14.3 rpg and 2.2 bpg) of Miami, Andre Drummond (14.3 rpg, 13.5 rpg and 1.1 bpg) of Detroit, Rudy Gobert (12.5 ppg, 12 rpg and 2.6 bpg) of Utah, Myles Turner (15.5 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 2.4 bpg) of Indiana and Kristaps Porzingis (20.1 ppg, 7.9 rpg and 1.9 bpg) of New York.
Old reliables Dwight Howard (14 ppg, 13.2 rpg and 1.4 bpg) of Atlanta, DeAndre Jordan (11.7 ppg, 13.2 rpg and 1.7 bpg) of the Los Angeles Clippers and Marcin Gortat (11.4 ppg, 11.8 rpg and 1 bpg) of Washington, too, are also being active.
Big men also making their presence felt Marc Gasol of Memphis, Tyson Chandler of Phoenix, Nic Vucevic of Orlando, Pau Gasol and LaMarcus of San Antonio and Jonas Valanciunas of Toronto.
A quick look as well of the standings would see the most of the top teams currently boast of steady big man play which highlights some more the impact the bigs are having.
At the current rate things are going, it is highly likely that these story lines would engagingly continue to develop as the season progresses, enough reason to stay tuned to the league.