Ranking the Top Early Overreactions of the 2011-12 NBA Season

The 2011-12 NBA season is almost three weeks over, and it's done a great job of providing fans with exciting games, improbable performances and plenty of surprises thus far.

Whenever there are unprecedented performances and exciting surprises in professional sports, the first thing everyone seems to do is overreact to them, and there's been a lot of that this year.

Whether it's everyone overreacting to the Knicks' acquisition of Tyson Chandler, the Clippers trading for Chris Paul or the 76ers' ridiculous No. 1 ranking in a recent set of ESPN power rankings, the fact of the matter is that 2011-12 has been full of massive overreactions.

Ahead is a ranking of all of the season's early overreactions.  Enjoy.

Honorable Mention: Kobe Bryant as Early Front-Runner for the 2012 MVP Trophy

After two straight 40-or-more-point games, everyone is jumping on the "Kobe is the 2012 MVP" bandwagon.  

Sure, Kobe Bryant is leading the league in scoring with a 30.3 points per game average, and the Lakers are a solid 8-4 overall, but with the lingering health issues he has, it's not the time quite yet to declare him the king of the NBA.

The main reason why the overreaction to Kobe's 40-point games is on this list is because with five-sixths of the NBA season left, and with Kobe having to inject his wrist with numbing solution every night just to play, it's just too early to make an NBA MVP guarantee on him.

If Kobe can make it to the All-Star game on Feb. 24 without missing games due to injury and continues to produce at the 28-plus-point level, I see no reason why he can't be named an early MVP favorite then.

But naming him that now is an overreaction.     

7. Thinking the Portland Trailblazers Wouldn't Improve Without Oden and Roy

The 2011-12 NBA season started off for the Portland Trail Blazers with an absolutely shocking announcement.  The retirement of their franchise shooting guard, Brandon Roy, because of his degenerative knees.  

In his prime Roy averaged 22.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, which is the kind of production the Trail Blazers were planning on building their franchise around.

When that franchise production hung up his shoes forever, and the Blazers also lost Greg Oden for the season yet again, many analysts and NBA experts thought that while the Blazers would still be a good team, they wouldn't be able to improve from last year.

And we couldn't have been more wrong.

The Portland Trail Blazers are currently 7-3 overall, with wins over the Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder.  In addition to their record, even without Roy and Oden, the Trail Blazers currently have the NBA's fourth most productive offense, which is an impressive feat.  

Thinking that not having Roy and Oden would mean stagnancy for the Blazers was an overreaction, and a large one at that.

6. Declaring the Clippers the Kings of Los Angles Before the Season Started

When the Los Angeles Clippers added Chris Paul to their roster, talk about the Clippers taking over Los Angeles as the best team in L.A. began immediately.  Without either team playing a single minute in the regular season, analysts were crowing the Clippers the king of the Staples Center, at least temporarily.

Well, it's at least eight games into the young NBA season, and the Lakers are looking as good as ever with an 8-4 overall record. The Clippers are looking like a roller-coaster ride, starting off the season 1-2, followed by a 4-1 month of January so far.  

Even with an overtime win over the Miami Heat, the Clippers still look like a miserably undisciplined team that is young and lacks the maturity it will take to make a serious run at an NBA title.

In a shocking turn of events: The Clippers rank dead last in the NBA, even with athletic Blake Griffin and massive DeAndre Jordan solidifying the back court, which displays their lack of defensive discipline.  

The Clippers could very well end up being the fourth or fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs, with an overall record of slightly above .500, but declaring them the best team in LA was a bit of an overreaction don't you think?  

5. Hopping on the "Rubio Is Better Than John Wall" Bandwagon

I'll give it to the Spanish sensation, Ricky Rubio is having an impressive start to his NBA career.  In his first 10 games in the NBA, Rubio has earned averages of 10.2 points, 7.9 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game, which is a lot higher than a lot of people predicted him to achieve this early on in his career.

In addition to that steady production, Rubio has already recorded four double-doubles coming off the bench in every game for the Timberwolves.

Rubio is undoubtedly an exciting talent, but it's a little too early to say that he is a better player than Wizards point guard John Wall.  

Without getting into too many reasons why that is a serious overreaction, I'll focus on the fact that John Wall is producing at a higher 2011-12 level than Rubio, albeit in more minutes, and he's doing so with absolutely no legitimate talent on the Wizards roster.  

Wall is sporting averages of 13.4 points, 7.1 assists and  4.2 rebounds per game, and he's doing that with the next best player on the roster being JaVale McGee.  McGee is good, but he's not nearly on the same level as Kevin Love, who Rubio has as his floor partner.

Ricky Rubio might very well develop into an All-Star point guard in the NBA, but it's only been 10 games into his career, which means it's a little too early to say he's better than Wall, who produced at a higher level than Rubio all of last year.  

Saying that Rubio is better than Wall is an overreaction, and a large one at that.  

4. Norris Cole Being Crowned the "Future" at the Point for Miami Heat

I've never seen hype surrounding a player rise as quickly as it did when Norris Cole went off on the Boston Celtics for 20 points, 14 of which were in the fourth quarter, in a big win over an Eastern Conference rival.  

Norris Cole looked good, and his performance excited a lot of Miami Heat fans, but saying that he was the future at the point guard position for the Heat was one of the largest overreactions of the young season.

In the following nine games after his offensive explosion against the Celtics, Cole has averaged 8.7 points, 4.0 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 2.3 turnovers.  That's not exactly the type of production that the Heat are dreaming of having running the point for them is it?  

I sure hope it's not, because so far, starting point guard Mario Chalmers is averaging 12.1 points, 4.5 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game, all of which are better numbers than Cole.

There's no doubt about the fact that Norris Cole has been a great spark off the bench for the Heat at the point this season, but crowning him the "future" for the Miami Heat and calling for his placement into the starting lineup was a little preemptive, and it was also a huge overreaction. 

3. Thinking That Adding Tyson Chandler Would Make the Knicks a Contender

When the New York Knicks signed center Tyson Chandler this offseason many, including me, overreacted by writing about how Tyson Chandler was the missing piece to a New York Knicks NBA championship run.  

Sure, Tyson Chandler and the Knicks could continue to improve and become a legitimate contender in the east, but it's not looking that way right now.

The New York Knicks are 6-5 overall, losing to bad teams like the Golden State Warriors, Charlotte Bobcats and the Toronto Raptors, which isn't all that impressive.  

The Knicks aren't better than they were last year, and by the look of things, it doesn't seem like they will be better than a first-round playoff team come the 2012 NBA playoffs, just like last year.

In order to add Tyson Chandler, New York had to give up veteran leader Chauncey Billups, and the Knicks aren't the same team without him.  

The Knicks hopefully will turn things around, but believing that Chandler would change things overnight in the Big Apple was absolutely an overreaction.  

2. Miami Heat's Free-Throw Woes Keeping Them from an NBA Championship

It's time to panic in South Beach, right?  

The Miami Heat have lost two straight overtime games, and they've done so by going 46-74 from the free-throw line, for a miserable 61.9 percent from the charity stripe.  

I know the Heat's inability to close out games from the free-throw line is a concern, but the good news is that unlike having a lack of talent on your roster, free-throw shooting is something that is possible to improve through practice.

After the Heat's losses to the Clippers and the Warriors, a lot of analysts started to talk about how missing free throws down the stretch would be the reason why the Heat wouldn't win an NBA title this year.  

Sure, missing free throws isn't good, but it can be easily improved with practice, and it won't be something that keeps the Heat from being an elite team.

Things like a lack of depth on a bench, the lack of a franchise player or an inability to play defense is something that is worthy of being a reason to worry about a team's ability to be a contender, but free-throw percentage this early in the season is not on that same level.  

The Heat will improve their end-of-game shooting and free-throw percentages, and we will all look back on this overreaction as one of the biggest of the 2011-12 NBA season.            

1. Ranking the 76ers as the NBA's Best Team Just 10 Games into the Season

It's 10 games into the NBA season for the 76ers, and they are considered the best team in the NBA, according to ESPN's John Hollinger.  

Talk about a massive overreaction.  

The 76ers have a young roster, and they've been exciting to watch this year, winning games with a defensive-minded mentality that is hard to come by in the NBA.  Unfortunately, the 76ers have beaten teams with a combined record of 27-45, which isn't anything to write home about.

The 76ers' three losses have come against the Knicks, Jazz and Trail Blazers, who all have winning records, sporting a combined overall record of 19-12.  

That right there proves one thing: The 76ers aren't ready to compete yet with the better teams in the NBA, and until they do that, there is no way they deserve to be anywhere near the top spot in anybody's power rankings.

Naming the 76ers as the No. 1 team in the NBA without beating any serious contenders, even with some stats to back it up, is hands down the most absurd overreaction of the 2011-12 NBA season so far.  

Give me a call once the 76ers beat two consecutive teams that have winning records.  When that happens, I'll start to believe that they are a top-10 team in the NBA.