Lamar Odom and The NBA's Biggest Surprises So Far
The 2010-11 NBA season recently started and what a start it was. I'm very excited like most of the fans of the strongest basketball competition in the world. There's a strong hype surrounding this season like few have in the history of this league.
The debates of the best player, who's going to win the championship, who will win the MVP, Rookie Of The Year awards and so on. I will mention the biggest surprises of the season so far
Los Angeles Lakers Hot Start
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The Los Angeles Lakers are the NBA's reigning champions who are led by superstar players Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol with the legendary coach Phil Jackson, strong stars like Fisher, Odom and fantastic bench to go with them.
In other words, they are the toughest team to play who have established nice chemistry, have experience and know the roles. They started the season pretty hot with 5-0 and yet have to be challenged to lose a game.
It's clear that they are the team to beat from the West and overall, it's strong possibility that they will most likely end up with the top record in the Western Conference.
In their franchise history,once in '73, they went for a record of 33 straight wins!
How long can they keep this streak?
Monta Ellis
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The new coach of the Golden State Warriors has made some improvements in the team and they a lot better compared to last year, but he's still not stopping the fast tempo of basketball that they are playing
Monta Ellis is a scoring machine who's got phenomenal speed, dribbling ability and can get to the rim with easy.That's why he can lights out the scoreboard and also goes often to the line where he's good
With his game improved,being more mature and consistency, there's no reason at all why he can't lead the league in scoring. Can Monta continue to play well?
Blake Griffin
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When in 2009, the Los Angeles Clippers took the first pick,they drafted the young power forward named Blake Griffin.
They made a nice call, for drafting a player who had one of the biggest dominations in recent history of the college basketball. Although he stands 6'11 on the court, he's a very athletic freak who can clean the glass with ease and is good overall.
He had a spectacular debut and is impressive with his 17 points and 10 rebounds per game so far. We know that he's one of the strongest candidates to win the Rookie Of The Year award. Can he keep this level of play and win the award?
John Wall
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Here's another No. 1 draft pick on the list and that's Washington Wizards' John Wall who is fantastic so far in his rookie year.
He showed his incredible skills combined with his speed and nice dribbling ability in a good light. His main job is to score and he does it well, but he's also impressive passer and an overall player who will continue to play well
He's averaging a whopping 23.7 points and 10.3 assists per game so far, after coming off a sick performance which included a near-triple double: 29 points,13 dimes and 9 steals.He's close to record that to accomplish that too
Overall,he will be brilliant point guard. Who knows, top 5 too next year?
Rajon Rondo
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Rajon Rondo is arguably one of the best point guards in the NBA right now, who's excellent in many areas of basketball.
He took his entire game to a whole new level last year, by averaging near triple double in last year's playoff run for the Boston Celtics, where he emerged as the top player in the franchise from that period to now. He is a beast.
He stands 6'1, but can grab rebounds like a big man as it is by his terrific performances like the 18 boards last year against the Cavaliers. He is also coming of insane triple double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 24 dimes.
His stat line is phenomenal which is 11.6 points, 16.6 assists and 6 rebounds per game so far. The scary part is he cannot shoot. If he could, the league had better watch out!
Lamar Odom
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One of the most versatile small forwards in the last decade,the 6'9 Lamar Odom is a complete forward who can do many things on the court.
He can score, rebound, defend, bring the ball to the court,dish and so on which is valuable asset to any team.
Although,he's got talent,his biggest problem has been consistency. One game,he goes crazy and records 20 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists then goes for 10 points,8 rebounds etc. He's playing his best basketball of his career, can he make his first All-Star game?
Miami Heat's Defense
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The Miami Heat are one of the best teams in the league right now,who are coming of an incredible summer thanks mostly for bringing the reigning back-to-back MVP LeBron James and superstar power forward Chris Bosh.
The hype is still surrounding them.While,they are having excellent start so far with 4-1 considering the fact that they have three superstar players who are learning to get use of each other,their defense is actually what it stands out most
Teams have troubles playing against that tough defense,with Joel Anthony in the middle to block shots and guys like LeBron, Wade, Chalmers to play at the lanes. They are good in terms of individual defense but over all their teamwork on that end of the floor is what makes them a great team.
