MVN: Most Valuable Network

by Phillip Barnett

No love for Timmy?

These last thre weeks we've had a lot of questions answered about who are the elite of the league and what teams will be in the running for the Blake Griffin sweepstakes. However, some questions have been left unanswered - until now.

Why doesn't Tim Duncan get any love from the fans?
In my last MVP rankings I had Tim Duncan ranked sixth amongst his peers as far as MVP consideration went at the time and I got some feedback from readers saying that Duncan was either too high on the list or should have been taken off completely. As a Lakers fan who has watched Mr. Duncan destroy my favorite team on more occasions than I can count on my two hands, I couldn't understand why he wouldn't get any love from basketball fans around the country considering the Spurs record and the number of games both Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have missed due to injury this season. After starting 2-5, the Spurs have won 11 of 14 games.

With both Parker and Ginobili out, Duncan has had to start along side the likes of Michael Finley's old ass, Fabricio Oberto, Roger Mason Jr. and the rookie George Hill. This starting lineup falls short of impressive, but guys like Mason and Finley have stepped up huge and Hill has been even better than advertised (which I guess was expected because the Spurs always draft well). What's been the most impressive is the way Duncan was still able to play his game despite not having Parker or Ginobili on the floor to take double teams away from him. Now, with Hill getting valuable minutes in Ginobili and Parker's absence and the great play from Mason Jr., the Spurs look as poised as ever to be contenders in the West, especially if Parker goes back to playing like an MVP candidate like he was before he was injured. If anything, I probably should have had Duncan ranked higher a couple of weeks ago.

Are the Cleveland Cavaliers really that good?
LeBron and co. just saw an impressive 11-game winning streak come to and end and it has many people wondering if the Cavs are really as good as their record is showing. The answer is two-fold bearing in mind who they've played during their win streak and the two teams they lost to before the streak started. The first game of the streak was an 110-96 drubbing of the Atlanta Hawks at home - and outside of their 114-94 win over Toronto - that Atlanta game was their toughest game since their loss in Detroit. Before the loss to Detroit the Cavs rattled off eight straight wins with their only tough road game being played in Dallas and their toughest home game featured a Deron Williams-less Utah Jazz team.

With that being said, I still think that the Cavs are the third - maybe even the second best team in the league right now because they're winning on the defensive end of the floor. During their 11-game winning streak they only allowed one 100-point game, and that was in New York against a Mike D'Antoni team. Even with Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the floor, the Cavaliers have one of the quickest defenses in the league. Mike Brown has done an amazing job of getting this team committed to the defensive end of the floor, and it's all started with LeBron James. Of course we're going to see some ridiculous dunk from James on almost every night, but what's been most impressive is the fact that almost all of his highlights on Sports Center's Top 10 plays have been off of a steal - and at least twice a week one of his Top 10 plays has been a block preventing a fast break lay-up or him coming help side to make up for Daniel Gibson or Mo Williams being beat off the dribble. There are little-to-no easy buckets against this Cavs team. Sure, people are going to point at their cupcake schedule, but the good teams are supposed to blow out the bad teams, right?

What has been the biggest surprise this season thus far?
At this point, there hasn't been one huge surprise, but there have been a few players and teams who have stood out and are as follows:

-Devin Harris has been playing out of his mind. Before this season he had never scored 30 points in a game, and now he's the second best player on my fantasy team (not necessary, but this is probably my favorite 9th round draft pick of all time). He's worked himself into the conversation of the league's top seven or eight point guards right now. He has single handedly won at least three games for the Nets already. I get just as excited to watch Harris play as I do when a Hornets or a Jazz game comes on.

-Speaking of point guards who are trying to make a claim for a spot on that top 10 point guard list, Rajon Rondo has been simply amazing for the Celtics this season. He's become fearless and it's been a lot of fun to watch (and also brutal because the Celtics are a great basketball team while he's on the floor and just a really good basketball team when he's sitting). This is slowly - and I stress slowly - becoming his team. Rondo has learned to dictate tempo, he's been throwing passes that he wouldn't have even thought about throwing when he got into the league and he's become a great on-ball defender. He's a huge reason why the Celtics are on an 13-game winning streak and have the best record in the league.

-There have been an unprecedented amount of coaches fired before Christmas this season. The firing of the King's Reggie Theus on December 15th marked the sixth coach to be fired before the holidays. What's stood out to me the most is the fact that Theus was the third light skinned coach to be fired. Half of the coaches fired, a tenth of the coaches in the league or 75 percent of the light skinned coaches in the league are gone. I know this won't matter to a lot of talkhoops.net's readers, but it matters to us childish African-Americans who still think it's funny that light skinned and dark skinned black people are constantly in competition. Now we're stuck with Doc Rivers. I mean, he's not terrible and he is the head coach of the defending champions, but I hate the Celtics and that's just not good enough for me. I mean, I guess I can understand the firing of  Mo Cheeks (not really, just more than the others), but as talkhoops.net editor asked: Why fire Eddie Jordan or Reggie Theus. Both of their teams have been plagued by injuries to key players, something you just can't make up for as a coach in this league. I say conspiracy (I'm watching you Michael Jordan), others say changes just needed to be made (still got my eyes on you, Mike). Whatever it was, it's not a good look for the league. We need our light skinned coaches.

-Fans across the country have to love the Sergio Rodriguez - Rudy Fernandez backcourt combination. Has there ever been a better, more exciting or more hilarious backup backcourt combination? The Brian Shaw - Isaiah Rider backup backcourt might have been funnier  the Manu Ginobili - Ime Udoka backup backcourt might have been better but it would be hard to come up with any other backup backcourt combination that is as fun to watch as the Rodriguez-Fernandez backcourt. I may be one of the biggest Brandon Roy fans in the world, but I wouldn't even be mad if I came in late to a Blazers game and caught the end of the first quarter to see the Rodriguez-Fernandez backcourt. When the Blazers play Rodriguez, Fernandez and Roy at the same time, it's like heaven on television.

-The number of likeable players who aren't "stars" has been ridiculous. My friend Davion and I meet up at this pizza place called Poppa O's (also know as The Fourth Headquarters) at least once a week to catch one of the three double headers either on ESPN or TNT. Lately, we've been having mock drafts for our hypothetical teams that we'll probably eventually end up making on NBA 2K9 (only because his bum ass didn't buy NBA Live '09), but the guys we've been drafting will probably never be on an all star team. We're not picking up guys like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James or Dwyane Wade, we're drafting guys like Sergio Rodriguez, Paul Millsap, Acie Law, Juan Dixon and Jose Juan Barea. I've fallen in love with the non-stars again this season for the first time since the mid to late '90s and I love it. Pumping up guys like Aaron Brooks, Andre Blatche, Ronny Turiaf and Spencer Hawes has been one of the best parts of this season. It's great that there are some good non-stars to watch, but it's also hilarious. When you can give a guy like Juan Dixon a nickname like "The Eddie House Stopper," it's a good basketball season.

1. L. James (1)       (23-4)              27.5ppg          6.8rpg             6.3apg             50.3fg
I really can't imagine how this man could be stopped if he had just three fourths of the mid-range game and post up game Kobe Bryant has (or had last season... maybe?). He's a monster in the open floor, he's always looking for his teammates and his jump-shot is gradually improving (not at a rate we all expected from him, but he's getting there). I think what has summed up this season for James at this point is the fact that on some nights, when he's on Sports Center's Top 10 plays, they have LeBron James packages. Some night's there isn't just one play - or two plays, but myriad plays that need to be seen numerous times. If not for anything else, he's the MVP right now just because he has to be packaged on Sports Center's Top 10. I can't think of any other player in any other sport who has been packaged this many times before the half way point of his or her respective season. Right now he's Jordan in the 86-87 season, Tom Brady in 2007, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant in 2006. He's in a league of his own right now.

2. C. Paul (4)             (15-7)              19.7ppg          5.4rpg             11.9apg          2.8spg
I tried to think of one bad thing to say about Chris Paul's game and the only thing I could come up with is the fact that sometimes, he's too good for his teammates. Of Paul's 2.95 turnovers per game, I think you can attribute one per game for him making a play for a teammate who probably didn't even think that play was even possible to be made. He sees the floor better than any point guard since John Stockton and probably has the best defensive instincts of any point guard ever. His streak of 106 consecutive games with a steal is unheard of. This seems like one of those streaks that could be up there with Cal Ripkin's 2,632 consecutive starts, Joe Dimaggio's 56 straight games with a hit and Byron Nelson's 11 straight PGA Tour wins. This is going to be one of the most untouchable streaks in sports.

3. K. Bryant (2)       (21-4)              25.2ppg          5.3rpg             4.3apg             1.5spg
A lot of people are already giving Bryant the washed up tag - something that I can't understand at this point in his career. As far as I'm concerned, he's still the best basketball player in the NBA. Sure, LeBron James get's to the rim better, Chris Paul gets teammates involved and Dwyane Wade is noticeably quicker than Bryant, but no one else in the league possesses the skill set that Bryant has. His mid-range game is still among the league's elite, he can still post up the majority of the guys who are stuck guarding him one-on-one and he uses angles to take advantage of defenders better than anyone in the league, maybe better than anyone who's ever played the game. Just because his numbers are down it doesn't mean his game is down as a basketball player. Sure, 25 points per isn't 28, 31 or 35, but dropping 25 every night is no easy feat. Neither is leading your team to a 21-4 record.

4. D. Wade (5)       (13-12)            28.3ppg          5.1rpg             7.0apg             2.2spg
More than anyone else on this list, Dwyane Wade needs to play well for his team to succeed. During the Heat's game against the Lakers, ESPN showed a statistic that showed just how much Wade means to the Heat's success. During a recent three game losing streak, Wade averaged just over 17 points per game. However, during the four game winning streak prior to the losing streak, he averaged just over 34 points per game. If we're giving the award to the most valuable player and nothing else, Wade definitely has a claim for the award because the Heat will suffer more without Wade than any team who removes a potential MVP candidate. More than anything, I just can't stress enough how glad I am to see him back and healthy.

5. D. Howard (3)       (21-6)             20.8ppg            14.1rpg          3.8bpg             56.9fg
If he's done nothing else for the Magic, he's helped them become a very good defensive team. If there's anything you want to have when building a defensive minded basketball team is a solid big man who rebounds well and alters shots. Howard has done all of that and more for the Magic to help them to their 20-6 record. It's much easier to play tight on the parameter when you know you have the league's leading shot-blocker behind you. With more contested shots, means more missed shots for the opposing teams, and when you have the league's leading rebounder, you have less demoralizing defensive possessions where offensive rebounds are given up despite a great defensive effort. Because of Howard, the rest of this Magic team has become much more confident on the defensive end, and that's where the elite teams are winning their games this season. The Magic are third in the league in defensive efficiency, numbers one, two and four are the Celtics, Cavaliers and the Lakers respectively. If Howard stays healthy, the Magic will remain one of the league's elite teams.

6. T. Duncan (6)
That's right, Timmy is still sixth on my list of MVPs, but it's going to be hard for him to climb the list is the Spurs can't beat some of the league's better teams. Big losses to Orlando and New Orleans isn't going to help much.

7. C. Billups (9)
Chauncey Billups has completely changed the culture of the Nuggets. They've moved from a team that might have been fighting for an eighth seed to a team that could be playing for a third or fourth seed. It's amazing what a quality point guard can do for a team.

8. P. Pierce (7)
The only reason Pierce has moved down is the fact that he's not as valuable to his team as the other MVP candidates are. In fact, Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen (barf) and Rajon Rondo are all pretty much interchangeable here. I just put Pierce because he's "better than Kobe."

9. 10. B. Roy (NR)
On December 18th, Brandon Roy scored 52 points, six assists, five rebounds and had no turnovers. Want more? During the Blazers last five games, Roy has been averaging 36.4 points, five assists, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He deserves to be here.