The B Team Revisited- The Youngsters

Part Two of the critically acclaimed series..."The B Team Revisited." If I knew it was going to be so popular, I would have thought of a better title. Jokes. Onto breaking down the younger generation of last summer's USA World Championship team.

GOOD

Kevin Durant- Not exactly the season many were expecting. He has been part of a mediocre Thunder defense, is registering more turnovers than assists for the fourth consecutive year and is either struggling (relatively) with his shot or his shot selection (34% from deep). Of course, he will finish the season as a two-time scoring champion at the tender age of 22 (he is only six months older than Blake Griffin) and has an excellent chance at winning his first playoff series as a professional. He has shown more of a spark of late and will likely wind up matching his numbers from last season's breakthrough campaign. He has not improved this year but if he performs better in the playoffs (and the Thunder win a series), this season should still be considered a success for Durant. It's not his fault expectations were more out of line than the movie executive who decided Nicolas Cage could be an action star.

Stephen Curry- At first glance, Curry seems to have improved dramatically this season. He has been more efficient even while using more offensive possessions. But Curry finished last year by posting averages of 22/5/8 after the All-Star break and has not come close to touching those numbers. He has seen a decrease in minutes (Keith Smart does not play him enough if in "foul trouble"), been plagued by ankle sprains and has taken a bit of a backseat to the Monta Ellis scoring show and fireworks extravaganza. Curry only looks like an asset defensively when paired with Ellis (who is a defensive sieve without all of that intersecting metal in the middle that does all the sieving) but continues to work hard and may eventually be considered a pesky defender at the point. As with Durant, there has been no real improvement from Curry but no reason to view his year as anything but positive (other than the whole Warriors are terrible thing) considering his age, experience and future potential.

Rudy Gay- It seems like Rudy has really stepped up his game this year but I'm not sure if that's entirely true. It may be simply that he was dealing with very low expectations for improvement following his (ill-advised) max contract extension over the summer. He is playing a ton of minutes, has a couple game-winners and the Grizzlies are threatening to make the Western Conference playoffs. So there's that. And Gay has improved his three point shooting and passing (both career highs). But he is still a volume scorer who only averages one free throw attempt every nine minutes despite excellent athleticism. His greatest strides have actually been on defense as he has helped hold opposing small forwards to a 10.7 PER rating (sensational mark) and already has established a career-high in Defensive Win Shares and defensive rating. That might be the most surprising improvement (and perhaps, the most indicative of Team USA being a positive learning experience).

The Thinking Man's Tour of the NBA

Sometimes I read books. Sometimes these books are about basketball. This is a "review" of one of these books. This particular book is called "The Art of a Beautiful Game" and was written by Chris Ballard.

The B Team Revisited- The Veterans

Before he was the size of a small large polar bear and spent his Thursday nights going Ron Burgundy on TNT, Charles Barkley was a pretty good basketball player. He led the Dream Team in scoring and won the 1993 MVP award after being traded to an already formidable Phoenix Suns team. According to popular NBA history, Barkley came into that season focused and in better shape because of his Dream Team "experience." This has always seemed odd to me, as it appears that Barkley's experience seemed more centered around insulting outmatched opponents, gambling with Michael Jordan and being treated like the Queen of England, Michael Jackson and Batman all rolled into one super-celebrity entity during his stay in Barcelona. The intense (and legendary) Dream Team practices surely helped Barkley maintain his edge over the summer, a time Charles usually reserved for the golf course. But Barkley actually had several more productive seasons while in Philadelphia during the first half of his career. The difference in 1993 was that he combined his individual exploits with team success and, most importantly, fit the MVP narrative of that season (though everyone now it agrees it should have gone to that Jordan guy).

LeBron James used the 2008 Redeem Team as a similar springboard to winning his first MVP award in 2009 (although he had already been the best player in the league). And Kevin Durant was the 2011 MVP award front-runner after leading the B team to FIBA world championship gold despite being no better than the fifth best player in the league. Durant quickly silenced that talk with an early shooting slump but the impact his Team USA teammates had on the early part of the season became a talking point for NBA fans that weren't too busy dissecting Heatlemania. I, being a natural cynic and non-believer (shunnnn me), was initially skeptical about the hypothesized positive effect Team USA was having on its' members. Now that the year is well underway, it's an appropriate time to break down the seasons the B Teamers are having to try to determine if there is any sort of appreciable Team USA bump. In the interest of space (and short attention spans), I'll split this post into two parts. First up, the veterans.

Half-Man, Half-Machine

Following a tumultuous three year stretch that saw the Los Angeles Lakers fail to advance out of the first round of the NBA playoffs, Kobe Bryant answered his critics with an MVP award and three Finals appearances since 2008. He has matured as a basketball player and (somewhat) repressed his pathological tendencies for the greater good of teamwork and chemistry. He has won two titles without Shaquille O'Neal and, perhaps even more impressively, with Luke Walton. But has Kobe really proven his mettle? The 350-pound monkey may be off his back but Kobe's greatest challenge still awaits. Can he win a title without Sasha Vujacic?

"He's not a man- he's a machine. A Terminator. A Cyberdyne Systems Model 101." -Kyle Reese in The Terminator

Chris Paul for MVP

On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the New Orleans Hornets 101-95. Pau Gasol went Black Swan all over David West and Kobe Bryant looked good enough that I'll express my disapproval with his upcoming filmmercial "The Black Mamba" at another time. Even with those superstar efforts, the Lakers could not put away a Hornets team missing two of its' four best players (Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor). How did New Orleans stay competitive with Aaron Gray and D.J. Mbenga manning (and I use that term loosely) the center position? In my opinion, that answer is threefold. First of all, Chris Paul scored 21 points on only 11 field goal attempts. Meanwhile, CP3 ran the pick-and-roll flawlessly and recorded 15 assists. Finally, 'Paul, Chris' played a season-high 44 minutes and masterfully orchestrated the Hornets offense throughout the game. As has been the case all year, Paul dragged a supporting cast of mostly mediocre NBA players to an excellent result. Tonight's effort alone should earn him some sort of award.

Wait...what? There is an award for this kind of performance? That's crazy! What's it called???

 Derrick Rose is figuratively bowling over MVP voters. Maybe Chris Paul is just too literal.