Every few weeks, FanHouse will offer a writer's opinion on the current NBA MVP Rankings. This time, Tom Ziller gives his top 20 through the season's first four weeks, as well as an assessment of the multitude of rookie point guards.
The Atlanta Hawks find themselves at the top of our rankings this week, thanks to a five-game winning streak against some strong competition -- a gritty overtime win over the Blazers and a road win in Boston were both impressive. Now, let's see if they can avoid the top-spot-jinx on Wednesday night, when they'll host Miami in a rematch of last year's first round playoff series. As for the other 29 teams? Read on to see how they stacked up.
The surprising Atlanta Hawks -- and the way they were built -- should become required study for those NBA general managers who wheel and deal too fast, making change for the sake of change, always searching for the quick fix.
The Hawks are proving that patience does work.
The Hawks (9-2) have become the top team in the East, quietly moving past the freer spending Celtics, Cavaliers and Magic, the high-profile contenders who previously thought it was a three-team race to the top of the conference.
Hawks buzzard Josh Smith has famously wasted quite a few Atlanta possessions over the years by taking ill-advised three-pointers. That phraseology is actually redundant when it comes to Smith: it would be considered ill to ever advise Smith to take a three.
Thankfully, someone showed Josh the light, and he hasn't attempted a trey all season. He convinces when he tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hasn't even felt tempted to fire up a bomb. He found Basketball Jesus! Like a good son of the word, he should spread his experience. Which players would most benefit from a Brother Smith knock at the door?
We're just eight games into the season, but there's no doubt who the surprise team is at this point. The Phoenix Suns are off to a 7-1 start, and have road wins over two of the three remaining one-loss teams. They've done it with Steve Nash leading the league in assists at almost 13 per game, and with the team leading the league in three-point shooting at a ridiculous 47 percent. But all of that only got the Suns to No. 2 in this week's rankings -- read on to see who's on top.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
If you're not a close follower of the NBA, then just six games or so into the season, we can't necessarily hold it against you if the name Tyreke Evans doesn't ring a bell. Besides being a rookie, Evans plays for the Sacramento Kings, a team that won just 17 games a season ago, and figured to be about as bad this year with stud scorer Kevin Martin sidelined indefinitely with an injury.
But after what Evans did to Deron Williams in leading his undermanned team to a road win in Utah on Saturday, he won't remain anonymous to basketball fans for much longer.
Atlanta's trade acquisition of Jamal Crawford was seen either as a questionable ploy to correct the Hawks' most deafening weakness (bench guard play), or a quiet coup bound to boost the team to solid ground. Atlanta coach Mike Woodson -- a fundamental-focused, stoic defensive mind -- figured into the argument of the former. Crawford is a mysterious player, not conducive to Woodson's dependency on consistency (Josh Smith aside).
But the latter has actually been true: Woodson seems to really understand what Crawford offers, and Jam has rewarded the coach with stellar play through five games. Atlanta is sitting pretty at 4-1 after a successful 2-1 road swing. And Crawford is having the best season of his career so far.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
It's not every day that we get to see a player hit for 40 points or more in an NBA game. So on Sunday, when we had three different players meet or surpass the mark, it's definitely something worth discussing.
Especially when two of them did it in the same game.
Shame on the NBA owners for being greedy, trying to milk their teams for an unbelievable eight exhibition games on top of an already marathon regular season and a taxing playoff march.
Eight is too many. Just ask Los Angeles Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy, who now may be without his star rookie prize Blake Griffin in Tuesday's much-anticipated opener against the cross-arena Lakers.
Griffin hurt his left knee Friday night in exhibition No. 8, a game that never should have been played if the league had listened to players, coaches, trainers and even nonsensical sports writers who have said for years that there is no need for so many meaningless games.
Joe Johnson wants to believe that his Atlanta Hawks are on the verge of being contenders in the Eastern Conference. They should be getting close.
But going into the start of the NBA's regular season next week, Johnson isn't so sure anymore.
"Sometimes, I can't tell if we really want it,'' Johnson told FanHouse after his Hawks were embarrassed by a 37-point loss Friday night in their final exhibition game by the Orlando Magic. "It's discouraging. Sometimes, you never know what you're going to get from this team. And that won't work.''
NBA atlanta Hawks 
The surprising Atlanta Hawks -- and the way they were built -- should become required study for those NBA general managers who wheel and deal too fast, making change for the sake of change, always searching for the quick fix.
Hawks buzzard Josh Smith has famously wasted quite a few Atlanta possessions over the years by taking ill-advised three-pointers. That phraseology is actually redundant when it comes to Smith: it would be considered ill to ever advise Smith to take a three.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
Atlanta's trade acquisition of Jamal Crawford was seen either as a questionable ploy to correct the Hawks' most deafening weakness (bench guard play), or a quiet coup bound to boost the team to solid ground. Atlanta coach Mike Woodson -- a fundamental-focused, stoic defensive mind -- figured into the argument of the former. Crawford is a mysterious player, not conducive to Woodson's dependency on consistency (Josh Smith aside).
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
Shame on the NBA owners for being greedy, trying to milk their teams for an unbelievable eight exhibition games on top of an already marathon regular season and a taxing playoff march.
Joe Johnson wants to believe that his Atlanta Hawks are on the verge of being contenders in the Eastern Conference. They should be getting close.
