Kevin Love has three game of (30/20) this seson.

Basketball by Buzz

Written by Buzz Breeden

Time to Rethink the League?

As we near the halfway point of the season, two things stand out to me; first, this has to be one of the best regular seasons in a long time and second, there are some “turrable” (as Sir Charles would say) teams out there. On the good side you have to look the emergence of teams in the east that can compete for the conference title (Boston, Chicago, Orlando and yes Miami) add quality teams such as Atlanta and New York, we are going to see some great basketball after the All-Star weekend.

San Antonio is currently running away with the West, but look out for Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers to possible make a second half run at the top spot. Add the Blake Griffins and Kevin Love teams and there are nine teams in the west worth watching on a given night. When was the last time we could say 15 teams were worth checking out on a given night? Along with Love and Griffin, other players have taken their game to a new level this year. Russell Westbrook, Pau Gasol, Amare Stoudemire and Derrick Rose have taken their respective game to the next level this season. Players like Lebron, Dwight Howard, Amare, Kobe, and Dirk is my short list of MVPs.

With the good must come the bad. Currently three teams have less than ten wins (Cleveland, Minnesota and Sacramento).  Others teams are just completely irrelevant. Excluding the three teams previously mentioned; can you name five players from the following teams (Indiana, Toronto, Charlotte and Golden State)? I’ll give you a minute…ok that is what I thought. The NBA is a star driven league and when your team doesn’t have that star, no one pays attention to you. Even worse attendance of eight teams is under 15k per game (Nets, Kings, 76ers, Pacers, Hawks, Grizzles, Hornets and T-wolves) Besides the Hornets and Hawks the other teams are bad, the fans just do not believe that those teams are worth the price of admission.

I think it is time that we take contraction serious for the league. Imagine if we contracted five teams in the league leaning only 25 teams and the top players on those selected teams joined other clubs. Just thing how much better the NBA season would be, even if your team was struggling. Normally I like to shed light on the top teams, this round I want to look at the top five most likely to be eliminated from the league.

 Cleveland (8-37): Losers of 18 in a row, Lebron took the heart out of the team in July with his decision and seemed to take its soul when the Cavs were embarrassed by the Heat in November. The attendance is the best of all these team, but honestly this is the worst team in the league, maybe in history (a losing margin of 11 points per game). Another Lebron is not coming soon and this franchise is going to wither back to what the Cavs have always been with few exceptions and that is awful.

Sacramento (10-33): Sure they might be on the move to Vegas, but honestly this team just needs to be destroyed. With exceptions to earlier this decade the Kings have never been must watch TV. This team is young and talented, however, with their poor attendance record and poor success what is the point of this team?

Toronto (13-33): um yea the Canadian basketball thing just isn’t working. The team is bad and in a small market, not a good combination. Let’s move on.

 Memphis (22-24): only two game under .500 and a young talented team, why have them on the list? Its simple the Grizzles look like they are becoming the East of the Mississippi Clippers. Always looking to trade their best talent and being in the smallest market is also not a good combination. Add to that, Memphis is really a college town that just can’t support both.

5 New Orleans (30-16): This hurts, the Hornets are my team and I know they will only be around for so long. As good as they are this year; it is just a matter of time until CP3 is in New York or another town. Once that happens the team is history. Attendance near the bottom of the league and the City has merged in a relationship with the Saints, leaving the Hornets to simply become the girl on the side.