ESPN's rececnt 5 on 5

Recently espn did a 5 on 5 about the start of the season (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/5-on-5-120104/nba-most-impressive-disappointing-2011-12) and while it's very good, I disagree with a few things so I have decided to do my own.

1. Most Impressive team thus far.
            Without a doubt, the Portland Trail Blazers.  To me, most impressive entails that it's not expected for them to play at the level they are playing at, so that means I just can't say Heat/Thunder/Bulls because they were expected to be playing this well, but the Trail Blazers were expected to be good but there were questions as they had officially lost Brandon Roy, and they are once again without Greg Oden.  They weren't supposed to be a team that beats the Thunder by 10 and goes 4-1 in their first 5 games and they have done so, so they are my most impressive team this year.

2.  Most disappointing team thus far.
              I have to say the Knicks, they were supposed to be a top team and the east and while that's still very much a possible goal, you have to be dissapointed when you see a team with so much promise come into the season and lose to the raptors, and give up over 100 points a game.

3.  Most impressive player thus far.
               By far James Harden, he's been clearly the second best player on that team, and for a team whose point guard isn't doing too well he's been making that offense look pretty good.  Additionally he's made all the right plays at the right times.  I know he hasn't been the best overall player, but for someone who didn't start last year he's been pretty dams good.

4.  Most disappointing player thus far.
              Demarcus Cousins, without question.  Demarcus Cousins has always been talented and he's expected to produce, which I acknowledge, he has done while he's been on the floor.  But, this is a year when many people were saying Demarcus Cousins was going to step up and become a relatively mature player to help his team and what he's been doing hasn't portrayed him as mature at all.

5.  Biggest Surprise thus far.
                New Jersey's monstrosity of a season.  This was supposed to be the year that New Jersey would enter the an area that people care about in terms of basketball and that just hasn't happened.  They have looked like they genuinely couldn't care less win or lose every game and Deron Williams has been lazy, while they weren't expected to be champions, they weren't expected to be an easy win either.

What was learned from Christmas

1.  Once again I'll say this, the Lakers are still very good.  They went against a Bulls team who had the advantage of not having to integrate many new players in and didn't have to learn an entirely new system, and they barely lost.  This would be pretty impressive naturally but with Bynum out it's outstanding.  The Lakers are absolutely still contenders.

2.  The Heat are the team to beat.  They play defense, they run the floor, they can move the ball well, they can isolate you, they get the ball inside, their in great shape, they get second chances, and they don't give them up.  The Mavericks may be the defending champions but the Heat are the team to beat.

3.  The Knicks still have the same glaring flaws, and some new ones.  First of all, they may have added a great shot changer in Tyson Chandler, but that doesn't make up for the fact that pretty much no one else on that team understands that defense matters too.  Additionally, they have terrible backcourt play (worse than last season) during the celtics rally in the fourth courter the real problem was their offense wasn't facilitated well at all.  They pretty much had Melo running the point and I think anyone understands someone who can't pass can't play point guard.  Additionally, Dantoni is a bad coach.  Some say he is a great offensive coach but he's not even that good of an offensive coach, Dantoni's teams score a lot because they have terrific offensive players.  First Carmelo Anthony, and Amare Stoudamire are supposed to score a lot, what would be impressive is to get them to play defense.  Additionally, late in the game he made poor decisions, why Jared Jeffries, one of their few players who plays defense, was not in late in the game, confuses me.  Even though they came out with the win, Dantoni won by just having a very talented team, not good coaching.

4.  The Celtics are still good.  They may have lost but honestly, the Celtics looked like the better team.  First of all, on that last play Carmelo wasn't really fouled, but even if, they were extremely competitive with the Knicks despite being without one of their best players in Paul Pierce.  They may not end with the greatest regular season record but watch out for them in the playoffs.

5.  The Thunder will be very good this year.  No need for explanation, they will be one of the best in the west.

6.  Mark Jackson is a very good coach.  They did get killed but quite frankly, the Clippers are a much more talented team than the Warriors and there is nothing that Mark Jackson could do about that, but he had Biedrens looking better than Jordan, and David Lee looking better than Blake Griffin.  This is really the first times I've watched the Warriors actually be effective in the half court set.  Generally Warriors games look like high skill pickup games and Jackson appears to have already changed that culture.  Additionally, they were able to play defense on a very good team, and that was a smart and ballsy decision to pull a Hack-A-Shack on Deandre Jordan.  I really liked what I saw out of him and I think he will be a great coach.