MVP

Fresh Prince

1.      Kevin Durant

2.      LeBron James

3.      Paul George

4.      Blake Griffin

5.      LaMarcus Aldridge

His Airness

Kevin Durant – 31.5 points, 5.5 assists, 7.8 rebounds.

Durant is my number one pick for this year MVP thus far, having stepped his game up over the past 3 months. Durant has so far been unstoppable. The only question is, will he be able to keep this level of play up and continue to lead his team to victory?

LeBron James – 26.8 points, 6.5 assists, 7.1 rebounds.

Despite LeBron slipping to third overall in points per game, I expect him to pick his game up as the post season gets closer. LeBron’s stats are very good but he is currently being outplayed but Durant, the final part of this season will decide who wins MVP.

Chris Paul – 19.0 points, 11.1 assists, 4.5 rebounds.

Paul has just come back from injury and although at this stage in the season he may not be everyone’s third candidate but I believe he could be the only real other player who may slip in and take the MVP title.

The Nighthawk

Kevin Durant - 31.5 ppg , 7.8 rpg , 5.5 apg

KD is the MVP of the first half of the season based off his numbers and his team’s win column. He's the MVP because take him out of the Thunder team and they wouldn't be having the same success and the fact they have been winning without superstar Russell Westbrook makes his case even stronger. The second half of the season will be interesting because Westbrook returns and Lebron is beginning to step up his game.

LeBron James - 26.8 ppg , 7.1 rpg, 6.5 apg

LeBron has won the last 2 MVP awards and 4 out of the last 5 and very early in the season it seemed as if LeBron would cruise to winning his 3rd straight and 5th overall. However with Durant’s amazing stretch through January and February the whole league began to talk about him. LeBron is right there and is putting together another MVP type season and his game as of late has begun to pick up. The second half of season is going to be good as we see 2 of the best players’ battle for the top individual award the NBA has to offer.

Blake Griffin - 24.4 ppg , 9.9 rpg , 3.5 apg

Griffin has been great during the first half of the season and has his Clippers sitting 4th in the strong West, all without their floor general Chris Paul for most of the season. Griffin is sitting in 3rd on my MVP race although he is well behind KD and LeBron and the MVP race seems more of a 2 horse race and anyone outside of them seems to be a bit of a long shot to win the award.

Standout teams

FP

-       Oklahoma City Thunder

-       Indiana Pacers

-       San Antonio Spurs

-       Houston Rockets

-       LA Clippers

-       Portland Trailblazers

HA - Oklahoma City Thunder

You have to go with the team with the best record in the NBA at the moment. When Westbrook went down on Christmas day you would not have expected the Thunder to sit in this position, however, lead by Durant the Thunder are currently 43-12.

Phoenix Suns

Currently 32-21, the Suns have surprised everyone this season. Nobody thought they would be a playoff contender yet they currently sit 6th in the West and what makes this more impressive is that they have been without arguably their best player in Eric Bledsoe for much of the season

Toronto Raptors

Sitting third in the East the Raptors have been a bit of a surprise this year, I definitely didn't expect them to be sitting third in the East at any stage of this season. Although their record 29-25 would not be good enough to make the playoffs in the West they are still a team that has stood out this season.

NH - Toronto Raptors (29 wins , 25 loses , 3rd in the Eastern Conference)

The Raptors have been a team that has quietly played extremely well for the first half of the season and seem like a dark horse team to win it all. Lead by first time All Star DeMar DeRozan who has had a breakout season thus far has the team narrowly sitting 3rd in the East.

Houston Rockets (37 wins , 17 loses , 3rd in the Western Conference)

The Rockets created a lot of talk this offseason and for good reason, they were a solid team last year and acquired the top center in the league in Dwight Howard. Their season started off quite bumpy and they seemed like a team that would take a little longer than expected to hit their stride and leading into the All Star break it looked as if they had really hit their stride well and ended up carrying a lot of momentum into the break heading in with a 7 game win streak. They are a team to look out for as we head into the second half if the season.

Disappointing teams

FP - While I could list the teams that generally nobody talks about, the ones who are lottery bound and look as if they are counting down the days until the season are finished, I thought I would list the teams who have performed below expectations. All of these teams, bar the Lakers were teams I thought would be closer to playoff contention. All four teams need a strong showing from here on out to have a sniff at playoff basketball but still have been disappointing so far. The Lakers however are another story.

Unfortunately Kobe hasn’t been back for long enough to see where this team is at and they have been hit badly with injuries. The Lakers are looking to position themselves to make free agent acquisitions with a lot of salary space but so far the 2013/14 season has been a disaster for the NBA’s second most successful franchise.

-       New York Knicks

-       Minnesota Timberwolves

-       New Orleans Pelicans

-       Cleveland Cavaliers

-       LA Lakers

HA - New York Knicks 

The Knicks have been a disappointment this season, after their promising season last year I thought they would continue to get better this season, however, with J.R. Smith struggling and Carmelo Anthony having no support the Knicks have slumped this season. The Knicks can still make the playoffs and I expect Melo to keep putting up big numbers trying to get something out of this season.

Cleveland Cavaliers 

With such a promising roster coming into this season I thought the Cavs would have a very good season, however, this has not been the case. Rumours that All Star MVP Kyrie Irving is not happy and Luol Deng not wanting to re-sign next year the Cavs are a team that has been very disappointing this season.

NH - New Orleans Pelicans (23 wins , 30 loses , 12th in the Western Conference)

The Pelicans are a team that have been very unlucky with injuries this season but still have been a disappointing team after this offseason they acquired last year All Star Jrue Holiday and former Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans. Anthony Davis has been very good this season and averages 20-10 and has been one of the better defensive players but with the team dealing with players injuries and constantly having different lineups they have been very inconsistent and sit at the bottom of the West because of it.

New York Knicks (21 wins , 33 loses , 11th in the Western Conference)

The Knicks have been the most disappointing team this season and have seen the biggest drop off from last season, not good considering Melo has a choice to test free agency this offseason. Knicks players don’t seem to want to play and aren’t playing with the same energy they had last season. They are however lucky there are in the weak Eastern Conference and still amazingly as bad as their season has been they still have a chance at booking a trip into the post season.

Undercover Brothers

FP

-       DeMar DeRozan

-       Al Jefferson

-       Isaiah Thomas

-       Aaron Affalo

-       Andre Drummond

HA - DeMarcus Cousins

I continue to put Cousins in as my undercover brother because he is one of the best-unknown players in the NBA. Averaging 22.5 points, 11.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks a game his stats put him in a very unique category, averaging a double-double a game Cousins stats are just as good as Blake Griffins, Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge. Obviously his team the Sacramento Kings are at bottom of the West with a record of 18-36 but Cousins continues to play well and with his new mentor Shaq hopefully Cousins can continue to improve.

NH - DeMarcus Cousins (SAC) 22.5 ppg , 11.7 rpg , 2.9 apg

Cousins’ has been one of the best big men this season and was arguably the best player to get left out of the All Star Weekend. He seems like a player that doesn't get much recognition because of his past struggles with his attitude and him being on a lottery team, however his team’s struggles aren’t all on him because he couldn't really be player at a higher standard. Cousins’ future looks bright if he can continue playing the way he has.

Rookie Watch

NH - Michael Carter Williams (PHI) 17.1 ppg , 6.3 apg , 5.3 rpg

MCW has been the Rookie of the Year through the first half of the season and hasn't really been pushed, he got off to an early lead and hasn't looked back since. Through January and February his numbers did see a bump and shooting percentage was down but even with those numbers he is still a top two rookie at worst. It’s going to take something pretty crazy for someone to overtake him for this award come the end of the season.

Victor Oladipo (ORL) 13.5 ppg , 3.9 apg , 4.3 rpg

Oladipo has been pretty much as expected during the first half of the season, he’s been solid on both sides of the ball and has gradually been getting better as the season wears on. His January and February were very good and used that strong stretch to close in on MCW’s big early lead but still has a lot of work to do if he wants to steal away the award.

What to watch for

After the all-star break the NBA starts to heat up. The trade deadline has just passed and while there were no ‘blockbusters’ a number of trades followed two main themes. Either teams in playoff contention were looking too add another factor to make a playoff run, or looking to unload player salaries to get under the luxury tax or to create roster space. Indiana made the biggest move trading former standout Danny Granger to the Philadelphia 76ers for Evan Turner. Turner has a lot of potential and is starting to become a fairly polished offensive force, something Granger has been missing since returning from several injuries. The other trade I rate was the one between the Washington Wizards, currently sitting 5th in the East acquiring veteran point guard Andre Miller from the Denver Nuggets. Miller adds some experience to the Wizard’s backcourt and some important depth at the point guard position behind all-star John Wall. The Golden State Warriors also made a similar move for former Laker Steve Blake.

As the playoffs near, teams will slowly get eliminated and the race to make the final eight positions in each conference will heat up. With around 30 games each to play it is still enough for a team to come from nowhere albeit unlikely. I expect the teams who are ‘real’ contenders to stand up and assert some dominance over the next stretch in an attempt to distance themselves from any late season runs. The Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers are the obvious candidates but there are several teams looking to make the jump into that upper echelon.

A few other things to watch for are the return of Russell Westbrook to the Thunder, Kobe Bryant’s eventual return and finally the race to the MVP which at this stage seems to be between Kevin Durant and LeBron James.