As soon as LeBron James made his infamous “I’m taking my talents to South Beach” statement back in the summer, expectations were so high in Miami that anything less than spectacular is considered a failure.

By his standards, LeBron is not enjoying a most valuable season. But pitted against the rest of the league LeBron’s numbers for the first 40 or so games as a member of the Miami Heat have been rock solid. However, is it good enough to be considered the MVP of the first half of the season?

OneManFastBreak.net Editor and Publisher Joel Huerto picks the MVP, rookie of the year, sixth man, and coach of the year at the halfway point (sort of, more like the All-Star break point) of the 2010-11 NBA season.

Most Valuable Player
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
The MVP award should come down to LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard. James and Wade cancel each other out, Bryant has slowed up a tad, Howard has turned into Rasheed Wallace with his temper tantrums and Amare Stoudemire’s Knicks have fallen on hard times after a quick start. So, that leaves us with Rose and Durant, and in my book, Durant gets the slight nod because he has met or even exceeded expectations while Rose was a late addition to the MVP debate. Durant, the league’s leading scorer at 29 points per game (three points better than LeBron and Amare) is a lock to make the All-NBA first team while Rose may get bumped by Wade and Kobe. And if the Thunder had a better record, Durant would be a cinch to win MVP and we wouldn’t be having this debate.

Rookie of the Year
Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers young gun has turned into the 2.0 version of The Human Highlight Film and his spectacular slams have become a regular on SportsCenter. At the start of the season, John Wall and Griffin were neck-and-neck in terms of rookie hype. Since Wall has been hampered by all sorts of nagging injuries, Griffin has soared over the Wizards star and has turned the ROY race into a one-horse competition. If would be a monumental upset if Griffin, who recently was named to the Western Conference All-Star team, didn’t win the NBA Slam Dunk contest during All-Star Weekend, and he should win ROY hands down.

Sixth Man of the Year
Glen “Big Baby” Davis, Boston Celtics
When Davis was drafted out of LSU, his game was very limited. He relied on his girth and power and couldn’t his a 15-footer even if a box of Snickers were tied to the end of the basket. Now, Davis has shed the baby fat (or at least some of it) and has developed a reliable mid-range jump shot to go with his bully move to the basket. His numbers won’t WOW you (11 points and 5 rebounds), but his value sometimes doesn’t show up on the box score. Without Davis’ contributions, the Celtics wouldn’t have the best record in the East. That’s how much Big Baby has grown up.

Coach of the Year
Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs
Altering a team’s image in one season is nearly impossible, but Coach Pop was able to pull off this minor miracle. After his Spurs were knocked out in the conference semifinals, Popovich knew the Spurs needed more scoring so he revamped the team’s philosophy on offense. The methodical, walk-it-up approach has been replaced by a more free-wheeling offense to highlight the great one-on-one abilities of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. Pop also managed to convince Richard Jefferson that he can make 3-points, especially from the corner, which has given San Antonio another outside shooter and unclog the lane for Parker, Ginobili and Tim Duncan. The major makeover is a key reason why the Spurs own the league’s best record.

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The Spurs' big three of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are off to a fast start in the 2010-11 season. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Who says who can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The San Antonio Spurs own the best record in the NBA at this time, and they are doing it with . . . drum roll, please . . . offense.

The Showtime Spurs? Yes, those same old Spurs – known as a defensive-minded team for the past decade, a philosophy that drove them to four NBA titles – has decided to throw a curveball to the entire league. Instead of the slow, prodding, methodical walk-it-up-the-court and wait-for-Duncan-to-post-up approach, the Spurs have made more of a concerted effort to push the ball up the court and get easy scores off fastbreaks.

But the Spurs’ new uptempo style doesn’t resemble the Suns’ frenetic, seven-seconds-or-less offense. It’s more of a controlled chaos and players are more judicious with their shot selection. Though head coach Gregg Popovich has given the green light to his players to hoist early shots, it doesn’t mean they’re allowed to take stupid shots.

“[The Spurs] are insulting team,” said TNT analyst Kenny Smith. “They’re basically are saying most teams are dumb because they say that ‘We’re going to take good shots on every possession and we don’t think that you’re disciplined enough to do that to beat us. We don’t think that you are smart enough to make good plays for 48 minutes.’ ”

Smith added, “[The Spurs] bank on the fact that, they don’t have as much talent as everyone, but you will take dumb shots or quick shots and play out of character. To me, that’s insulting if I were an NBA player.”

Though Tim Duncan remains a key cog in the Spurs’ machinery, the offense now highlights the open-court skills of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson. When you watch the Spurs these days, as soon as Duncan or one of the big men grab a rebound, they are looking for the outlet pass and most of the time the ball winds up in the hands of Parker or Ginobili.

Ginobili has benefited the most from the early offense because it highlights his incredible one-on-one skills. Ginobili leads the Spurs in scoring at nearly 20 points a game and he has stayed relatively healthy through the first quarter of the season.

Parker, now in his ninth year, has always been one of the best open-court players in the league, a one-man fastbreak who can go end-to-end like Usain Bolt. The Spurs used to rely on Parker’s fastbreak skills about 50% of the time. Now, they look to use Parker almost 90% of the time.

What has made the Spurs more dynamic offensively this season is the emergence of Jefferson as a trusted scorer in the starting unit. Jefferson struggled mightily a year ago, and felt lost in the offense.

During the offseason, Jefferson spent more time with head coach Gregg Popovich and learned how to play off of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili instead of getting in their way. Jefferson realized that to be effective in the Spurs’ system he needed to improve on his jump shot, especially on the corner where previous Spurs Bruce Bowen and Sean Elliott made their living.

Occupying the role of Malik Rose is second-year man DeJuan Blair. Blair is a second-round draft pick who has become the team’s starting center. Most teams passed on the former Pitt Panther because of his size (6 feet 6 inches tall) and bad knees, but the Spurs saw something in Blair much like they saw something in Rose, who was also 6-6.

Though undersized, Blair is an active body in the paint and he uses his girth to his advantage. Against the Lakers on Dec. 28, Blair had 17 points and 15 rebounds and thoroughly outworked the taller Lakers’ big men.

“The San Antonio Spurs do a better job of drafting players than anybody. They find those hidden gems,” says former NBA player Charles Barkley.

Another hidden gem the Spurs found was George Hill. Because he came out of IUPUI, Hill got lost in the shuffle during the draft process in 2008. The Spurs took him with the 26th pick in the first round, and Hill has turned out to be a steal. Popovich loves him, and thinks he can turn into a lock-down defender. Think of Bruce Bowen without all the slapping and flopping, and much more gifted athletically.

The Spurs and their new-look offense have taken the league by surprise early, and by the time the league catches on the Spurs may have home-court advantage throughout postseason.

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Dirk Nowitzki calls the Dallas-San Antonio series a street brawl. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Game 4 was about as physical and hard-fought game he’s seen in quite some time.

There were three flagrant fouls called, all in the second half. The fireworks started with 1:21 remaining in the third quarter when Richard Jefferson was called for a flagrant foul after he smacked Nowitzki in the face as he drove to the basket. The Mavericks retaliated early in the fourth quarter by sending their goon, Eduardo Najera, to rough up Manu Ginobili, who was already nursing a broken nose he sustained from Game 3.

Najera attempted his best MMA move by pulling Ginobili around his neck and shoulders and throwing him down to the ground. The flagrant foul got Popovich and the Spurs riled up and Najera was immediately ejected from the game and could draw a one-game suspension or fine.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle defended Najera’s actions and even vowed to use him more because the seldom-used veteran forward is one of the few Mavericks who can match San Antonio’s physical approach.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle says his Mavericks needs to be more aggressive against the Spurs.

“We may have to look at playing Najera a little more. He was in there for a short period of time and he made an aggressive play at least,” Carlisle told reporters during a postgame news conference.

“We had seven points and seven rebounds, and a lot of it happened when [Najera] was on the floor.”

When Carlisle was asked how the Mavericks lost the game, he replied: “When you get another guy who goes 11-for-16 and hits five threes, it can easily happen. And if you additionally get your ass kicked on five to seven loose-ball plays, that is certainly going to contribute to losing.”

The “guy” Carlisle was referring to was San Antonio’s George Hill, who pumped in a playoff career-high 29 points to help lead the Spurs to a 92-89 win in Game 4.

The Dallas-San Antonio matchup has grown into one of the best rivalries in the NBA, and Carlisle feels that his team has not matched the Spurs’ intensity in this first-round series. 

“There were a set of plays especially in the last couple of games where we have to get down and dirty. We gotta come up with balls that are 50-50 balls. That is sort of the game being won and lost in the trenches,” said Carlisle, whose No. 2-seeded Mavs are down 3-1 to the No. 7-seeded Spurs.

“There’s a number of plays where we’ve got to become the aggressor on. They’ve done a very good job of deflecting balls in the series. The key thing is playing out of flow, and we’re not necessarily calling plays. We’ve got to get into situations quickly,” Carlisle explained. “When the ball starts moving around in the perimeter versus their rotations, we’ve got to make quick decisions and make plays.”

How do the Mavs adjust?

“I’ve got to look at the film and evaluate that. Making lineup changes is something you can always do. But I don’t necessarily know that is where things are at,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got to this point with a good seed in the playoffs by playing our style and doing it well. We’re just going to have to work at doing it better.”

Video courtesy of NBA.com

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