2012 NBA Mid Season Report

         All-Star weekend has just ended for the NBA and that means that it's mid season but oddly enough it seems as if the season just started.....well in a way it did but here we are.  Of the top four entities, the NBA puts on the best show when it comes to its showcasing its starts and product.  With the 2012 All-Star weekend being held in Orlando Fl, Dwight Howard and his Orlando are the center of the basketball for the next three days.  The future of Dwight Howard has been one of the hot topics though out the current season and his future is still as cloudy as ever.  The Orlando Magic must trade Dwight Howard, they can't afford to let him walk away and receive nothing in return.  Magic officials believe that Dwight Howard wouldn't walk away from a potential 5 year year that would be worth $30 million more than what another team could offer.  With that being said, it's in my belief that the Nets are the front runners to acquire Howard, followed by the Lakers and Mavericks.

As of right now the teams with the two best records in the NBA are the Miami Heat
and the OKC Thunder.  An NBA Finals preview...perhaps but there's still many games left in a season where every game counts.  Having said that, there are also two teams, one in each conference that has been very surprising.  The Houston Rockets have been one of the surprise teams in the Western Conference as they are currently in the sixth seed. The surprise of the Eastern Conference would be the Indiana Pacers who are currently the 3rd seed.  The addition of David West to the Pacers was huge and Kevin McHale has shown that he is the perfect coach for the Rockets.

My pick for the mid-season MVP thus far may surprise some and it may not surprise others.  Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, and of course Kobe Bryant have been playing exceptional thus far this season but one person has risen above the rest.  Can one argue with 27.4 points, 8.10 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game all the while playing on a team with the league's best record.  LeBron James is by far the MVP at this point in time in the season as he is playing as close to perfect as he can.  You can love him or hate him but you must respect his game at this moment in time.

I suspect that the second half of the season will just as exciting and fast paced as the first half and when the dust settles, the two teams that are now number 1 in their respective conference may remain there.  My gut tells me that a surprise team will rise from the east and change the current status-quo when it comes to the power teams in that conference and while many have already penciled in a Miami/Chicago Eastern Conference Finals, I see something totally different.  The Big Three of Miami could very well run into numbers 33, 21, and 55 in the Eastern Conference Finals.