NBA High Five

In the words of George Costanza after eating some peaches 'I'M BACK BABY!!'

I've spent a week up in Portland checking out Voodoo Donuts, Mt. Hood, spawning salmon, sturgeons, a huge book store and, oh yeah, a Blazers game.

I also ventured down to San Jose to check out the Sharks play the Flyers and then headed north to San Francisco for some Golden Gate Bridge-Alcatraz-China town-Dim Sum-vampire tour action.

1. Is Brandon Jennings being hyped up too early?

Hmmm. B.J is doing the job for the Bucks leading his team to a 8-4 record (currently good for 5th in the East), but I think it has more to do with the type of player he is than his overall ability. Asides from a win against the Denver Nuggets  the Bucks have had a pretty light schedule. Every team they have played has no defensive first philosophy - maybe asides from the Bobcats, and the style of play has really been conjusive for putting up points in bunches. I'd say the Bucks look like a 7th-8th seed at best though. They haven't beaten anyone asides from a depleted Nuggets lineup who were playing the 2nd game in a back-to-back, the first a gruelling contest in Chicago.

All the hype has been around Jennings and his unique story - a man who left the States to play in Europe, sruvived and matured, and came back to be taken in the middle of the 1st round of the 2009 dradft and put up 55 points in a game, the 5th best ever by a rookie, the best since 1968, and the best ever by a Buck (even usurping Kareem Abdul-Jabaar - at that tim Lew Alcindor).

Look. just throttle back everyone. Sure it's a sexy story but the NBA and the media are too eager to crown a rising player as the next big star. Ten years ago we were all talking about Vince Carter and looked what happened to him. Sure he's a decent player but he certainly didn't turn into the next Michael Jordan torch carrier. Despite Vince falling short, he has had a great career with numerous all-star performances and any young player such as Jennings would be lucky to have a career as good as Vince's.

Jennings has been annointed more due to circumstance. Asides from the schedule being nice, Jennings had to pick up the scoring load as the Bucks have absolutely no other creators on their team. Michael Redd's injury is the best thing that could have happened to the team in actual fact. Redd is a good player, but he's got Allen Iverson disease - he's a scorer, a volume shooter who removes every other player on the team from the offense.

The best evidence of this is the play of Andrew Bogut. Despite playing with Redd for 3 solid seasons, he always looked lost on offense - possibly feeling that he'd be more productive munching on some chili fries while riding the courtside seats on offense. Now with Jennings running the offense, Bogut looks so much better.

This is what Jennings provides the team and is the reason why they are winning, not because he can score and has put up some big numbers on the scoreboard. Any player playing poor competition with the ball in their hands 95% of the time on offense can put up those kinds of numbers. Just relax everyone - let the kid settle into the season, which we all know usually sees rookie's effectriveness dip after the all-star break.

To sum up: Brandon Jennings is a good player that still has a long way to go. He is only been annointed as a star due to circumstance. Let's hope this helps make him better and doesn't crush him.

2. Kobe Bryant - the finest cut of all the Bryant's

I have a fond memory of watching a Sun's telecast with Dan Majerle behind the mic as the analyst. As a time-out was called and they replay the defining score for the last 2 minutes and they cut to commercial Dan Majerle yells out in Wedding Crashers style 'MAA! THE MEATLOAF!!!'

Kobe Bryant is anything but meat loaf. Kobe is still the finest slab of meat on the block, his daily massages loosening him up and enabling him to maintain a standard of play that so few are gifted to demonstrate..

Against the Thunder on Sunday night it was vintage Kobe. If you haven't seen the game make sure you jump on Youtube and check out some of the higlights packages that have been put together. He put together so many highlights he could have filled out a monthly Top 10. He'd have them all if Dwayne Wade had not have exploeded over Anderson Varejo.

This season Kobe seems to really be evolving his game so that he can still be a dmoninant force for years to come. If you remember one Michael Jordan, he used to be considered a ball hog in the late 80's, costing him a couple of MVP trophies - but he was playing on a team that was developing and he had the ball in hands just so much, Kobe's story has followed Michael's to a tee. Jordan became a low post force later in his career and Kobe has now taken over that role in the triangle offense. Another 3 peat anyone?

3. Thanks for the tickets Rich!

A massive high five has to go to Rich in Portland who shouted me a couple of tickets for the Blazers-Pistons game. Awesome seats, centre court ten rows from the front on the players side. Rich has been following Portland and a season ticket holder since the Blazers first entered the league in 1970.

A great night was had by Sherry and myself. Despite the game being sub-par, it was great to see Brandon Roy, Greg Oden and Lemarcus Aldridge doing their thang. Ben Gordon and Charlie V. also looked pretty comfortable in their new Piston duds.

4. Don't jump ship too early sailor!

I dont know why everyone is so quick to jump off teams who have been consistently doing it for the past 4 years. Sure the balance of power does change over time but I can't believe how teams like the Spurs, Hornets and Jazz have been rankede so poorly recently.

The Spurs know how to get it done and are a playoff team. Gee Pop knows that the regular season counts for little (despite possibly menaing more this season than in any other) due to his aging lineup. The Spurs are yet to play with a fully healthy roster. If the Spurs are 100% healthy come April watch out for this team. Imagine if they fniish 8th, take on the Lakers and win the first game of the series. How quickly will everyone change their tunes then?

The Hornets and Jazz are not top 4 teams, but they will still make the playoffs. Chris Paul and David West are just too good a tandem to not make it. Same goes for any team run by Deron Williams. Boozer has been ordinary, but the Jazz have been severly hit by the injury bug. They willl be back in a big way as the season settles in.

Washington's ranking really blows my mind, they are ranked down near the bottom yet they defeated the Cavs. Sure they may not grab back my pre-season predicted 4th spot in the East. But they are still definitely a playoff team. A new coach, injured players, returning stars still finding their way - it's going to take time for the Wiz but they will be in the mix come playoff time. Trust me.

5. Top Performers

Tyreke Evans (Sac) - 28 pts (10-18), 7-7 FT, 4 asts, 4 rebs, -12 rating
Rudy Gay (Mem) - 24 pts (10-17), 8 rebs, 3 stls, +15 rating
Tim Duncan (S.A) - 24 pts (9-17), 12 rebs, +12 rating
Lemarcus Aldridge (Por) - 24 pts (10-16), 13 rebs, +16 rating
Matt Bonner (S.A) - 23 pts (7-10), 6-8 3ptrs, 6 rebs, +26 rating
Al Thornton (Lac) - 31 pts (11-16), 9-9 FT, 10 rebs, +6 raing

The MAYNE MAYNE is...

Greg Oden (Por) - 24 pts (7-8), 10-12 FT, 12 rebs, 2 blks, +7 rating in 27 minutes

Has Greg Oden turned the corner? Recent numbers suggest so. Maybe picking Oden over Durant wasn't such a bad thing after all.