Flip side of the coin! Ray Allen - Unlike Spree, has followed up his contract demands by leading Seattle to a shocking 6-1 record, knocking over big teams in the process. Has been scoring at a career high pace (26 ppg) with blistering hot 52% shooting (60% from 3!). Dirk "Diggler" Nowitzki - responded to the upsetting lose of his best friend with nearly 28 ppg, also on 52% shooting. If you saw what he did to Miami last week, you know how ludicrious his game has become. Dallas is 7-1, most wins in the league. Manu Ginobili - Signed a big contract and kicked back. Well, kicked around what would be career highs in scoring, assists, steals, FG%, and rebounds. Check out his scoring averages: 8 in year 1, 13 last year, and now he's gunning over 20. Dwane Wade - Who's the real sidekick? Shaq was supposed to clog the lane and smother Wade's game, but he's jumping off his great showing in Greece by becoming the #6 scorer and #7 passer in the NBA and simply torching teams in the process. Kevin Garnett - leading his team in every stat category but FT% and 3 pointers. Don't knock his MVP trophey. How does 25-7-and 15 sound? Andrei Kirilenko - Utah is 5-1, looking tighter than even some of the Malone&Stockton squads, and AK47 is continuing to terrorize the league by nearly averaging as many blocks (5) as rebounds (6). Amare Stoudamire - Whether he or Yao will be the better player still hasn't been decided conclusively yet, as Amare continues to produce bigger numbers. 25, 9, and 2 blocks look good, especially when they're coupled with a fiery 5-2 team. Steve Nash - The man most responsible for the Suns' turnaround is also leading the L in assists. LeBron James - Distancing himself from Carmelo every game, and is now leading the league in scoring, along with almost 6 assists and 9 rebounds. The doubters can leave the building at anytime. Evan
I would say right now, Ray Allen and Lebron James are off to the best starts this season. We'll see how far it takes them but a good start none the less
It's funny how we only want to pile on the players who are having questionable starts and I guess refuse to give some props to those who are playing well. Ray Allan - One of the most underrated players in the game. That guy's on a long ass hot streak, actually his whole team is on fire right now, he deserves some respect and that's why he got a player of the week award. Dirk Nowitski - How many people thought he'd struggle without Steve Nash? He's playing better without him and with a rookie as the starting point guard, he's taking the leadership role himself which seems to be pretty tough for a European guy to do, and he's playing good defense which is almost impossible for a European guy to do. I almost voted for him... Manu Ginobili - He's doing all of what Evan said and I'm not too sure if he's even playing 30 minutes a night with Brown and Barry pushing Popovich for playing time. Dwayne Wade - Last season he was the most underrated rookie the NBA has seen in a long time and if it wasn't for Shaq he would be one the most underrated players in the NBA right now. Sadly, once Shaq starts dominating again there will be dudes out there dogging Wade and refusing to give him credit because he plays with Shaq. Where's all those guys who would of taken Kirk Hinrich over him??? Kevin Garnett - There's nothing more to be said about this guy, he's putting up some sick numbers and you don't hear too much about him because this is nothing unusual for him. Andrei Kirilinko - The Sports Guy put it best... Here's the thing: We can break down baseball players with all these elaborate stats like OPS, win shares, zone ratings and everything else. Yet there's nothing in basketball that can quantify the impact of someone like Kirilenko, who might be the ultimate example of my Table Test -- basically, he doesn't do anything detrimental to your team; he's a 50-percent shooter who's unselfish almost to a fault; and he's evolved into a dominating, Pippen-like defensive presence who's three times as likely to force a turnover than make one himself. He takes NOTHING off the table. Not a thing. He's even been working on his Drago-like sneer after big threes. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/041116 The Jazz are killing teams right now mainly because of him, and they played well last season mainly because of him, his last season was very, very, very underrated, his team lost two Hall of Famers and they only lost 5 more games. Almost voted for him as well... Steve Nash - I'm pretty sure I picked the Suns to win the Pacific and Mike D'Antoni to win Coach of the Year, mainly because of Steve Nash. I can't vote for him though because he has so much talent on that team all they needed was a leader, finally they got one. Lebron James - I voted for him. He's the funnest player in the NBA to watch now-a-days, by a wide margin as well, especially in the 4th quarter. Where are those doubters? I wish I would of taken some names down. The only thing against him is that his team is only 4-3 instead of 6-1, still he's 19, 19, he's 19, 19! and outside of Big Z that team isn't all that great. The kid is soo much better, I mean forget his insane stats and his improved defense, I think he understands the game better than most all star veterans right now. The flow of his game within the game is soo smooth you hardly even notice him until the 4th quarter once he already has 25/5/5. Well, obviously my vote goes for him and I'm off to order his new shoes...
i would like to vote but they are all having a great start. its hard to tell who is having the best. i would say KG but he is the MVP he is supposed to have the best game. i guess i would say LBJ is having the best improved start, with manu right behind him. rayray is having the best unexpected start.
