Top 9s - Show and Prove

Welcome to Banter's newest feature: Top 9s.

The temptation to rank players, teams, events, dunks, plays or whatever else is almost inescapable for anyone with a brain and an opinion. I also happen to have an outlet, a boredom problem, and suffer from separation anxiety between early June and late October, so I figured having some rankings on here to pass time and spark discussion every now and then wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Why the Top 9? Well, it's just a 9.

Coming into every NBA season, there's players with something to prove: a spot in the NBA to secure, a starting job to battle for, a contract year to put on for. But some stakes are even higher; reputations, legacies: historical shit, not only for the players themselves, but sometimes they carry the weight of entire franchises and the expectations of countless fans on their shoulders. This adds another compelling layer to the NBA's dynamic story and lets us see who's truly made of fire underneath it all. So without further ado, the first edition of Top 9s: The Most to Prove This Season

9. Jeremy Lin

Seems like a logical place to start. Lin's flash in the pan last season caught the NBA's entire stove on fire and made a World-wide celebrity of a player who was out of work just weeks earlier. His controversial offseason departure from the team he'd briefly resurrected - something about a grown billionaire holding an insecure grudge like an 11 year-old girl - not only landed him on a new squad suddenly bereft of talent, but promised to make him a very rich man relative to his NBA accomplishments. We've seen plenty of guys go on tears for crappy teams and disappear before (the name Ronald Murray comes to mind) but Lin flipped the script involuntarily. When Houston inked him that back-loaded offer sheet, they promised to make him a poster boy for the League's spending issues, but when James Dolan felt spited and refused to match (which was just monumentally stupid. I know it's a lot of money, but this guy just made your team over twice the amount you're going to pay him over the next three years. In two months. Get over yourself.) Lin became a focal point of whatever the hell Houston's got going on this season. If he keeps up his level of play from last season, he'll easily be the best player on their team, put talks of his contract to rest, and ensure James Dolan get less of it. But it's that "if" part that has everyone wondering...

8. Zach Randolph

Last season was an absolute disaster for the Grizzlies. They came into 2012 with serious playoff ambitions for the first time in their franchise's history, and Randolph was being celebrated as the NBA's most lethal low-post threat. Well, Z-Bo tore his MCL and missed 37 games, throwing Memphis' season into a flux that set a dubious record along the way to putting the words "playoff disappointment" in a Grizzlies fan's vocabulary. After returning, Randolph wasn't his same self. Part of this was due to Memphis' inability to align him offensively with Rudy Gay, but also that Randolph tends to put on a rather convincing Yokozuna impersonation when sedentary. The months on the shelf made it harder to regain his form, being rushed back into the lineup in time for the playoffs. Reports from apparently reliable sources point to Randolph now being fully healed from the injury, and carrying around several less pounds than last year, which is sure to be easier on his legs. He'll have to be healthy and motivated to re-assert himself on the level he did in 2011, which the Grizzlies need wholly if they want to get back on the right end of playoff dream-crashing.

7. Deron Williams

Time was, a lot of people in the know considered Deron Williams the best point guard in the NBA. "Time" seems like an eternity ago, but this "was" around 2009 and since then, not only has the League's overall point guard talent blown up like the Gangnam Style video, but Williams has spent time on some very questionable teams, not to mention the wrong end of a feud that apparently ended Jerry Sloan's career (seriously, we're talking a 23-year tenure in a field where the average life expectancy of a position is worse than a hemophiliac wrapped in barbed wire in a shark tank - must've been some deep shit). Now that the Nets have found a new home with Deron locked into a long-term deal, they can start to build towards the lofty goals their celebrated owner has set for them, with Williams steering the ship. A lot of eyes will be on Brooklyn; they've been much-ballyhooed over everything from their flashy new arena, to their owner's ambitious 5-year title plan, to their attempt to resurrect a borough and revitalize The Mecca's basketball scene. And I also remember reading somewhere that Jay-Z's involved with the team apparently? Sounds cool. With the ante as high as it possibly could be for a team in a new city, a lot of it will rest of D-Will's shoulders after Dwight didn't happen and the team overpaid for the rest of its roster. If ever there was a time to boldly re-claim his status on the shaky PG totem pole, it's now.

6. Kobe Bryant

Regardless of how much he accomplishes in his storied career, Kobe's more or less a formality on this list. He's spent the past 15 years cultivating a niche as by far the most polarizing figure in the NBA (you hear that so much it becomes trite) by giving puritans, underdogs and most casual fans every reason to hate him, while spellbinding others with undeniable talent, bulletproof work ethic, and an indomitable love for the game. This season is the same story: coming off an inevitably-much-scrutinized 6th place showing in ESPN's #NBArank, Bryant will have to adjust his Bieber-like usage rate from last season and mesh his offensive tyranny with the Lakers' new arrivals if they hope to live up to the hype surrounding them. As his legacy would dictate, most of the skeptics' questions surround his role: "Will Kobe be OK with Nash controlling the tempo?", "How's he going to react when his shots get cut in half?", "Is the Staples Center locker room big enough for his and Dwight's ego?", "He's not the man anymore. He won't like it." But, as is perpetually the case with Kobe, no matter how he addresses these issues this season, you can count on there being more for him to face.

5. James Harden
In most cases, having a career year where you exceeded lofty expectations and won the 6th Man of the Year award would put you far away from having anything to prove. I use the word "you" because, unless you're James Harden, this hasn't happened to you. Setting the tone for this contradiction was Small Game James's complete dud of a Finals: put bluntly, he played by far his worst ball of the season when it mattered the most. As if that weren't enough, he spent the offseason watching free agents get thrown money like GMs were drunken, insecure recent Bellagio jackpot winners at the Spearmint Rhino, and demanded his own max money, driving a very awkward curveball into the Thunder's long-lingering long-term financial dilemma. Playing in a small market, with two max deals already on their roster (at least they extended Ibaka before he played himself into that conversation) Harden's threatened a divide in Sam Presti's plan to keep this young core together. He's currently a fringe max player at best (at least in anything even vaguely resembling a sustainable economic model) and Presti could get heaps in return from a team more able fork over the money Small Game James is seeking. The future of the Thunder's composition could very well lie on Harden's play this season, and whether he proves himself too valuable to lose.

4. Roy Hibbert

As you've probably figured out by now, the words "max deal" are being tossed around the NBA these days like "swag" and "YOLO" are by hip-hop wannabes, nowhere more evident than in Indiana, where ascribed All-Star Hibbert (who for argument's sake posted career bests of 12.8/8.8 last year, offering a defensive presence that, while valuable, was at-most 4th best among East centers) will be raking in as much money as he possibly can next season. The obvious questions are 1. "Does he deserve it?" and more importantly, 2. "Does this completely screw over the Pacers?" Neither can really be answered right now, because Hibbert is still only 25, has improved very dramatically over the past two years, and from all skills, conditioning, and attitude perspectives seems bound to continue. But the Pacers aren't prime candidates to bite the luxury tax bullet, and now have a ton of money tied up in Hibbert, while having made no significant upgrades this offseason. This means it'll up to guys like breakout-ready Paul George, and more so the dude this paragraph's about, to take Indiana further in a conference where they almost beat the NBA champs last spring, but have seemingly regressed against the competition up top.

3. John Wall
It was all too good to be true. Wall showed almost too much potential, his athletic ability was so far ahead of its time when he was drafted. He was Derrick Rose, only faster end-to-end; a perfect palette with which to paint a legendary point guard. Something had to go wrong. Enter the Washington Wizards. Enter Andray Blatche. Enter Nick Young. Enter Javale McGee. Rather than let his quarterbacking talents blossom, Wall was a relative daycare employee, and after a promising rookie campaign, hit a serious sophomore slump last season. Fortunately for him, the headaches appear to be gone; the immature mess that once marred the Wiz's roster has been replaced by stable veterans down low, and given way to another promising young gun (3rd pick Bradley Beal) to share Wall's backcourt. All the pieces appear to be in place for him to get back on the path to superstardom, but sometimes it's the immense amount of talent that's so difficult to harness. John Wall has all the potential in the World, but along with the possibilities, comes the potential for so much to go wrong.

2. Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James have been on very contrasting NBA journeys since their once-storied rivalry as high school and NBA rookie phenoms. Their stories met again this past year, linking up as Olympic teammates and putting on clinics as the US took the expected Gold. They face yet another indirect crossing as they return: in the same season James took himself from clear first to dead last (as in the entire League) on this list, Melo's inability to win became a popular topic among hoops pundits who wondered if he'd ever make the leap from hardcourt gunner to transcendent winner; be the Slim Charles of the NBA game (he's from B-More after all). Now almost a decade into his career with 0 Finals appearances under his belt, Anthony will be under the microscope like never before; his Olympic outbursts and triumph are fresh in everyone's minds, but we've all known he was a World-class scorer from Day One. What remains to be seen is everything else: Can he defend? Can he defer? Can he make those around him better? And, obviously, Can he win? Your move, Melo.

1. Dwight Howard
I'm sorta out of words at this point, not because I have a hard time justifying this slot or had a Writer's Block dropped on me, but there's really nothing more to be said about Dwight Howard that hasn't over the past 18 months. To sum things up for anyone who might be a new NBA fan or is simply nauseous from all the bullshit: Howard demanded a trade from Orlando, publicly denied it, then publicly confirmed, then denied it again (shit, who even really knows), mailed in all of last season, got his coach fired, attempted to model the team in his own image, got his GM fired when that didn't work, all the while acting immaturely in the media and with a lack of transparency that sabotaged his team's ability to move him effectively, so that when they ultimately were forced to, they got completely and utterly shafted. To say that he's humiliated the NBA would be a minor understatement, surely substantiating every negative stereotype about professional athletes held by the conservative public. The bad news for Dwight is that he's got a lot of making-up to do in the eyes of basketball fans. The good news for Dwight is that he landed in the proverbial Pot of (Purple and) Gold at the end of this shit-rainbow: he's on a team that's seriously threatening to take the NBA by storm, and as still the most dominant center in the League, he'll be right in the eye of it. Cue up "All Eyez on Me" and enjoy your season. 

Hardware Section: The 2012 NBA Awards

Quite the season it's been.

Considering us fans were 99.8% into the ditch of having no season at all, we should've been grateful for anything, but as we near the end of the most frenetic pre-playoff stretch in NBA history, we can at the very least say we've been thoroughly entertained. The quality of play may have been fleeting, as unpracticed, jet-lagged squads struggled through a workload that even their elite conditioning hadn't prepared them for, but we still had plenty to be happy about:

We got to watch two of the game's greats humbly dominate and lead their teams to the conference penthouse; Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant are still coming of age and have also become legends in the making. Meanwhile, we got to laugh at Dwight's INDecision, and saw the League's former favorite punching bag finally seem to have turned the corner with his unreal play and a sudden air of maturity. The NBA's most tantalizing highlight-reel-wet-dream of a combo was paired up and brought a playoff rivalry to the city of LA for the first time ever, while Kobe turned back the clock and reminded us that '06 wasn't THAT long ago. Kevin Love managed to blow up even bigger somehow, teaming with an almost-forgotten Spanish prodigy and an out-of-nowhere Montenegrin monster to lead the unlikeliest of revivals in Minnesota. We had plenty more to celebrate: Kyrie Irving, Serge Ibaka's Block Parties, Gerald Green (for one night), Javale Mcgee, and the awkwardly ironic sense of competitive parity that this season's hectic nature wrought upon professional basketball....And then there was Jeremy Lin.

So now, let us celebrate the best of the best, the truly elite; those who've beasted 66 games in 120 nights and laid claim to the most prestigious hardware in hoops, the 2012 Basketball Banter Awards:

Rookie of the Year: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers

Just as they were drying their tears from the Lebron era, Cleveland fans were blessed with another first overall pick; a parting gift after a season of misery. They invested it in Irving, who although having missed 9/10ths of his year at Duke, was a can't miss scorer/playmaker.

Few shrugged at the pick, and those who did developed season-ending shoulder stiffness very quickly. Irving was an instant offensive boost who performed in the clutch with veteran sagacity and made this a one horse race even before Rubio's wheels fell off. He may not be Queen James, but really, who is?

Regards to: Ricky Rubio, Kemba Walker, Kawhi Leonard

Defensive Player of the Year: Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

I have a really, really tough time doing this. It's tough because Dwight spent the entire year coasting, his thoughts more directed at the offseason than the postseason; he generally played with the relative intensity of a hormone-injected flamingo. It's tougher because he also undermined his entire team all year, distracting the players with his ongoing foolishness, while handicapping the front office, who lost a year to rebuild while their star flopped about until he got exactly his way. It's even tougher because many worthy competitors made compelling cases, especially Lebron James and Josh Smith, who have re-defined defensive versatility. But nonetheless, even at his worst, Howard's still the best defender in the league. He's just that good. If only he didn't know it.

Regards to: Lebron James, Josh Smith, Serge Ibaka

Coach of the Year: Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs

Some might call this a reputation pick. If you do, I really don't care because it's a total joke that Pop only has one of these trophies, and what happened in San Antonio this season was nothing short of miraculous. The Spurs were write-offs after their first-round dismissal last April; the Death of a Dynasty was proclaimed and people were realistically floating around the once inane concept of breaking up their Big 3. Obviously immune to that nonsense, Pop did as he's always done; made subtle lineup adjustments that kept the Spurs above water, instilling confidence that they'd play through and persevere, while making possibly the fewest XnO errors along the way. After a season that both pundits and fans agreed would be brutal on their aging stars, Pop has steered the Spurs to within two games of the best record in the West, and he's again managed to keep Tim Duncan as fresh as possible for their playoff run. It's a reputation that deserves padding.

Regards to: Tom Thibodeau, Lionel Hollins, Doug Collins

Sixth Man of the Year: James Harden, Oklahoma City Thunder

Very rarely does a player come into the race for an award like this with "it's his to lose" status. Watching him then not only meet those expectations, but laugh at them as Harden did this season, happens about as often as a Dr. Dre album release party. Harden made the entire league Fear the Beard with his adept combination of scoring and playmaking - the kind of seamless balance that's eluded a certain other OKC guard - while playing with a very high IQ that belies his bench status and suggests his ceiling's still a ways off. The numbers are huge, but even they don't tell the whole story. This was romp.

Regards to: James Harden's Beard, Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford

Most Improved Player: Nikola Pekovic, Minnesota Timberwolves

Thanks to a certain New York Knick, the MIP is sure to be more talked about this year than most; Jeremy Lin came out of absolutely nowhere at the perfect time for a reeling squad, and made an epic run that became the story of the season. The hype was incredible, somehow managing to distort reality to the point that something so sudden and historic seemed over-rated. That aside, I've thought about this one very hard, and can't give Lin the MIP for two reasons: first, obviously, he just didn't play enough; his emergence was late into an already-pint-sized season, and was unfortunately cut short. Second, I'm not so much convinced that Jeremy Lin improved as a basketball player, as that he exposed perhaps the greatest collective scouting fuck-up in NBA history.

Meanwhile, Pekovic spent last season as a 6-man, in that he came off the bench and was largely only useful for six fouls. Then this year, Darko Milicic went down (oh no!!), and by the second week of his baptism-by-fire as a replacement starter, Pekovic had evolved into a walking double-double who absolutely punished defenders on the low block and finished with the soft touch Darko couldn't develop after nine years. Nobody saw this coming. Nobody had Nikola Pekovic on their "breakout players" list going into this season; his evolution as a player was exactly what this award's about: a player who rose to the occasion when his team needed it, working his ass off to take his game beyond where anyone thought possible.

Regards to: Ryan Anderson, Jeremy Lin, Kyle Lowry

Most Valuable Player: Lebron James, Miami Heat

Hail the Queen! Two years ago, in my MVP writeup, I said it was going to be very difficult for Lebron James to impress us in the regular season anymore; that even at such a young age his dominance seemed redundant. Well, consider words eaten, as James hit a whole 'nother level this year: the ridiculous numbers were still there, only in fewer minutes. He notched even higher in the PER record books, upping his FG% by adding a once-absent low-post dimension to his game. He burned any faint memories of the once-nonchalant defender, becoming a guy who can now selectively take over games on D and makes a very convincing argument for being the most versatile defensive player in the history of the NBA. All he has to do now, is do it in the Finals.

Regards to: Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Chris Paul

Congrats to the Official Winners! Part 2, the UnOfficial Awards, drop later this week.

Rollin' a .5 - The Halftime Awards

As we creep up to the earliest All-Star game ever, the race for the NBA's annual awards is heating up and sure to be trendy conversation among hoop-heads over the next two months. Here's an early look at who should be getting some recognition; Banter's Halftime Awards

MVP - Lebron James, Miami Heat

It's kind of sick when you think about it really. The guy who'd been the NBA's #1 or #1a in everyone's eyes for several years came out and got noticeably better. Obviously shook by coming closer than he ever has to a title, only to spend a prolonged offseason hearing how he cost his team the chance to grasp it, Bron's been putting up ridiculous numbers while (understandably) playing the fewest minutes of his career. He's scoring at an insanely efficient rate and has Miami right where they should be despite injuries to Wade, roster shuffles, and the thrills of a 3 on 5 offense. It'll take a lot for someone to snare this from him.

Regards to: Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant

Rookie of the Half - Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers

This award was seemingly Irving's to lose from the get-go, and despite a rookie class that's outperformed its diminutive expectations, Irving's been its top performer and an instant dose of hope to a city whose basketball fans had no reason to have any. Ricky Rubio's been putting on a very impressive show with his flashy passing and incredible defense (seriously, he's on pace to become the first rookie to lead the L in steals. Ever.), but it almost seems as though his familiarity with the European game has lulled him into a false sense of security, thinking he can get away with a lot of fancy bullshit on offense that just doesn't fly in the NBA, and has cost his team multiple games down the stretch. Still should be a tight race, but give Irving the edge.

Regards to: Ricky Rubio, Kemba Walker, Iman Shumpert

Coach of the Half - Doug Collins, Philadelphia 76ers

Normally this award's a clusterfuck of subjectivity and misled voters who look at a team's improvement and automatically assume the coach had everything to do with it. Well, in this case, he did. Philly has (with one exception) the exact same roster as last season, and are on pace to improve from the 7th to 3rd seed in a suddenly tougher East. None of their players have had breakout seasons, just another year of tutelage from an underrated coach with a proven track record of successfully developing young talent. This one should be a no-brainer.

Regards to: Rick Adelman, Gregg Popovich, Frank Vogel

Defensive Player of the Half - Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

Tough call here, especially when you consider that the Magic aren't playing up to potential and Howard's listlessly cruising through the first half of this season while his this whole "trade" thing plays out. But even on cruise control, Howard's a game-changing force on D night-in and night-out (which, this year is tougher than any season), anchoring what, around him, are mostly average-at best defenders who've gotten comfortable having such a huge beast protecting the rim. This trophy's supposed to go the league's best defensive player, so that's who's getting it.

Regards to: Andre Iguodala, Tyson Chandler, Josh Smith

Sixth Man of the Half - James Harden, Oklahoma City Thunder

You could've safely made a bet on this one before the season started, and although Lou Williams is giving Harden some heat, he's even better than last year's playoff run and the most consistent, multi-faceted bench player in the NBA right now. His emergence as a legit 3rd scoring option has been critical for an OKC bench that would otherwise rely on their stars for half their points every night. His team's on top of the West and Harden's looking as though his ceiling hasn't been hit yet.

Regards to: Lou Williams, Mo Williams, Al Harrington

Most Improved Player: Jeremy Lin, New York Knicks

This pick might be....Controversial. I figure not everyone's on board as the only person I've really discussed this with this week (someone whose opinion I value) thinks I'm dead wrong. Maybe I am. Maybe I'm a victim of the hype; this guy was a nobody two weeks ago. But the way I see it, in the context of this award, Jeremy Lin has just had the most impressive two weeks in NBA HISTORY. Surely that's enough to make him the favorite in a season we haven't even played two months of yet.

Regards to: Kyle Lowry, Ryan Anderson, Nikola Pekovic

Who The Hell is Jeremy Lin?

Just last week, you would have represented an overwhelming majority of the general public, and even a large spectrum of NBA fans, if you uttered those words. My, how times change. Now, everyone (and I do mean everyone) knows a lot more about Jeremy Lin:

Jeremy Lin is a Harvard graduate.

Jeremy Lin is the NBA's first Asian-American player.

Jeremy Lin was undrafted, and ten days ago, didn't know if he'd have a guaranteed contract for the rest of the season.

We know this because, against every fathomable degree of logic and probability, Jeremy Lin came out this week for a floundering team without its two best players and dropped the highest-scoring trio of debut starts in NBA history; all W's.

I just watched him lead his team to another victory, hanging 20 and 8 on a suddenly legitimate Minnesota team, and felt under-whelmed...Remember this is Jeremy Lin we're talking about here, 20 and 8 in a W doesn't underwhelm me unless you're Lebron James or you've been sucking for my fantasy team (...Russell....). What's this World coming to? You can't make this shit up, it's too unreal...Hell I should probably stop writing this right now and get the jump on penning a script for Linsanity: An Underdog Story. In my MIP post last week, I spoke of the various factors that have come together to make unlikely breakouts not all the unlikely this year, and a perfect storm of those variables has created one of the most out-of-nowhere -and certainly sudden - stars in pro sports history. That he's doing it on basketball's biggest stage, for a team who would've traded Walt Frazier's closet for legitimate point guard, makes it even more ridiculous.

Jeremy Lin's story has come along at the perfect time as well. A couple weeks ago, The BS Report talked about how this season's hectic, action-filled schedule was perfect for the on-the-fly social media generation that can watch several games at once, while receiving Twitter updates and harassing the friends they just passed in their online pool. Consequently, Lin's spellbinding story (and really, it sounds ridiculous, but there's nothing else to call it) has rippled much further than it would've ten, even five years ago. The internet's more ubiquitous than ever, and in total pandemonium about what's going on: This morning, after dumping 38 on Kobe and the Lakers, Lin headlined NBA.com's front page, but also ESPN's, and even on Yahoo!, MSN, and even CNN before news of Whitney Houston's passing broke.

I feel like this is big. "News", by and large, as we've come to know it, is garbage. Most of what we're exposed to as mass-media-minions in today's unavoidably informative society is either depressing rhetoric about foreign wars, gun violence, and the trillions of ways to give yourself cancer, or agenda-pushing horseshit that's hardly worth its weight in the salt you should take it with. We're (to some extent) being suppressed by this overload of negative information, because let's face it, it's what people are going to tune in for.

Rarely does such an improbable and non-polarizing feel-good story come along, and that it's permeating into a media pool that's inundated with tragedy and dishonesty is promising. This sounds corny, but plain and simple, the World needs more inspiration; more Jeremy Lins, more reasons to celebrate successes and believe that with driven application, it can be duplicated. If even one little kid, who doesn't watch basketball and never otherwise would've heard of Jeremy Lin, sees him on TV, thinks his story's cool, and gains the confidence to strive for something big and improbable, then we're all better off.

It's going to be interesting to see how Jeremy Lin adapts to having his name known; not only is he suddenly one of the NBA's biggest celebrities, but he'll have a target on him every time he steps onto the floor and won't be taking anyone by surprise ever again. Things are gonna be changing very quickly for him, and even though we feel like we know everything there is to know about Jeremy Lin after this crazy week, we're about to find out much more...