#NBA2015: Players to Watch Part Four

With the 2014-2015 NBA season beginning in fewer than 10 days, I found it just right to look at some players we should all keep tabs on. There are no-brainers like LeBron, KD, CP3, and James Harden, of course, but there are also many other characters on whom we should put the spotlight. In this first of five parts, we’ll take a look at some key guys for the Pelicans, Knicks, Thunder, Magic, Sixers, and Suns.

Young guns rule in this edition of Players to Watch in the current NBA season.

Anthony Davis (NOL) - The New Orleans Pelicans are 1-1 right now and probably won’t make the Playoffs, but at least they have one of the top five players in the world lighting up the scoreboard of the Smoothie King Center every night. Anthony Davis is projected to be an MVP candidate this season, and it’s not difficult to see why. I mean, he’s a unibrowed beast who practically does everything — scores points, gets rebounds, blocks shots, destroys worlds, you know the drill. What’ll make him NOT be MVP, though, is the fact that, when the season’s dust settles, his team won’t be in the Playoffs.

The NBA: 2014 Free Agency Grades

With the essay announcement of LeBron James going home to Cleveland almost two weeks ago, the dominoes have fallen in the free agency signings. NBA teams scampered to woo, court and sign the remaining free agents. Here are the grades for the significant movements and acquisitions of the summer. Only those who changed teams are graded.

Paul Pierce and Pau Gasol are among the top players
 who changed allegiances during the off-season
(Image from: elitedaily.com)

1. LEBRON JAMES, MIKE MILLER, JAMES JONES - CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Grade: A+
Adding the best player in the league immediately makes the Cavs a contender while weakening the 4x Eastern champs, Miami Heat. LBJ is very influential within the Cavs' management that there are reports that James is pushing a potential trade of Andrew Wiggins with Anthony Bennett and/or Dion Waiters (maybe draft picks too) for Kevin Love. With or without this trade, the Cavs should be among the best in the East. Getting a solid shooter in Mike Miller will also help spread the floor for LBJ. To add more injury to insult, ex-Heat James Jones also bolted South Florida to join LBJ. Even Ray Allen is rumored to join the Cavs.

The NBA: January 2014 Position Battle – The Top 5 Point Guards Right Now

In this Position Battle post, we will focus on the top five point guards at this point in the season. Unlike our previous posts, though, this time we will take into account just the players’ stats for the latest five games of their respective teams. This will, hopefully, give us a more current picture of each player’s production.

Note: All of the following stats are based on each player’s stats as computed by HoopsStats.com. They were taken on January 10, 2014 (Manila time). Chris Paul actually has the highest EFF among all NBA PGs, but he played in just two of the Clippers’ last five contests, so I chose not to include him.

5. Steph Curry (GSW) – 24.2ppg, 8.8apg, 3.6rpg, 2.8spg, 2.8 triples per game, 89.3 FT%, 22.0 EFF

I hate his game-deciding turnover against the Nets, but let’s give Curry a break. The Warriors won 10 straight before that Brooklyn loss, and Curry was a bgi reason why. He had a bit of a slump against Milwaukee and Washington, but he did net five double-doubles in that win streak. Oh, and he also just surpassed CP3 in All-Star voting. Woot!

Steph Curry remains one of the league's
most productive playmakers.
(image by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)