Excerpt from ProBasketball-fans.com

We are just two weeks in, but already there is a lot of chatter surrounding early success and failure in the league.  Here’s a look at five of these topics trending over a latte at a coffee shop near you.

1.        James Harden ( Houston Rockets)
The Western Conference Player of the Week was lights out his first two games (and just great in his third).  I guess the surprise is the instant volume of stats he is producing.  This shouldn’t be that big of a deal given he has a much larger role with Houston and has the ball in his hands more often.

PREDICTION: Harden will not average 40ppg, but will be in the top 10 in scoring this year.

2.        The New York Knicks
Maybe the greatest factor for the Miami Heat’s title run last year was the move of LeBron James to power forward.  With Amar’e Stoudemire out, Carmelo Anthony is also playing in the post and is overall much more productive.  Anthony is streaky so I would expect a slight drop, but the Knicks are also playing great team defense that I also expect to drop due to their, veteran (uh, old age) players.

PREDICTION: The Knicks will not go undefeated and will not compete with Miami for the top of the Eastern Conference.

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David S. Grant is an author of ten books, rock columnist, travel writer, and NBA blogger.  Follow David at .david_s_grant or visit Click here