Eddie- Atlantic Divison (o)

Well right now in the NBA no other division is as terrible as the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference is. There is not one team in this division that is above .500 right now. The Atlantic Division consists of Boston, Toronto, Brooklyn, New York and Philadelphia. Obviously this conference looked as it would be good in the beginning of the season but with Brooklyn and New York being busts so far into the season it is extremely uncompetitive. Brooklyn is playing awful so far due to many injuries that they have obtained so far due to almost all of there players being so old. Also there are many questions surrounding how effective Jason Kidd's coaching techniques are. New York is just in shambles as it seems like absolutely nothing that they do is working the only plus that comes out of New York is Carmelo is playing phenomenal coming in second in scoring this season only behind Durant. Right now leading the division are the Boston Celtics at 12-14 who are playing very well given the expectations many people had for them in the beginning of the season. They are a group of young guys who play hard and leave it all out on the court every night. At the bottom of the division is the Philadelphia 76's who started off the season very well but now are playing to terrible standars people set for them in the beginning of the season. They are now 7 and 19. So hopefully someone is this division can emerge as a playoff/ championship contending team because as of right now no one looks like it. It is absolutely terrible and in shambles. Step Up Atlantic Division!

Edward-ESPN Issue New Power Rankings (o)

So ESPN has just issued their weekly Power Rankings of all the NBA teams and atop their list are the early Eastern Conference favorites Indiana Pacers. Indiana has the best record in the NBA right now at 20-3 along with this they also had a very impressive win over the Miami Heat that you all know beat the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. The Pacers rallied back from a 10 point deficit in the second quarter to win the game. Fun fact though while Lebron guarder Paul George which was the first and second quarter George only had 2 points. When Lebron did not guard George he had 15 points something to look forward at as the season progresses. Coming in number 2 in the raankings were the surprise of the season the Portland Trailblazzers who are just playing phenominal basketball. LaMarcus Aldrige is having MVP statistics so far and so is Damian Lillard. Portland looks like the team to beat right now and they already have impressive wins over San Antonio and Oklahoma City. In third was OKC who are playing equally as good. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant are absolute superstars and Reggie Jackson is coming into his own as well. Now in the number 4 spot in the power rankings are the San Antonio Spurs. San Antonio has four loses on the year all against quality teams (Houston,Portland,OKC,Indiana).after a slow start for Tim Duncan it appears that he is emerging back as the superstar role he has help for many years now. Rounding out the top 5 are the defending back to back world champions the Miami Heat. Lebron is having another MVP season shooting over 60 percent from the field. Dwayne Wades knee is always a question but he is also playing exponentially well. The Heat take on Indiana tonight at home and Lebron's status is questionable due to his ankle injury that he suffered last game. It sure should be an interesting game to watch!

Austin- Western Conference (o)

This weekend, we saw some intriguing match-ups, inter-conference and divisional rivalries included. First off, Kobe led the Lake Show to their first win since his return. Kobe dropped 21 as LA outscored the Bobcats 24-17 in the 4th. CP3 dropped 38 (wow) as the Clipps dismantled the Wizards (no surprise). Portland improved their road record to 10-2 as they put up 138 points on the 76'ers. LaMarcus Aldridge scored 20 and grabbed 16 boards. The Dallas Mavericks were the only team from the west to lose an inter-conference match up as Monta Ellis was less than impressive in his first game against the Bucks since leaving the team. In conference games, the Jazz (6-20) fell to the hot Spurs (19-4). No surprise here, the Spurs are simply better in 4 out of 5 spots. On Sunday, the Kings hosted an upset against the Rockets. Gay scored, Cousins rebounded, and Isaiah passed. Shockingly, Thomas out played Lin, Gay out played Harden, and Demarcus Cousins out played Howard. The Timberwolves improved to .500 as they beat the Grizzlies, who have a losing home record as it is. K-Love scored 30. End of story. In the 2nd night of back-to-back games the Blazers beat the Pistons in impressive fashion. This game went to OT, and Damian Lillard hit a fade away with .1 seconds left to give Portland a 111-109 win. I'm not completely sure how it happened, but the Blazers are legit. The Thunder beat the Magic. Wow how shocking. Said no one ever. The Nuggets pulled out a W against the Pelicans, and the Suns beat the Warriors at home and pick up their 5th straight win. So in conclusion, here's what we learned this weekend out west; 1. The western conference is real. 2. The Portland Trail Blazers are real. 3. The Rockets may not be as real as we think. 4. Kobe's back. 5. He's old.

Austin- North West Conference (o)

This week, the Take Charge Vlog narrowed in on the North Western conference. That conference consists of the Jazz, Blazers, T-Wolves, Nuggets and Thunder. Portland leads the division (and the conference) with an 18-4 record, which includes 9-2 records both at home and on the road. The Blazers are followed by OKC, Denver, Minnesota and Utah. Portland is having a Cinderella story of a season to this point, as they are shocking the NBA world. LaMarcus Aldridge leads the Blazers with 23 points per game and 10 boards a game. Damian Lillard, last years rookie of the year, is scoring 20 points a night. He also dishes 6 assists per game and shoots 41% from 3 point land. Wesley Matthews, the Blazers swingman shoots 48% from downtown so far this year. To put these numbers into perspective, the greatest numbers in NBA history are 53%. Next in the divisional standing we find the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are once again led by the league's leading scorer Kevin Durant. As all-star Russell Westbrook returns from injury, the Thunder only look to improve. Next in the standing are the Nuggets, led by Ty Lawson, who's having a MVP like season so far. Scoring 20 points and 10 assists a night. The Nuggets have been injury plagued so far this year, but as guys such as Wilson Chandler and Galanari make their returns to the lineup, the Nugs look to improve as the season continues. That's all for now, but stay tuned as Take Charge continues!

eddie- Dismantled Eastern Conference (n)

We are now over a month into the NBA season and the Eastern Conference is easily emerging to be the worst conference out of the two. So far there are only 2 teams in the Eastern Conference that are above .500 those two teams include last year champions Miami and Indiana. Indiana is leading the Eastern Conference at 17-2 and are also atop the NBA with that record as well. Right now at 3rd place in the Eastern Conference is Atlanta with a 10-10 record they are obviously behind Miami and the Pacers. In 4th place in the conference is division leading Boston at 8-12 which is absolutely repulsive. From there on out you have Washington in 5th, Detroit in 6th, Chicago at 7th and finally rounding out the top 8 is the Charlotte Bobcats with a 8 and 11 record. The Eastern Conference is defiantly in turmoil and even teams that had high expectation are having horrific starts to the seasons. New York and Brooklyn collectively have 9 wins and 27 loses, both teams had high play off aspirations this year and so far are not playing well. On the other hand the Western Conference is extremely difficult this year. The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the bottom 3 of the Western Conference at 9 and 10 which would be good enough to land them at 4th place in the Eastern Conference. That s a huge 9 spot jump from what they are now! As you can see this is just showing how absolutely horrendous the Eastern Conference truly is. Hopefully as the season progresses some teams will emerge as heavy hitters in the Conference but until then we will have to gruesomely watch.

Austin- Western Conference (n)

On our Youtube Channel; Take Charge Hoops, our recent video talks about our predictions for award winners. Since on this blog I specifically cover the Western Conference, I'll give my predictions for the Western Conference awards, as if such awards existed. First, my Western Conference MVP is Chris Paul, he's also my winner for the entire league. He's the one guy in the west that does it all. He scores, assists, plays excellent D, and he leads. He's really been the center piece to the up-and-coming Clippers franchise. And tossing the ball up to names such as Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan doesn't hurt his campaign. Next, my West rookie of the year goes to Trey Burke. He's playing on a struggling Jazz team, but this may not be such a bad thing for his campaign. He's already showing leadership qualities in Utah. He leads the Western rookies in scoring with almost 13 ppg, and he adds 3.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds to his average as well. In my personal opinion, the top two rookies in the league (Michael Carter-Williams and Victor Oladipo) both reside in the East. However, Burke is the best in the west. My defensive player of the year was originally Dwight Howard, but I have changed my mind. Now, I pick Anthony Davis, the Pelicans center. The athletic big man averages 10 boards and 1.6 steals per game. He also blocks a league high 3.6 blocks per game. He's got my vote! Most improved player of the year has got to go to Ty Lawson. He's average almost 20 points and over 10 assists a game. The Nuggets are struggling with things like injuries and new coaching, but Lawson hasn't seem to have had any negative effects yet. He's become the leader of that squad, and still hasn't reached his prime yet. Coach of the year for me goes to Kevin McHale. The Rockets coach has quite the job this year, as he has 3 star caliber players and simply has to work through the egos to make something amazing happen. The Rockets are a dangerous team in the West, and Kevin McHale is a big reason for it. My All-Western Conference line up goes as follows; PG Chris Paul SG James Harden SF Kevin Durant PF Anthony Davis C Dwight Howard Since I'm in a good mood, here's my back ups as well PG Stephen Curry SG Russell Westbrook SF Kawhi Leonard PF Blake Griffin C LaMarcus Aldridge If I needed to finsh off the roster with 4 more guys, they'd be: DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Iguodala, Ty Lawson and Marc Gasol