The NBA regular season is just about halfway through. After the halfway mark of the season, let’s take a glimpse at a few of the best and worst of the season.

Coach of the Year; Terry Stotts (Portland Trailblazers) The 2nd year Head Coach with the Blazers seems to have them in great shape, and believing in themselves. The Blazers have been a clean example of offensive dominance under Stotts, ranking them in top 5 in 8 offensive categories. He made a few adjustments and now they have things going in the right direction. He has them scoring 109/gm (best since 1991) with 3 players scoring 17+ they are very entertaining to watch.

Biggest surprise team; Portland Trailblazers. The Trailblazers who were in the letdown group last season at 33-49 on the year, have already won 79% of their win total already. They had a horrible season last year, what was expected this year from them in Portland? A real load of natural ability with LaMarcus Aldridge, and Damian Lillard, most notably, that had to be straightened out, going forward.

Biggest letdown team; Memphis Grizzlies. After going 56-26 in 2012 and making it to the playoffs, they were the up and comers to be heading into the NBAs future. This year they are 20-20, and presently on the outside looking in to the playoffs. I think most expected the Grizzlies to be challenging for the division in the Southwest. Last year at this time they were war-ridden against San Antonio, and they were in controversy as one of the best defensive teams. They are woeful, struggling for wins, and giving up 7 more points a game. Zach Randolph needs to get back to playing big, he is falling back, as well as Marc Gasol, who was being crowned as the next big defensive beast.

The best team in NBA ; Indiana Pacers, this is hard to judge, with the Heat and Spurs still top end teams as well, but they have awesome defense with a great cohesive unit, who is stopping teams for 88.3 ppg. They have splendid paint coverage with Roy Hibbert, Beating them with the 3 ball, not so much, they are best in the league guarding that also, at 32% shooting.

The worst team in the NBA; Milwaukee Bucks. The broken Bucks have yet to win double digit games on the year. Even a terrible team should be able to win a few now and then, putting together losing streaks of 5 or more 3 times already on the season, including streaks of 9+ on 2 occasions. They are being beaten by 9+ a game thus far, they have no indication what the state of affairs really is and cannot score or rebound the ball regardless of the lineup, 1 shimmering hope is young Brandon Knight, who at this point should get 17-18 shots/game, even at the PG position.

Defensive rookie of the year; Michael Carter-Williams (PG, Philadelphia 76ers) The rookie from Syracuse has been a massively superb player for the 76ers, across the board, starting at PG for the Sixers. And has been keeping teams honest with his ability to play tight, and make teams come off him, with his quick hands getting 2.5 steals/ night, but per 48 minutes his game is sick at 3.47.

Offensive rookie of the year; Michael Carter-Williams (Philadelphia 76ers) Carter-Williams has blown nearly all away with his surprisingly excellent play. He has played so much better than everyone had foreseen, with several others gaining so much more attention, MCW was easily the steal so far, dropping to 11th pick, scoring 18 a game, 6 boards and 7 assists, he seems to have the "it" factor. MCW was projected to be a high-quality PG, but so far I would say ROY in my opinion.

Defensive player of the year; Anthony Davis (PF, New Orleans Pelicans) getting his team 3 swats per game, and not fouling opponents while doing it. So far, Davis has been money for a Pelicans and we have another half to go. The 20 year old quick handed PF, who is also getting almost 2 steals/game, is having a great year covering some of the best big men in the league, his best season in his career.

Most Valuable Player; Kevin Durant (SF, Oklahoma City Thunder) I could sum it up with one statement, astounding. Scoring at almost 31 a clip, 30.9ppg, 7.8 rpg and dishing 5.1 apg, his scoring streaks have been nothing short of amazing so far. Durant has come back from some folks jumping on him for being "too kind, or soft" to lead the Thunder to a 32-10 record at midpoint, and opening up all sorts of alternatives in the the game for them. He is incredibly only behind Carmelo, for leading rebounding SF. So glad to see demolishing competition, like we have been awaiting to see him do, without pity, for sometime now.

Let’s get all set for the upcoming 2nd half of the season; it’s been excellent and exciting so far. I can’t see any reason why the 2nd half can’t get even better!

Written by TonyK of VegasTopDogs.com