Three things I am looking out for during the NBA's second half

The start of best part of the hoops season is here: the push to the playoffs

Cade Cunningham and the Pistons are ready for the stretch run (via detroitpistons Instagram)

It feels like I was just begging for the NBA season to start on this Substack. The summertime with no hoops outside of summer league is a long one.

But what do you mean there’s only a quarter of the regular season left??

It’s hard to believe that we are in the stretch run of this year, but the All-Star break has come and gone and we are off and running toward the NBA playoffs.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. That means there are only two more months of Sacramento Kings basketball left. Kings fans rejoice!

You guys should know by now that I will not pass up the opportunity for Kings slander.

From teams tanking for a better pick in a stacked class to teams angling for playoff seeding, there is a lot that is going to happen during the last two months of NBA basketball. Here are three questions I have.

Are we getting another new champion?

The great thing about the NBA over the last seven years has been the amount of parity we have seen from the league. We have had a new champion every year since 2019. That trend has a good chance of continuing this season.

Oklahoma City won it all last year, and while they are still dominant, they have shown to be vulnerable. The offensive creation outside of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looks shaky, and the lack of floor-spacing could come back to bite them.

They are also in a tough Western Conference that features the Denver Nuggets, who pushed them to seven games last year, the San Antonio Spurs, who have beaten the Thunder three times this season, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have appeared in the last two conference finals and look as good as ever.

In the East, it is also a four-horse race. The Detroit Pistons have been the number one seed for most of the season, and will likely have homecourt advantage throughout the East playoffs. The New York Knicks, the conference runner-up last season, are still a threat to make a run. The Cleveland Cavaliers are retooled with James Harden and have a roster that is built better for the playoffs. The Boston Celtics are still a threat and could have Jayson Tatum return.

I say all that to say this: any of these eight teams can win the championship this season. The fact that there are this many contenders this late in the season shows the amount of parity the league has. It will make for an exciting playoffs.

Could the American MVP drought end?

I predicted before the season that we would see the American MVP drought end. The last American player to win the award was James Harden in 2018.

Thanks to the 65-game requirement, my prediction could come true, but this is not how I expected this prediction to be right.

If he meets the requirement, Gilgeous-Alexander should win. However, he has already missed five games and is set to miss at least one more week due to an abdominal injury. Given OKC’s standing in the West, they have no reason to rush him back, so he could missed extended time.

Nikola Jokic missed extended time due to a knee injury, and he is only two games away from missing out on awards season. Same goes for Victor Wembanyama, who is only a few games away from missing out himself.

With those three in jeopardy of missing out on the MVP, this could leave us with Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, and Wolves guard Anthony Edwards as the leaders in the MVP conversation. They are both having career seasons and leading two of the best teams in the NBA.

Cunningham especially has taken it to another level, as he is controlling the game now. His 42-point performance against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden was an MVP-level performance.

As for Edwards, he has become a true three-level scorer, and has shown that he can punish double teams and extra defensive attention. He has gotten better every year of his career, but he has now become a true superstar.

The bottom line is that the MVP race is anything but decided and that could mean an American MVP for the first time in nearly a decade.

What is going to happen with Kawhi Leonard?

This is one of the more underrated storylines for the rest of the season.

Remember that whole fiasco with the company Aspiration? And how the Clippers were accused of using them to circumvent the salary cap and pay Kawhi Leonard?

Well, since that initial report, we have heard virtually nothing since about that case. Over the All-Star break, there were rumblings about a potential resolution coming, but no one has any idea what it could be.

If the NBA drops the hammer on this, that could mean forcing Leonard to become a free agent, and depending on the timing, he could be free to sign with any team on a minimum contract for the rest of the season.

Could you imagine Leonard joining a contender for the last part of the season? What if he goes to Denver? OKC maybe? What about Minnesota? In the East, maybe joining Detroit to be Cunningham’s co-star? A reunion in Cleveland with Harden? There is an endless range of possibilities.

The ruling the NBA decides on could change the landscape of the league and tighter restrictions when it comes to contract structure. It will be interesting to see what happens to Leonard.