The Wizards lack of a serious low post presence is part of the reason why they struggled against Miami.  Michael Beasley started off guarding Etan Thomas yet the Wizards did not take advantage of that matchup despite Thomas’ 30 pound weight advantage.  Thomas would roam the perimeter setting picks and rolling to the basket, but at no point did he set up down low, call for the ball or take it to the basket strong.  JaVale McGee is a force on defensive end but on offense he primarily scored on putbacks and lobs despite being guarded by 6’7″ Shawn Marion and 6’8″ Udonis Haslem.

Welcome back to another season of the Blogger MVP and ROY Rankings! For those of you who are new to this, the guys at BrewHoop organized a bi-weekly blogger poll, ranking the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year candidates in the NBA. BrewHoop hosted the first installment last season and now, right here at Hoops Addict, we’ve got the debut for the 2008/09 season.

Every college basketball season we come in thinking we know the star players, freshman and coaches that will be the storylines of the season.  And every year we are shocked when new faces and names emerge from virtual anonymity into nightly SportsCenter highlights.

Some are already proven stars on teams yet to breakout.  Others were good last year but will step into bigger roles this season.  And a few were already premiere players that are ready to take the next step into the status of “household name.”

Here are the ten players you need to know for the upcoming college basketball season.

After a weekend of play, virtually all of college basketball’s ranked teams have played. With it, there have been some changes to our pre-season Top 10 list as Hoops Addict unveils its first edition of the 2008-2009 College Basketball Power Rankings.

When people think of the Philadelphia 76ers they generally think of Elton Brand, Andre Miller or Andre Iguodala. This season there’s a new name to add to that mix as Thaddeus Young is emerging as a key part of the Sixers present and future.

The big news today was Andrea Bargnani being inserted into the starting five while Jose Calderon didn’t play due to his hamstring. Even though Toronton was missing their floor general they still responded with a big 107-96 win over Miami to snap their current two game losing steak.

The big news this weekend surrounding the Toronto Raptors was Andrea Bargnani being inserted into the teams starting five. After over a year as heralding Bargnani as the teams future at centre and spending last summer working out at a big man camp in Las Vegas, it caught a lot of people who follow the team and fans by surprise to see him inserted as the teams new starting small forward.

Play is vastly underrated. While we understand the importance of executing fundamentals correctly, we do not understand the best way to develop these fundamentals. More to the point, we cringe when kids make mistake after mistake and we want to show them the right way. However, learning is a series of mistakes and people learn best when they figure out things for themselves.

James Posey is not an All-Star. Surprisingly he is not even a member of the All-Defensive Team. Yet the newest member of the New Orleans Hornets holds the key to his team’s chances of winning it all next spring.

Defense is what won this game for the Wizards. After giving up an average of 109 points a game in their first five losses, they finally gave a stellar defensive effort for 48 minutes.  They had 11 steals, 10 blocked shots, held the Jazz to 43% shooting and they forced 17 turnovers.  Given that Coach Jordan said in his pregame conference that this pick and roll offense was nearly impossible to stop or slow down, this was significant.