Twenty-four games into the NBA season, Mo Williams went down with a thumb injury. Little did he know that he would be spending the better part of three months on the shelf for the Utah Jazz. The timetable isn’t quite definite for when the point guard will be returning to the fold, but we know that it will be sooner than later, giving the Jazz a real boost in their push for the playoffs in the Western Conference.

DeMar DeRozan has quietly become a huge success for the Raptors. He is having the best season of his four-year career, averaging 17.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. Many figured that when Gay came to take, DeRozan would fall off of the map, but that just hasn’t been the case.

With the second half of the NBA season underway, it’s worth taking a look at the emerging stars of this year’s rookie class and the potential impact they could have on their teams moving forward.

Over the course of the last decade or so, we have seen an insurgence of basketball players into the NBA that have come from overseas. Today, we’re listing off some of the best internationally born players that are now in the NBA.

This has been another lost season for the Sacramento Kings, who currently sport the second-worst record in the Western Conference. That lack of team success has left many to forget about the play of Tyreke Evans, who just three seasons ago was named the NBA Rookie of the Year.

Will Dunlap really be able to keep this job with the Cats? The team has a lot of rebuilding to do, and it is going to start with the trade of Ben Gordon, who almost certainly is going to be moved by the trade deadline, probably not for nearly as much as he would have been with had he not gotten into a spat with Dunlap last week.

The Milwaukee Bucks are have had a rough month of February, which really erased just about everything good that the team accomplished during a 8-3 run in the month of January. Now, as a team that is hanging onto the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, there is a real question as to whether they are going to blow up the core of this team and rebuild, or whether they will hold firm with the assets that they have to bring to the table.

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Dwight Howard wanted to get away from the Orlando Magic badly over the course of the last two seasons, and now, he has what he wanted. He’s playing under the bright lights of the Los Angeles Lakers, he’s playing with some other superstars that are surefire Hall of Famers when push comes to shove. However, with the good comes a ton of scrutiny, both from the LA media and from his teammates.

All eyes will be on the NBA All-Star game on Sunday night in Houston, as the best and brightest throughout the league will join together for the always high-flying spectacle.

The Dallas Mavericks and the Atlanta Hawks are both going in interesting directions at the moment. Both are going to have the salary cap room to go after the off-season’s biggest free agent, Dwight Howard, but both have to make sure that they don’t make the wrong move here at the trade deadline. Stars on both teams are clearly on the trading block right now, and with the trade deadline just a week away, there is plenty to discuss with both teams.