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9 THE WARRIORS FINALLY ARRIVE In a move that suggests winning is contagious among Bay Area pro teams, Golden State is casting off years of underachievement this season and becoming a playoff contender. The Warriors are the only team to beat Oklahoma City, Miami and the Clippers so far this season, and have done it without Andrew Bogut and Brandon Rush to boot. They���ve been able to because of the brilliance of David Lee and Stephen Curry, the respective 20-and-10 post and marksman whose leadership has never really been apparent until now. Lee is an All-Star and Curry was deserving of inclusion in Houston for their growth from players beloved for their fantasy league statistics to guys now able to win big games. To name just a few key contributors to the W���s run, Jarrett Jack���s role as point guard off the bench has been pitch-perfect, rookie Harrison Barnes has ���ashed incredible athleticism and Klay Thompson makes nearly 40 percent of his threes. Oh, and the biggest upset of all? The Warriors have ���nally found defense, ranking in the top half of the league. LILLARD: AARON HEWITT; HARDEN: SCOTT HALLERAN/GETTY IMAGES 8 ANDREW BYNUM In the summer���s mega-trade that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers, Philadelphia got Andrew Bynum. Six months later, they���ve still not seen him play. Put another way, the most memorable talk about Bynum���s time in Philly hasn���t involved blocks or scoring but his bowling and how it helped reinjure his knee (or, his cringe-inducing hair styles. Either way, neither helps coach Doug Collins). The earliest he���s been rumored to return is after the All-Star Game, which leaves the 76ers in a seriously awful position: Bynum has franchise cornerstone-type skills when he���s healthy but is that potential worth the risk of bankrolling with a huge contract come July, when he���s a free agent? 7 THE NETS��� REAL PLAYMAKER When Deron Williams resigned with the Nets and Joe Johnson arrived in Brooklyn by trade in July, they brought big reputations as go-to scorers with them to their new home, the Barclays Center. Neither has been the team���s best player this season, however. While Williams��� regression has been the more surprising story for the Nets and was one factor in the ���ring of coach Avery Johnson in December, the ascension of Brook Lopez as the NBA���s best center right now is no less eye-opening. He ranked No. 7 in points per minute among all players by late January, and his offensive and defensive production per 100 possessions are career-bests. Meanwhile Williams is enduring his worst points-per-game production in seven years and the lowest assist percentage of his NBA tenure. Instead of being rooted to the post like a tree, Lopez can roll to the basket like never before off screens, a development that���s aided in such improvement. Far off Broadway in New York City, the star of Brooklyn���s show still is Williams, but Lopez is more deserving of the accolades. 6 ROYCE WHITE���S SAGA It may not be one of the most relevant storylines this season in a strict, basketballonly way, but the nearly three-month dispute between the Houston Rockets and rookie forward Royce White has been shocking. Rookies generally have limited bargaining power against their employers, but White���s crusade over his mental health care and who gets to make the ���nal decisions in his treatment rarely wavered in its absolutism ��� even going so far as to say he���d be ���ne with never playing again if it kept him healthy. A contract without speci���c conditions to manage his well-publicized anxiety issues was not in the interest of his safety, he said, and the Rockets eventually suspended him after he failed to arrive in the D-League. Seeing a player with little time in a NBA uniform stare down his employer ��� who holds the key to his career ��� won���t soon be forgotten. 5 THE NBA IN SEATTLE? Maybe it���s stretching the truth a little to say it was surprising the Maloof family was looking to move the Sacramento Kings. After prospects in Anaheim and Virginia Beach cooled each of the last two seasons, though, Mayor Kevin Johnson worked a deal with NBA Commissioner David Stern last spring that appeared to signal that the Kings were ready to stay thanks to a proposed new arena. Procedural hurdles within Sacramento���s government aside, there seemed to be an intent to keep the team in Cowbell Kingdom ��� and then a Seattle ownership group stepped in with an agreement with the Maloofs to bring basketball back to the Emerald City by next season. Stern has reportedly wanted to bring a team to Seattle before he retires in 2014 but Washington has rarely been seen as a destination for the Kings, which adds to the surprise. (Also receiving votes: New Orleans changing its name from the Hornets to the Pelicans.) 55 4 James Harden On Fire Exactly halfway through his frst season in Houston, James Harden surpassed his career-best for total points in a season ��� in 21 fewer games than it took him to reach the same point before. Yeah, it���s been that kind of year for Harden ever since being traded away from Oklahoma City on the eve of the frst game amid contract disputes. That the Thunder are doing just fne without him doesn���t diminish the pure statistical excellence Harden has enjoyed since transforming from Sixth Man to Leading Man with the leash to create at his will. His 37 points in his Houston debut, followed two days later by a 45-point night, may have been the high-water marks but he���s sustained his scoring to 25.8 per game ��� ffth-best in the NBA. The frst-time All-Star once was whispered to not have the makeup to be a team���s No. 1 option, but the role has ft him like a glove ever since he arrived in his new home.