Yo, Reno! (Yo, Rocko!)

With the last pick in the draft, Reno was at a decided disadvantage at acquiring a top tier star. However, that double down pick got him two coveted young bigs, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh. Rhythm Drive is now 6-3-1, fighting for the conference lead and on a streak of three straight wins. Not bad. What has Reno put around Howard and Bosh to lead to such a stellar start of the season? Let's find out.

PTS, REB, AST: As you would expect from a roster replete with big men, Rhythm Drive can rebound. The surprising thing is that they're not ranked in the top three; they're just outside at number four. Dwight Howard is a man-beast with over 12 REB per game, but Chris Bosh isn't far behind at nearly a dozen per game himself. Zydrunas Ilgauskas is at about 8 REB per game, and everyone else in the starting lineup is solid at around 5 REB (aside from Adam Morrison).

The Drive is not so good at scoring or passing. They are ranked 10th in PTS and a putrid 12th in AST. There's only one 20+ scorer on this team, Bosh, and he's barely over the 20-point mark. Luol Deng, Mike Miller, and Dwight Howard hover around 17 points per game. That's not enough. In addition, Felton is the only good passer on the team (he averages around 7 AST but is capable of exploding on some nights). Brad Miller is no longer a premier passing center, and the only other guy who even thinks about passing is the other Miller, Mike, who's only at about 4 AST per game. Felton dishes it to his bigs and never gets the ball back, oh well.

STL, BLK, 3PT: Similarly, with few true point or shooting guards on this team, Rhythm is last in STL and also not too stellar in 3PT either (ranked 9th). In the latter category, Mike Miller's averaging almost ten three-point shot attempts per game over the last two weeks, and if he keeps that up, he could single-handedly win that category for Reno. However, this is generally not a strong 3PT shooting team. Mickael Pietrus isn't too bad, and Adam Morrison and Raymond Felton make their contributions, but there are no deep gunners here (Tim Thomas and Donyell Marshall do reside on the bench however).

If you're packing four seven-footers, you better be able to put up some blocks. With that being the case, Rhythm Drive can do the dew, rejecting enough shots to rank 5th in the league. Not bad, but not overwhelmingly stellar. Despite all this height, the only true shot-blocking threat on this team is Howard, who averages two swats per game. Bosh isn't a shot blocker, averaging just about one per game -- that's about what Mickael Pietrus contributes as a much smaller player. Big Z can still play some D (almost 1.5 BLK a game) but he's slowing down. Then again, he is 7'3" and capable of blocking five shots a night once in awhile.

FG%, FT%, TO: The real strength of this team is in FG%. Everyone on this team shoots well, often very well, with the exception of Ray Felton (38.3 FG%). Howard and Deng are in particular, spectacular, at over 54% FG-shooting each. That's good enough for 2nd in the FG% rankings. It's a different matter in FT% though. Dwight Howard hits the line so often (and the bottom of the net much less often) that he single-handedly kills FT%. Clank, second to last here. You take the good, you take the bad, with the new 21st century Shaq.

The other thing Howard does is turn the ball over -- to the tune of 3.5 TO per game. That's a huge number considering he's a big man. Oh well, what can you do? He'll get better. Of the rest of the team, only Felton, Grant Hill, and Mike Miller average more than 2 TO per game, but they are primary ball handlers so that's to be expected. The Rhythm Drive are a lackluster, but not bad, 7th in the turnover department.

Bench: As mentioned above, Tim Thomas and Donyell Marshall are available, but at this point in their careers, Thomas is a pure gunner (not that he ever wasn't) and Donyell is far off his prime. Both are good for a few 3PT, a few REB, and maybe ten points a game -- with Donyell pushing a few BLK. Purely injury fill-ins.

Bobby Jackson IS a walking injury, he needs to go, even if he has some value once every blue moon -- two years ago. The mighty mite and instigator of The Rocky Mountain Brawl, Nate Robinson, is returning soon, and he could prove to be useful off the bench as an offensive spark plug. Same thing with the Ex-Franchise, Steve Francis. He's been pretty reliable this season if you think of him as a low-level guard who can give you some decent AST numbers and maybe some scoring.

Analysis: So things don't sound so hot for the Rhythm Drive statistically. Under league rankings, they're second-to-last in power points. Taking into account a slew of injuries -- the only guys who have played 30 or more games are: Ilgauskas, Howard, Felton, Deng, and Miller -- and sporatic play, this team is still way above 0.500 and has beaten many of the top teams in the league. How they're doing it I'm not sure, since they exhibit no real strength aside from FG%.

I mean, last week, we covered a team that was great on paper but didn't win many games; Rhythm Drive is the exact opposite. They just win baby. Rhythm Drive has also played less games than anyone but the Sour Snails, another hurdle they've climbed in their winning season. This team must have a lot of heart; they must eat lightning and crap thunder.

Reno has also been active on the waiver wire, going through Sarunas Jasikevicius, Ronny Turiaf, Juan Dixon, Kyle Lowry, Randy Foye, and Jordan Farmar at points in the season. The overrated and now super injured Kenyon Martin was cut loose early, but his potential stats are missed on this team (REB and BLK).

I have a few suggestions; as always. It's time to go big, like real big. Push REB, FG% and BLK (and push TO down if possible) to the highest levels. I'm not sure how Reno always wins, but it would help if they had some real sustainable strengths. One more big guy would make a huge difference on the boards and on defense. Build around Dwight Howard's strengths -- and drop FT%, it's a lost category with Howard around obviously. Find another traditional big guy to fill the blocks next to Dwight. Zydrunas will get old(er), Brad Miller isn't a real center, and Bosh can't block shots. Dwight needs a buddy; even someone with low-end double doubles and blocks. Chris Kaman springs to mind.

And there's also the issue of PTS and 3PT; neither of which are real strengths on paper, but somehow, Reno must win them occasionally. Should someone be brought in to pump up those areas? I dunno.

The strengths of this team is obvious with rising stars Howard-Bosh-Deng and Mike Miller and Felton in the backcourt -- plus, Mickael Pietrus could have a future as a nice PTS-REB-3PT guy. But this team might be headed for a fall since they seem to be weirdly statistically inept -- except where it counts of course, in the wins column.

Adam Morrison's top end would be to turn into a Mike Miller type player, albeit with less of an all-around game; but that'll be next year at the earliest. The bench and the lower end of the roster should be used to invest in guys like Hakim Warrick, Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson, Andrew Bynum and other young bigs that will really help this team down the road.

This team is winning big now, but can they keep it up? I guess doubters always suffer under the wrath of Reno's team -- who's poised to take me out this week!

Crazy: I would (maybe) look to move Raymond Felton. He's a great player with huge upside but if he can be moved for a big man, that would be a boon to the team. His strengths are this team's weaknesses and his weaknesses are this team's strengths. Reno could wait to pair Felton up with a few more backcourt mates, but being ranked dead last in AST and STL is a big hole to climb out of. Felton and another guy might be enough to pull a Duncan or a Brand. Or at worst, move someone to pull in a Ben Wallace or Emeka Okafor type. That would secure REB and BLK for life -- heck, trade for Shaq for the title run.