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Each week, HOOPSWORLD NBA analyst and coach Anthony Macri will open his notebook and offer an assortment of observations on games, players, and teams from throughout the league. Coach Macri serves as a player development consultant for the Pro Training Center and Coach David Thorpe, working with a variety of NBA players on their skills and game understanding. The Coaches Notebook appears on HOOPSWORLD each Thursday.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS: A few years ago I remember the biggest question about the Lakers was their toughness.  Were they "tough" enough?  They were obviously talented, but people questioned whether players like Lamar Odom had the heart to be championship contenders.  Those kinds of questions seem like eons ago now.  The Lakers are a machine on both ends of the floor.  Their frontcourt is competing on every possession, and it has depth unlike anything they’ve had in the past, even without Andrew Bynum.  This is a team that hits people in the mouth, doesn’t back down from physicality, and looks every bit the part of defending champion.

MIAMI HEAT: LeBron James’ ability to "disappear" will be a great feature for the HEAT.  With Cleveland, too often his teammates would disappear in games.  In Miami, with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, Lebron can fade into the background texture of a game, have a huge impact on the pace and quality of play, and rise to the forefront basically "on-demand."  This only makes him more dangerous offensively, as he literally becomes easy to forget about at times on the court.  Normally, this is a knock on a player.  However, LeBron’s disappearing act seems almost deliberate – he isn’t looking to impose his will in a direct and obvious way, but rather in the subtleties of basketball feel and flow.  By the way – it is pretty easy to see that James has largely completed a mind-meld with Wade – can Bosh be far behind?  The fact that Bosh is playing under his capabilities right now and yet the HEAT are destroying teams is not a good sign for the rest of the league.

ORLANDO MAGIC: The Magic continued to play Goliath against the Davids of the league as they hammered the Timberwolves last night.  Of course, their performances against the Wizards and the Wolves don’t seem to mean quite as much when you look at the way they seemed to get man-handled by Miami.  Meanwhile, the Lakers and the Heat are beating up on nearly everything in their respective paths.  So what does this mean for Orlando?  Well, perhaps above all things, it gives them a bar to start to reach for.  The Magic will need to raise their level of play.  Dwight Howard looks more dominant than ever – in fact, he appears to be entering the phase of his career that Shaq was in during his Lakers’ years.  If that continues, watch out – because right now, Rashard Lewis isn’t giving the Magic much, and that simply won’t continue.

{AUTHOR_BOX}CHICAGO BULLS: The Chicago Bulls defense looks impressive – they are already starting to resemble the Boston Celtics under Tom Thibodeau.  Seeing their rotations on the weakside and the way they swarm to the ball has been really positive.  Their offense has also been a pleasant surprise.  Former coach Vinnie Del Negro spent a lot of time in clearout situations and ball screen opportunities featuring Derrick Rose.  While those features are still present, they ahve incorporated a lot more player and ball movement, with various guys coming off multiple screens and different misdirection actions.  This is a major benefit to a player like Luol Deng, who needs to produce for them to be effective without Carlos Boozer.  Deng is the kind of guy who is great when he receives the ball in motion – asking him to be a stationary catch and create player was not in his best interest.  The Bulls look like a more complete team on both sides of the floor early this season.  This will provide real dividends when Boozer returns and the team is in the thick of the season.

SACRAMENTO KINGS: The Kings may be young, and it is still too early in the season to make anything more than generalized predictions, but Sacramento may find themselves in the playoff hunt this year.  Tyreke Evans’ feel for the game, size, and physical ability makes up for his dependence on his right hand, and Cousins is both more athletic and more polished than expected.  Particularly impressive is Cousins feel for multiple defenders in the post.  When teaching a post player, one of the really important keys is teaching them to feel their defender with their body while seeing the help.  Most guys can pick up on the former pretty easily – but the latter takes considerably more time.  There are many in the NBA who are not very adept at it.  Cousins, while obviously not a finished product, seems to do both at a serviceable level as a rookie.  That will only help him grow and develop even faster.

PHILADELPHIA 76ers: There may be reasons for optimism in Philadelphia despite the 76ers’ bad record so far. At least in their game against the Washington Wizards, an interesting dynamic developed.  The 76ers’ offensive attack seems, in large part, dependent on the play of Jrue Holiday.  The second year point guard is doing a solid job controlling the tempo and pace for his squad, finding shooters in rhythm, hitting cutters in stride, and, at least some of the time, has the look of a seasoned veteran on the floor.  Coach Doug Collins has done a lot with that team in only a few months, as their screening actions are effective and their timing is very good.  They seem to read each other well already, which is a good sign for the future.  On the defensive end, they look like a team that could present problems for opponents later in the season, and it all starts with the aforementioned Holiday.  In their game against the Wizards, Holiday hounded Wall, as it seems like most of the rookie’s turnovers were committed when Holiday was guarding him, and it even forced Wall into a more cautious and conservative style of play when they matched up.  Meanwhile, against anyone else, Wall went into total attack mode.  As this Philadelphia team recognizes how good Holiday is defensively, they will start to feed off it as a team.

Have questions for Coach Macri? Be sure and drop by HOOPSWORLD on Mondays at 2PM Eastern for the Coach’s weekly basketball chat!