The Great Point Guard Myth

These players ARE NOT important!

The greatest lie the devil ever told wasn’t convincing the world that he didn’t exist. No, no, no, Lucifer’s best fib was convincing anyone with a higher basketball knowledge in today’s world that guards, in particular point guards, are important to winning a NBA title. You can’t turn on ESPN, TV or radio without hearing talking heads say the same thing over and over again about the NBA. “It’s a point guard driven league.” “Point guard play is so key this time of year.” “You gotta get point great guard play or it’s over.” Every time I hear this I want to punch my laptop.

The NBA is the easiest league to figure out. That’s why it’s not as popular as the NFL. The flexibility and unpredictably of the NFL is what makes it great. Those things, flexibility and unpredictably, make it a better sport to bet on. Anything can happen. The Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons are the ultimate case study. In 2012, both were a combined 24-7, won their divisions AND a playoff game. One year later, 8-26 and now at the top of the NFL Draft!

Teams like Philly and Kansas City are the same in reverse. Loser in 2012, but winners in 2013. The players contracts aren’t guaranteed in the NFL so players can come and go almost exclusively on their production level. Look at someone like Albert Haysworth in the NFL and Amar’e Stoudemire in the NBA. Both 32 years old. (Haysworth now Stoudemire in November) Both have been shot years ago athletically but because Haysworth was in the NFL he was cut and hasn’t even sniffed a field since 2011, while Stoudemire is still sucking the life out of the New York Knicks. (Cut to Knicks fans punching their laptops and Stoudemire putting on a ski mask to pick up his check while Gilbert Arenas drives the getaway car.) If the NFL was like the NBA, Haysworth would STILL HAVE TWO MORE SEASONS OF CHECKS COMING TO HIM. (RE-READ THAT SENTENCE!)

You can rebuild and retool on the fly in the NFL. Every year you can start over and do it again. Every team has a REAL SHOT! You don’t even have to have a first round pick to find a star in the NFL. Look at the Seattle Seahawks. Russell Wilson was a third round pick. You rarely, and I mean RARELY, get a great player outside of the top ten in the NBA Draft, much least the second round. That’s the NFL’s greatest advantage over the NBA. Philly football fans can honestly believe in their team’s chances to win a Super Bowl this season. If you’re a Philly basketball fan and you think the Sixers are going to win the NBA, you need to run outside and check the date on a newspaper because you’ve traveled back in time to 1982.

Going into this NBA season we could identify roughly five teams with a REAL chance at the title (Miami, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Chicago, and Indiana) and ten teams with the same chances as my six-year old son’s youth summer camp team. (LA Lakers, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Boston, Sacramento, Utah, Orlando, New Orleans, Cleveland and Minnesota.) There are only five guys on the court for each team at one time so naturally the eye test works so much easier in the NBA than the NFL.

Is this man on your team? If not, chances are your team WON'T win it all.

I can’t tell you who the best lineman is in the NFL. I just look at whoever gets voted All-Pro and say “Seems right to me.” I don’t need a NBA expert to tell me LeBron James is the best player. You could bring Martians to Earth with no knowledge of the game of basketball, show them the first half of a Miami game, tell them what numbers are, then ask which player was the best and they’d say the tall one in the number six jersey.

Because the number of players is so small, you could swap LeBron in for the following teams and they have a legit chance to winning the title this season; Clippers, Thunder, Bulls, Portland, Houston, Memphis, Washington, Spurs, and Pacers.You could put James on ANY team they’d all win at least 50 games and make the playoffs. Put Peyton Manning on the Jags and the Jags are STILL gonna suck. Look at how the same roster fell apart after he left Cleveland that first season. This isn’t a best point guard wins league, it’s a best PLAYER wins league. The only time the best point guard wins the title is if the best player just HAPPENS to be a point guard. Lets look at the past champions, their starting point guard and see when best point guard wins the title.

2013-12 Heat: The Immortal Mario Chalmers.

2011 Mavs: Jason “I Became A Coach Two Years Later” Kidd.

2009-10 Lakers: Derek “Never Made an All-Star, All-Anything, NBA Team” Fisher

2008 Celtics: Rajon “At The Time I was the weak link” Rondo

2007 Spurs: Tony “Only One All-Star, not as good as I am now” Parker

2006 Heat: Jason “White Chocolate/Flash In Pan” Williams

2005 Spurs: Tony “Not Good Yet” Parker

2004 Pistons: Chauncey “You Didn’t Know I Was An All-Star Yet” Billups

2003 Spurs: Tony “Even Worst” Parker

2002-00 Lakers: Derek “As Good As I’ll Get And STILL Never Be An All-Star” Fisher

1999 Spurs: Avery “The only individual award I’ll win is Coach Of the Year” Johnson

1998-96 Bulls: Ron “Guess What? I never made an All-Star Either” Harper

1995-94 Rockets: Kenny “More famous for being Barkley’s second banana” Smith

1993-91 Bulls: John “Never made an All-Star” Paxton

1990-89 Pistons: Isiah "FINALLY" Thomas

Magic and Isiah. Last of the great point guards to win NBA Championship

I had to go ALLLL the way back to 1990 for the last “best point guard in the league” NBA title. (And Isiah being the best is debatable cause Magic was still Magic so the best point guard may have not even WON the title those seasons.) And the last best player being a point guard title was the 1988 Lakers with Magic. Having a great point guard is about as important as having a “great” pinky toe. You technically need one, but you’ll live without it.

There is one way to win a title. Have one of the five best players in the league at the time, PLUS at least one active “I can make or made” an All-Star teammate. Jordan was the best but had Pippen. Shaq was the best but had Kobe. Kobe was the best but had Pau. LeBron is the best, but has Wade & Bosh.

 

Serious how the hell did the Mavs win the 2011 title?

Only the 1994 Houston Rockets had the best player do it solo. The 2004 Detroit Pistons were aliens. (Hindsight shows us that Detroit had four All-Stars in Billups, Hamilton, Wallace Ben and Rasheed both that is. But they still should not have been able to win.) And the 2011 Dallas Mavericks themselves still can’t believe they won. 

They didn’t have the best player or an active All-Star sidekick. Dirk was an All-Star but wasn’t even a top five in the league guy at the time. I still have NO clue how they won that title over Miami. You can’t say 2008 Celtics didn't have a top five guy because KG finished second in the MVP so he was clearly one of the five best players.

This isn’t rocket science. This is as easy as it gets. We don’t need to waste time talking about point guard play. All you need from your point guard is a guy who can just keep it together. Someone who doesn’t make a huge mistake in the huge moment. You don’t need the best point guard. You just need the best guy, regardless of position. That “best point guard” moniker has gotten Chris Paul NO TITLES. Derrick Rose, NO TITLE. Steve Nash, NO TITLES. Jason Kidd, NO TITLE in his prime. Gary Payton NO TITLE in his prime.

Want to know if your team is going to win the title? Ask yourself two simple questions. “Does my team have the best player?” “Does my team have one of the five best players?” If the answer to either or both was no, then no. If the answer to one or both was yes, then maybe. And maybe is a hell of a lot better than no.

The Unspoken Greatness of Tim Duncan

Tim Duncan...Greatness has never been so quite.

Once upon a time, someone asked me who I thought the best basketball player of this generation was. Who was the one player I’ll remember the most? Who was the player that I’ll proudly look back to and gloat that I was able to see? The easy answers would be players like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. All of these guys great. All of these guys NBA Champions and NBA MVPs and NBA All-Stars and blah, blah, blah, but none can ever really be called the “best” player of their generation. Shaq was the most "dominant". On the nights when Shaq gave a f**k, no one, and I mean no one in the history of basketball, was stopping him. Part of it was skill, but a good chunk of it was Shaq hitting the physical lottery. No one is stopping 7’ 2” and 325 pounds when it’s engaged and motivated. Garnett was the most "intense." KG always gave a crap. Even on those hopeless T-Wolves teams in the early 00s he always gave 110% and played each game like it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Bryant was the most gifted and most fun to watch. He's the closest thing we will EVER see to Michael Jordan and enough can't be said for that. He runned-and-gunned his way to over 30,000 career points and has played at a 1^st Team All-NBA level for over 16 years. I can’t even begin to explain how hard that is to do.

Celtics fans really hate this picture for some strange reason

But again, none of these guys were the “best”. All except, Kobe where traded at least once. (Before LA hijacked Pau Gasol from Memphis, Kobe did everything but wear a “for sale” sign on the court.) Shaq was too busy rapping or being funny to truly care about basketball the way he should have. (Shaq is the GREATEST WASTE OF TALENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE NBA. Again, dude hit the physical lotto, but didn't do everything he could have done to be the best player ever. And that pisses me off. Shaq only made 3 All-NBA Defensive Teams and each was only 2nd team. He only won one MVP and had he gave a crap about making at least 70% of his free throws, he could have scored at least 2,500 more points. Shaq, you owe my Lakers at least 2 more titles and I say they should have waited at least 10 years to retire your jersey. AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT KNOWS YOU WERE A F***ING CELTIC!!! Ugh!!! Let me move on before I get madder.) Garnett wasn’t good enough to build around and had to go to Boston to win a ring and he may even be traded again after this season.

 

The Debate can go on for years. Kobe or Duncan?

I’m the world’s biggest Kobe fan, but I have to admit that there were a lot of years Kobe wasn’t the best teammate and/or, by all accounts anyway, the best person to be around. Trade talk not withstanding, Kobe had his troubles off the court (Lakers fans seem to forget about Colorado.) and was so un-coachable at one point in his career that Phil Jackson said "Screw it! I'm out!" (Do you think Phil Jackson ever thought about NOT coaching Michael Jordan during his prime?! How bad of a person was Kobe to have a coach give up on him during his prime?!) Only one player was good enough to truly build around. (As in, other players would have killed to play with him. And if they couldn't kill to play with him, they'd take less money to play with him.) Only one player NEVER, EVER, EVER had his team think, even for a millisecond, of trading him. Only one player has won 70% of his games. Only one player has won at least 50 games  every year. (Strike shorten season of 1999 not withstanding.) That player is Tim Duncan.  Even his nickname is boring. The Big Fundamental?

We, basketball and sports fans in general really, have romanced over the “flashy” athlete. Over the ESPN SportsCenter highlight warriors like T-Mac (Who looks like he’s going to ride Duncan’s coattail to his first title. Feel free to run outside and scream at the thought of that like I just did.) and Vince Carter. But we get mad when a guy complains about not making enough money. We think it’s the end of the world when a guy beats his wife or girlfriend. We can’t stop “killing” a guy when he has a “me” first attitude or when a superstar throws his teammates under the bus. We "say" we just want our athletes to play hard, always give a crap, make their teammates better, get better when it counts and not be a complete tool off the court. 

For years now Tim Duncan has done all that and MORE but what does he get? He gets called “boring”. Funny huh? Duncan does it right all the time and yet we don’t give him the props. We can "say" we like all that "good guy" stuff but we secretly like watching the car wreck. We love when a guy is a d-bag. We can't get enough of it when a guy gets the talking heads on sports radio or First Take and PTI going. Tim Duncan is like a mini van doing the speed limit, where as Kobe’s like a Ferrari doing 95 in a 55 zone. It’s just more fun watching the Ferrari, even if it’s gone off the road a time or two and could possibly kill us. In a week or so, Duncan has a chance to win his 5^th NBA title (Tied with Kobe and Derek Fisher for the most by an active player.) and his 4^th Finals MVP, some 13 years apart from this first Finals MVP. A feat only Kareem can lay claim to. 

Duncan and Shaq in one of their epic battles.

Sure, Duncan did have some good luck on his side. He’s had the same coach, a steady organization and a string of good teammates throughout the years. But that’s like early man beating his chest about all the great things they accomplished. It all starts with the sun homie. Tim Duncan gives life to the Spurs the same way the sun gives life to the planet and everything else falls in line. You can’t have ANYTHING WITHOUT THE SUN. (Extreme example I know, but I couldn’t think of anything else damnit so sue me.)

This very well could happen again.

As a Laker fan, I know all too well of the heartbreak Tim Duncan and the Spurs can bring. Duncan has at least two LA championships and the Spurs were the “harbingers of doom” again this season for the Lakers. (A four game sweep in round one of the playoffs.) So I’m sure when I post this, only a few people will read it because after all, it is Tim Duncan I’m talking about. I mean, who wants to read about Tim Duncan?  But when I look back on these last 15 years of basketball and I’m really honest with myself, there’s one player I’d start a team with. God love him,and he’s my favorite player ever, but it ain’t Kobe Bryant.

Rise of The Clippers

Lately I’ve been questioning reality. Everything is upside down. I keep pinching myself, but I can’t seem to wake up from this new world. A new world where the little brother kicks his big brother's ass. A new world where the bully gets the swirly. A new world where the nerd gets the pretty girl. A new world I don’t want to live in. A new world… excuse me but this is really hard to type… a new world where the Los Angeles Clippers are the best team in the Staples Center. The best team in Los Angeles. The best team in the NBA and far and away, the NBA’s most entertaining team to watch. Damn, that physically hurt to type.

The Clips are winning and they're having fun doing it.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my unfaltering love for the LA Lakers and my belief that they could get it together. (As of December 26, 2012, the Lakers are now 14-14 but they’ve won five games in row, including victories over the Knicks and Warriors, two teams that have played pretty good so far this season. I won’t mention that the “streak” includes a victory over the Bobcats by one point and they needed a comeback to do that… at home.) In that same post I wrote the following: “The Lakers said all they had to say about winning the championship this year when they hired Mike D’Antoni. The Clippers are the Clippers so the Lakers stranglehold on LA is safe. (An all-time winning percentage of .363, 8 playoff berths in 40 years and one was with a LOSING RECORD, 30 years between playoff victories, zero titles and Donald Sterling as an owner insures that. Really I mean come on son! A couple of nice seasons ain’t fooling anyone. The Clipper logo makes me think losers the same way white and red on a soda can makes me think Coca-Cola. It’s branded loserness. (And yes, that is not a word!))”  Now don’t get it twisted, I still believe 90% of what I wrote, but it'd be foolish not to recognize what the usually lowly Clippers are doing. They’ve won a league high, and franchise high, 14 straight games and they’re the owners of the NBA’s best record at 22-6.

It's okay DeJuan Blair, this happens  to everyone and a lot no less.

At first glance, you’d think it’s all “Lob City”, high flying dunks and alley oops, but the Clippers are one of the, if not the NBA’s most, balanced and unselfish teams. The Clips are 4^th in opponent points per game allowed, 9^th in points scored per game, 2^nd in team assists per game, 2^nd in opponent field goal percentage and 1^st in opponent turnovers per game. They’re playing championship level basketball on both ends of the court, they’re winning games and it’s not really close, as the Clippers also own the NBA’s best point per game differential at +9.7. (During the 14 game win streak, they’re allowing just 88.2 points per game, and the ppg differential is up to 15.4.) It’s very rare that a team can play defense THAT well and still be THIS fun to watch. (San Antonio Spurs, we’re looking at you. For the years of boring defensive basketball while not being fun to watch. Not boring to me because I like basketball, but for casual fans, you’ve basically been the basketball equivalent of watching paint dry.)

Notice that this is the only place you'll see the words "Blake Griffin".

The Clippers' real strength however, lies in their incredible depth. The Clippers lead the NBA in bench points per game at 43.8. They can literally, and legitimately, play 12 guys on their team. I’ve never seen anything like it to be honest. They’ve done a very impressive job of collecting talent and they’re making it work... so far. With all the guys they got, I just assumed they would have a complete and total lack of understanding on how to play them all. When you have a team full of guys that can play, they’re all going to want to play. But for all of their depth, there’s still one guy they’d be lost without, Chris Paul.

Chris Paul has the Clips thinking title.

Since Paul’s arrival to LA, the Clippers just feel different. (I love you Steve Nash, but Chris Paul should be a Laker right now. David Stern, you freaking suck.) Some guys are so good, so superiorly talented, they can just elevate and lift a team, no a franchise, to heights unseen. (Think Drew Brees in New Orleans. People seem to forget that the Saints were once the Clippers of the NFL.) Paul’s not a loser. He won’t let his team, or teammates, be losers and his "will to win" is only matched by a few guys in the NBA. Yes, Carmelo Anthony is playing at a very high-level but Chris Paul is the runaway MVP, in my eyes anyway. When you can make the Los Angeles Clippers good and make them a real contender for the NBA championship, you’re the MVP. Simple. He’s not having his best statistical season, but he’s still second in the NBA in assists per game and first in steals. He runs the Clipper offense with complete confidence and always puts everyone in the best position to succeed. Paul is one of five guys (Melo, Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are the others.) you always want to have the ball when the game’s on the line. Of those five, only Paul and James are capable of making the big pass as equally well as they are of making the big shot. If you have THAT guy on you’re team, you’re usually going to have a pretty good chance to win a lot of games.

The only real problem I see with the Clippers is their coach. Vinny Del Negro just doesn’t scream, “I’m a championship winning coach” to me. Early in the year and all of last year, he didn’t quite know how the handle the Clippers rotation. Although he’s got it figured out now, Chauncey Billups and Grant Hill are yet to return and I’ll be really interested in seeing how he works them into the team’s rotation. I’m not sure how, or when but I just feel like Del Negro is going to screw this up.

The Los Angeles Clippers are for real and they’re the only team in LA that has a real shot at winning the title right now. I’m not sure if you believe in it or not, but the devil must be freezing because hell has officially frozen over. I've just wrote a post about the LA Clippers being the best team in the NBA and I have them as slight favorites in the west. (I can safely say that, what I wrote above I mean, along with walking on the sun, getting back with my ex-wife and giving birth to a child myself was on a list of things I was 100% sure would/will never happen. At this rate, looks like anything is possible now.) In the end, the most shocking thing I heard about the Clippers came from Magic Johnson, the greatest Laker of all-time. “I’ve never thought I’d see Showtime again. I was the architect of Showtime and the Clippers are Showtime right now” Magic said. I really, really hate to admit this but he’s right and off that one, I need a drink. A really, really strong drink.

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