NBA: Point Guards Are Ruling Now, Thanks To Guys Like New Orleans' Chris Paul
I think that the NBA season has lived up to its billing so far.
It's got me exited about a Celtics-Heat game in early November for God sakes, plus the Warriors have more wins now then they usually do by the end of January, so I'm excited.
A few things have stood out to me…There are about four teams that can win the NBA title this year, and three of them are in the East. (Compare that to about 10 teams in the NFL, plus we're 10 weeks into that, compared to three weeks in the NBA).
The Miami Heat are not as good as we all thought they would be (more on that later), and why on earth is Kevin Love struggling to get minuets? He puts up a double double almost every game he plays in, no matter how many minutes he gets. It’s not like his team is winning, so why not play him?
Even if the Timberwolves don’t like him, why not play him 40 minutes to showcase him, so that you can ship him off? Very puzzling. However, the biggest thing to me is the plethora of good and great point guards there are in the NBA now.
Five years ago there was Jason Kidd and Steve Nash, that’s it. Without looking, I bet you couldn’t name the three other top five assist leaders from just five years ago. Go ahead try and think of them, I’ll wait…
In order: Steve Nash, 11.5apg. Brevin Knight (remember him? How could you not), 9.0 apg. Jason Kidd 8.3 apg. Stephon Marbury, 8.1 apg. And Allen Iverson, 7.9apg.
Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson in the top five! I don’t even remember a time when they made eight passes in a game, let alone eight assists. (I couldn’t even find a picture when Iverson was attempting a pass) The sixth best assist man wasn’t even a point guard, and No. 7 was Steve Francis, yikes.
What a difference five years makes. Now it seems like every team has a legitimate point guard, and if they don’t they are probably in the bottom of the standings. Toronto, Cleveland, Minnesota (even thought they drafted two PGs in the first round last year), Sacramento, (Evans is not going to be able to play point guard in the NBA, it’s just not going to work) and the Clippers (Baron Davis’ career was over long ago) prove this.
Shows how important point guard play is now in the NBA. How worried are teams about not having a point guard? The Memphis Grizzles just paid $45 million for Mike Conley, personally I’d rather put the $8 million on the floor and hope the opponents get distracted. It would probably be a better defensive scheme than have Conley out there.
Nevertheless, you need a point guard to win these days. The Lakers are the exception although I haven’t seen too many players make as many of clutch shots as Derek Fisher does. And as soon as LeBron figures out he needs to be the point guard the Heat will be dramatically better.
Ranking the top point guards
1. Chris Paul, N.O.—There is no way you can talk me out of taking him first as my point guard if I am starting a team.
2. Deron Williams, Utah—There is nothing he can’t do.
3. Rajon Rondo, Boston—Does it all and then some, well except shoot the three.
4. Steve Nash, Phoenix—Still as good as there is.
5. Jason Kidd, Dallas—Getting better with age.
The next stars include Derrick Rose. If he starts making threes he's going to be impossible to guard. The same applies to John Wall. What about Russell Westbrook? I'm seeing a theme here and that is that new age points guards can do it all but shoot three-pointers.
Then there's Brandon Jennings. Okay, maybe it's not just three-pointers he can’t shoot yet, but he has plenty of time to improve. There's also Darren Collison, Jrue Holliday and Stephon Curry (if we call him a true point guard) and I don’t think there is anything he can’t do, except play defense. Even some veterans are still doing it. Look at Andre Miller, Tony Parker and Chauncey Billups.
It's going to be fun to watch all these guys for the next five-10 years. I just hope your team has one to watch. Sorry Raptors fan.
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