o I got a lot of comments on my last blog post where I said Brandon Roy was the 5th best player in the league. Some people pointed out Tim Duncan, some Paul Pierce, some even said Manu Ginobli and Rip Hamilton.
None of them are as good or important to their team right now than Brandon Roy. Duncan probably comes the closest, but he's not asked to do as much as consistently. The Spurs system and defense, does most of the heavy lifting. Though I must say the Tim Duncan/Shaq debate for most dominant player of the 2000s is a good one. I'd go with Shaq when he was really on. But that rarely happened, so I'd take drafting Duncan over drafting Shaq in both of their respective primes. Unfortunately he's obviously on the downside of his career. Brandon Roy is asked to do more, and plays at a higher level overall(Though he's nowhere near the defender Duncan is) for a longer amount of time. In 2009 I'd rather have Brandon Roy on my team than Tim Duncan.
Paul Pierce started the season shooting in the 30s, sorry accuracy counts. He's also obviously conserving his energy for the postseason. I will say that the three guys I trust most when the game is on the line are Lebron, Kobe and Pierce in some order. I'd probably go Kobe first, Lebron second and Pierce third. I hate saying I'd take Kobe first for anything, but he's a killer. A sociopathic killer...
Ginobli is great but missed a large percent of the first quarter of the season. He's also been rusty as his 14.4 points per game indicate. He's not there this year. Yet. Manu last year was the clutchest guy in the nba statistically speaking. I love his funky slicing drives to the basket, I think he's probably the third or fourth best finisher in the league and he's got the best bald spot in sports. I'd still rather have Brandon Roy.
The only one who comes close to Roy's value was someone no one even mentioned. Dwight Howard. He's huge, he's athletic, he's better on the defensive end, but... He's got no offensive game outside of a hideous jump hook, dunks, and offensive rebounds. He's also Shaq like in the one place no one wants to be like Shaq. The free throw line. I wouldn't say he's soft, but he's a really nice guy. Like David Robinson nice.
Let's look at the numbers to see just how well Roy is playing. He's hit two game winners. Three if you count the one that should have won the Rockets game. He averaged over 36 pts a game for over a week. Including the second highest scoring outburst this year. He's averaging 23pts a game on 47% from the field, 36% from 3 and 84% from the line for a true shooting percentage of 55% for a guard. That's almost Nash like. He's also averaging over 5 assists a game as he acts as both Portland's table setter and go to guy. A role only Chris Paul plays better.
Overall The Blazers are overachieving for a reason and it's not Greg Oden. To say he's not one of the 5 best players playing this year is ignorant.'
S
Anyway I'll have my sports posts all together on my Sports Blog TrashTalk. Please don't mention game at all over there. Thanks.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
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I'm so glad Roy finally realized his talent this year and made his way into the NBA's elite. We all knew that he was capable, but in years past he played so unselfishly that it was to the team's detriment.
ReplyDeleteI need him to get back on the court badly though, my fantasy team is losing ground everyday that he sits.
First of all, Sinn, you run a fantastic blog full of all kinds of useful pick up insights so I really appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteSecond, though I can understand putting Pierce third after two players who can so clearly dominate the game, the bottom line is that Pierce beat LeBron in the playoffs last year. He shut Lebron down about as much as any player can hope to for most of the games. In the final game, Pierce had 4 fewer points but made the necessary plays to earn his team the win.
And he carried Boston through the finals, including the most spectacular performance I've ever seen in Game 6 that was wasted by a Celtics team who couldn't take advantage. And yes, I'm a Boston fan. Pierce happens to be the reigning Finals MVP. That's clutch.
I read your top 5 and I really enjoyed, except for one thing. The comment that Wade can't handle being guarded by Lebron. Dude, I assure you that a sequence of plays does not a player make. If he guarded Wade more I can assure you he would've adjusted and COOKED James off the dribble. NO WAY, NO HOW can James consistently stay in front of Wade and vice versa.
ReplyDeletei like your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteRoy needs to get out there and play, he's sitting too much.
My thoughts on the matter of Shaq/Duncan for dominant player this decade:
ReplyDeleteI don't think there were many more dominant athletes in sports than young(er) Shaq. He was almost unstoppable (except at the free throw line, where Duncan didn't perform much better) and there were few centers in the league who were able to play against him (Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson, both Hall-of-Famers). I think that non-Hall-of-Famers can compete with Duncan; I don't think that non-Hall-of-Famers could compete with Shaq.
Also, I may be mistaken, but I remember the Shaquille O'Neal Lakers being the bane of both the Kings and the Spurs. I remember it was Robinson, not Duncan, that allowed the Spurs to play Shaq, with a mix of rotations and double-teams.
I just don't think Duncan affects a game the same way Shaq did. With Duncan, you guard do some small stuff to push him off his spot or front him. I also think he can disappear at times. With Shaq, you have a man leveraging him while another comes from up top to harass the ball; a third usually comes from the weakside to try to alter the shot. And young Shaq still dunked on all three. Shaq is simply too big to disappear and the second you leave him by himself, he makes you pay.
In my humble opinion, when you play a video game and create a fake center with perfect physical attributes, you create Shaq.