NBA Today

I've been saying for a couple years now we're entering into an era of the point guard. Derrick Rose's ascendency this year reinforces this theory. At the very top tier we have Paul, Rondo, Deron Williams, Rose, Russell Westbrook (not a real point guard), and Tony Parker. All of these guys are their teams number 1 or number 2 most important player. Other point guards who are among their teams top 3 players are - Mike Conley, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, Jameer Nelson, Andre Miller, and maybe some others, but I haven't watch their teams play enough (like Denver's Ty Lawyson or Bibby or Collison on Indiana).

The prevailing counter-example is of course the Lakers whose biggest weakness is Fisher (although he brings some intangible strengths to this particular team) and the idea of length being the predominant factor in winning the NBA championship. Bill Simmons talks about last years game 7 and how the Lakers controlled the 6 feet in the paint against the Celtics and that is what won the game. I suppose until the Lakers are unseated, the length argument is difficult to dispute. I watched the Memphis Grizzlies defeat the Spurs today - the first time I've seen Memphis play this year. Interesting team. Two really big guys in the middle who can score and rebound - Marc Gasol and Zack Randolph. Neither look quite like an elite position player - they don't have quite the defensive presence of Dwight Howard or Kevin Garnett - or the offensive elegance of Pau Gasol or Tim Duncan or Dirk - but they seem to play tough on both end of the floor and have some good chemistry. So maybe the way to look at these teams is front-line pairs:

Garnett-Perkins; Gasol-Bynum-(sub Oden), Boozer-Noah, Chandler-Nowitski, Randolph-Gasol, etc. Of course, losing Perkins makes everyone thing the Celtics are doomed and I would suspect the same.

Anyhow, these playoffs will be interesting. The Laker model - front-line length with an elite "closer" who can get his own shot at the end of the game vs. strong work ethic/teammate style basketball (New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, San Antonio) vs. young speed and offensive juggernauts (OKC and Denver and Knicks) and then the other teams built around one elite player - Dallas, Orlando, etc.

It still strikes me PG has become an increasingly important position in the NBA as we seem to be moving away from the era of the 2-guard that began with Jordan and hopefully will end with Kobe.