Picking up my coverage of the NBA midway through the season
is going to have an inevitably awkward opening paragraph. Rather than bore with banal
introduction and stage setting…
I guess this is my
exposition, homie, this shit is basic, welcome to NB-ation (good morning).
Youth is being served out West, at least thus far. Although traditional West Coast powers
like the Spurs, Lakers, and Mavs continue to win games, it is the upstart (and
rightfully so) Thunder and Clippers, along with their four all-stars (Paul,
Griffin, Durant, Westbrook) and one should-be all-star (Harden) stealing the
headlines. Of all the sub-plots of
the season thus far, the one that intrigues me that most is whether or not these
two young, seemingly fearless teams are legitimate.
Oklahoma City has been on the cusp of a championship the
last two seasons. Their six game
series with LA in 2010, despite losing it, was a positive sign for the
organization. Last year they fell
a few games short of the finals.
This season? They have the
top record in the conference. Durant,
Westbrook, and Harden are the most dynamic threesome outside of Miami. However, we are beginning to see the
problem that ultimately ended Miami’s attempts at a championship last year:
there is just one basketball and OKC needs to find a balance.
 |
| OKC needs to make the statistics match the facts; Durant is by far the best player on the team |
Ranking point guards is the new ESPN pastime and I could sit
here and rattle off the top five.
Then again, what difference does it make if I say Westbrook is the third
or fourth best point guard versus the fifth or sixth? (There was actually a heated argument on ESPN the other day
because one yelling mouth said Westbrook was number three and the other
babbling lover of self-speech thought he was the fourth best point guard. All I could hear was, “there’s nothing
to talk about anymore. If only we
could find someone to give Tebow-esque airtime”… I will get to that story at a
time that accurately reflects its significance for the current season.) However, regardless of where you may
think Westbrook stacks up, it is obvious that he is miles behind Kevin Durant.
Westbrook has averaged just one less shot attempt per game than has
Durant. This is a problem.
You will rarely hear someone say a player needs to score
less, but if averaging 22.6 a game means Westbrook cannot muster more than 5.5 assists,
something needs to change. Given
the surrounding talent, Westbrook is in a position where it is simply
inexcusable for him to be ranked 17th among qualifying point guards
in assists/game.
Derrick Rose took home MVP honors last season playing the
point guard position like Westbrook is this season but, given the rest of the
talent on Chicago, Rose really wasn’t in a position to be the team
facilitator. They needed 25 a game. Yet, he still managed to dish the ball
around for 7.8 assists per game.
Westbrook must be able to
approach that assists average and there’s really no reason why he cannot.
Chris Paul won the starting spot in the All-Star game
because he plays in Los Angeles, but from a basketball standpoint, he deserved
it. Paul is taking just under 14
shot attempts/game and allowing guys like Griffin, Caron Butler, and DeAndre
Jordan to make meaningful contributions.
Even though Westbrook shoots it nearly five more times per game, Paul is
averaging is still averaging just under 19/game.
I said I’d refrain from ranking the top point guards, but
this type of stuff is what separates Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, and Deron
Williams from the rest.
 |
| Chris Paul has made a relatively seamless entry onto the Clippers |
The problem, though, is more than just Russel Westbrook;
Durant needs to pursue the ball more aggressively. It’s impossible to watch more than the opening fifteen
minutes of a Thunder game before the announcer proclaims, “Folks, it’s just
impossible to guard Durant.” Correct. Durant is averaging 19.2 shot attempts
per game, which is the fourth most in the NBA, but that number could and should
be higher. I’m not suggesting that
he receive Kobe-level impunity, but 21 tries a game seems reasonably high. If Westbrook can bring his average
shots/game down to 15, he could donate two more in Durant’s direction and one
more for Harden, whose 10 field goal attempts/game doesn’t even put him in the
top 50 league-wide. Why isn’t he getting the ball?
So what about those Clippers? Well, the top two for OKC are certainly better. We can attempt to compare Westbrook and
Paul but mentioning Blake Griffin in the same sentence as Kevin Durant is
blasphemy. Still, I feel a
tendency to give the edge to L.A. and that has nothing to do with Griffin
forcing Kendrick Perkins into the Hall of Shame. While Durant and Westbrook have more experience together,
their styles seem to be clashing more as of late. Meanwhile, the recently forged Paul-Griffin marriage is so
amiable that the team is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Red Ivey. Paul is a pass-first, score-second
guard while Griffin really doesn’t need or want the ball in his hands more than
fifteen feet from the basket. The
same can be said about DeAndre Jordan, who really needs to challenge Serge
Ibaka to a litany of athletic challenges the next time these two teams face
off.
The Western Conference reminds me quite a bit of the East
two seasons ago. LeBron and
exciting Cleveland and Dwight Howard and the young Magic had the two best records
in the NBA. The upstart Atlanta
Hawks finished third and the veteran, but average-at-times Celtics sat in
fourth. However, come playoffs,
the poise and determination of Boston allowed them to, not surprisingly,
represent the conference in the finals.
Are the Clippers and Thunder like the Magic and Cavs? At this junction of the season, I think
they’re both kind of like Miami in 2011: a year away from a championship.
 |
| Bynum's 12 field goal attempts per game seems like a pretty good number; he's played in 25 games and is shooting 55% |
Three West teams can fill the Boston role; the Spurs, Lakers,
and Mavs will all be matchup nightmares for the Clips and Thunder come May
because of said experience. In the
shortened, injury-a-plenty NBA regular season, these recent NBA champions are
privy to the secret about the regular season that Boston knew in 2009-10: it doesn’t matter. They’ll rest stars, lose “big” games,
and have to withstand a media and fan-base onslaught but, come playoffs, they
will be ready.
The counterargument to this stance is that all three of
these veteran units have problems and I’m not talking about little hiccups or
questions marks. I’m talking about
weaknesses as obvious as M&M sized pimples. San Antonio could conceivably collapse if the gym at the Weinstein’s
Assisted Living complex gets run down.
Los Angeles’ success relies too heavily on one player. Dallas jus started looking like the
defending champs two weeks ago.
Yet, I still like one of these three to be the conference
champ. With all the surrounding
hoopla, it seems almost impossible to choose the Lakers as the favorite, but their
retarding factor seems to be the least damaging. Sure, Kobe plays a bigger role in determining his teams’
success than any other player in the league, but isn’t that a good thing? Shouldn’t we all praise Kobe for
chucking up 24 a game when we chastise LeBron for disappearing and being too
quick to give up the ball?
Shouldn’t every team’s best player need
scoring opportunities? Isn’t
Kobe’s lack of short-term memory the
quality that makes him a winner? And
so what Dwight is most likely sticking the year out in Orlando? Isn’t the combination of Gasol and
Bynum better anyways? Mike Brown
might be one of the most overrated coaches in the league, but does a team as
experienced as the Lakers really need
an all-time great?
The answer to these questions will decide the conference.
Nobody outside of the state of California is giving the
Lakers any shot, but maybe that’s exactly
how they want it.
-AW
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