More anticipation! The NBA season starts Tuesday! This post brings us into the top ten NBA players coming into the 09-10 season. I've alluded to it before, but this grouping really illuminates the matter clearly. We are firmly in the age of point guards. The first guy in this post isn't strictly a point guard, but he handles the ball for his team enough to be considered in the same breath. The other two guys have fallen on my count down a bit since last off season, but it's most because their respective teams don't seem to be putting them in scenarios where they can surpass previous expectations. Not yet anyway.
Number 10: Brandon Roy has arrived. Coming in to last season, I had him ranked as 22nd. This after he made the all-star team and sophomore team in 07-08. He made the all-star team again this year and looked just as solid as ever, even hitting a bunch of uber-clutch shots. The Blazers are a bit of a question mark moving forward. Will they fulfill all the potential they've been packing for the past few seasons? We'll see. They made a strong showing during the season, but hit the wrong match up in the playoffs. Lamarcus Aldridge is solid, but the rest of this team is a bit of a question mark. Is Nicholas Batum really their starting three? Is Oden finally ready to come into his own? It's unclear how soon this team could be a championship contender, but there should be no questions as to whether this team will make the playoffs for the second season in a row. Brandon Roy is the big, steadying reason.
Number 9: Deron Williams finds himself in much the same situation as Roy. There are strong pieces around him, but it's unclear how or if they'll come together in the end. The Jazz actually came out on the bottom of the Western pecking order and were quickly ousted by the Lakers in this year's playoffs, but most of that was due to injury. This is a formidable team and has been for awhile. Can we say that pushes Deron over B-Roy? Not quite. But we can say that Deron is just more potent and has been for a little longer than Roy. He hits for the watershed mark of 10 assists per, which trumps Roy's 5 even accounting for Roy's shooting guard label and his higher scoring average. I'll say it again though, all these young men are leading their teams resolutely toward years of success. Deron doesn't come out higher because we can't accurately project his success this year. The Ineffables are a delicate matter, and he just seems likely to be pulled down by all the turmoil that the Jazz bring into this season.
Number 8: Chris Paul makes a bit of a drop from where I had him ranked last year (numero three-o). It’s not because he had a worse year. He most certainly did not. It’s just because his team didn’t do so hot-ly. It's not that I subscribe solely to that school of thought (otherwise he'd be lower than Roy and Williams as I'd project his team to do worse this year. More, it was just he wasn’t setting the league on fire like he did in 07-08. This team needs more help. CP3's field goal percentage keeps going up, and we love that. Paul also boasts probably the best court awareness in the league. I've seen him multiple times close off lanes for other players, defenders, just by placing his foot a bit to one side. You can see him calculating all this in his head as he dribbles up court. It's actually quite reminiscent of Kidd in his prime. It should be noted that his stats are ungodly, simply because stats like these need to be noted. He went for 22.8 points, 11 assists, 5.5 rebounds (keep in mind, he's not a big 6-4 point guard like Kidd, which makes this stat all the more impressive), and 2.8 steals per game! That's insane.
Kind of like devoting only one paragraph to each of these guys. Oh well, someone has to do the insane, whether it's the impressive kind or the other, monotonous kind. Here comes Monday, folks! And a work week you can look forward to filling in with NBA basketball!
