Excellent thoughts ...

from Kmart in the Comments of Response to Comments - I considered the ideas, but decided to "ignore" them to make my point. I cannot disagree tho, the league has long been dominated by the big man (Duncan, Shaq & Hakeem in the last 20 years).

However, we cannot completely ignore where MJ took the league, and where it is headed now. There is no longer a long line of dominant big men ... in fact, there are hardly any true, young, back-to-the-basket big men left. Off the top of my head: Superman, Bynum, Al Jefferson, Amare ...

The league is getting smaller, faster and more athletic. The top players are mostly SGs, SFs and some PGs. Think of: D-Wade, LeBron, Kobe, Granger, Durant, Brandon Roy, CP3, D-Will (plus the rookies: Rose, Russell Westbrook, OJ). The future of the league appears to be moving in this direction. That's not to say you don't need/want a big that can dominate and score, but it might not be as necessary as it seemed to be in the past.

Again, I am choosing to ignore the fact that from this group, only D-Wade has won a title (with Shaq), and if Kobe wins this year it will be with Bynum and Pau. There was never a dynasty built around a SG until the MJ Bull - but the idea of building around a SG/3 seems much more reasonable now than it did pre-MJ, and the same applies to building around a PG.




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Rose misses practice - "Derrick Rose is sitting out practice to rest a sore back but expects to play Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks."

Rose may just be tired after a LONG All-Star weekend - "Derrick Rose lost the rookie game, won the skills contest and felt overjoyed that all-star weekend finally was over."


Gooden close to returning, and I am NOT excited / happy. It better not result in a decrease to TT's minutes.



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N.B.A. = No Balls Association - "Portland, its time to grow some. You have the most young talent in the league, but you all are scaring me. If you don't make a move or two to improve your team, your going to turn into the 2006-2008 Chicago Bulls. Full of young talent, balked to making some major moves (KOBE), and ended up realizing that their talent were no more than B+ players at best. You have the chance to go get Amare, go get him! You too could use some veteran leadership at the wing, go get a Richard Jefferson or a Vince Carter. You all could make a serious run at this thing, don't let it slip away.
We just talked about them earlier, but Chicago needed to grow some a long time ago. With GM John Paxson at the helm, they had amassed some of the best young talent in the league, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, Thabo Sefolosha, and now they have the uber-talented Derrick Rose. Yet, they waited so long to see their talent mature is that now they still have no type of post game whatsoever, they have too much personnel on the wings, and a logjam at PG with Hinrich and Rose. Why not package Hinrich and Ty Thomas to get Amare? Send Hinrich to Miami for a Daequan Cook and a pick? Chris Bosh would look really good in the Bulls uniform. Plus here's another question, why are the Bulls a half-court team? You have one of the most talented, athletic young floor generals ever since J. Kidd hit the court in the mid-90's, yet you want to plod up and down the court and set up the offense? You have athletes, let them boys run and get up and down the floor. Its almost insulting to watch."