Once again Scoop Jackson submits a piece for the worse column of the year award. This conudrum that was inherited by the Bulls is not one at all.  The question Pax needs to ask himself is "Do I just want to make the playoffs or do I want championships?  The NBA is not the NFL where you must draft for need to fit your team.  Save a few exceptions if you are as bad as the Bulls were last year you need to change the complete direction and ruler of your kingdom. 

Believe it or not only a few teams have an actually chance of winning the NBA championship every year. Yeah the Jazz Mavs, Suns and Rockets are good but what continually seperates them from say the Lakers or even the Cavs. Who's the guy that leads them? Where is your "SUPERSTAR?"  And no all star scorer is not what I mean by superstar. 

Michael Beasley will be an all star.  Not quite sure what he is but he reminds me of KG.  But I'm afraid of Beasley the same way I'm still unsure what to think about Durant.  Both guys could be a transcendent player.  A player able to do everything on the court.  But do either of those have the mental makeup to be the guy.  The absolute aura of being the best player on the court in a big game ala Jordan, Kobe, Bird, and Duncan.    And no Rose doesn't have it now but the glimmer is there.  It doesn't even exsist in Beasley.

So when you have your selection of the incoming crop of players look for the guy that is willing to learn (Duncan), willing to lead (Magic), willing to take the shot(MJ), willing to sacrifice his own stats for the team (Lebron), willing to take the tough defensive assignment in crunchtime (Kobe), the guy that will make your good team great (Rose). 

Let's play the first installment of The Rocket's Advocate and place my opinion of several opinions that are a little too snappy. 

First, I don't see why everyone outside of NYC is trashing Isiah for the Zach Randolph trade.  People look at the Spurs and the Pistons and figure the blueprint to winning is find a good coach and finding players to fit the system in place.  How about giving Isiah props for conning Kevin Pritchard out of at least a top 10 power forward.  They add  a needed rebounder and this will finally release Eddy Curry from this fantasy that everyone has for him.   The one where he plays defense or rebounds anthing that doesn't just fall down from the rim into his hands.  Dickau can run the point a little and give Lil Nate competition.  Now if he could just get rid of Starbury

I must place a disclamer in front of this.  I love Michael Jordan.  Absolute man-crush.  But my first memory of basketball is ,like anyyone around my age, of Mike.  Jason Richardson fills a need at the 2 with 20 pts and a adequate defense.  J-Rich is also a plus athlete which makes him the abosolute foil of Adam "Cry Me A River" Morrison.  Brandon Wright I'm not entirely sold on.  A less athletic Tyrus Thomas.  Has to add size and shooting range to contribute, then has to be coached into a superstar four.  He's like KG but he's not like KG.  Kevin Garnett was born for this. Brandon Wright probably not.  Adding Jason puts another shooter on the bench so that Adam can come into his own and maximize whatever NBA level skills he has because he is working for worst 3 pick ever!

Rashard Lewis....

 

Can't defend it.  Nobody can.  Otis can't.  Stan can't.  Whatever yahoos on the Magic can't.  There is no player on this roster thats an all world player.  Futhermore they are #### for the next six years because the fans will get fed up with 2nd round loses and they won't be able to make a move.  When you look at the bad moves the Magic match up with almost any team in the NBA.  Hill, Lewis, Redick, Fran Vasquez (the spainish player that didn't even come over), the Donovan fiasco,  I'll dare someone to match that, T'Wolves not withstanding. I'll say this; Nelson, Lewis, Redick, Turkoglu will make for decent 3 point bets to show up on youtube hopefully. 

This is absolutely the largest problem with the NBA.  Its become a fiscal game instead of a talent game.  The reason there aren't any absolutely dominant teams anymore is because the structure of the cap allows home teams to keep their players.  I'll be surprised if Mo Williams leaves Wisconsin for godforsaken South Beach and a chance to be number 3 on a title contender next year for a few more million.  (Few more million and i'm struggling to pay for school next year. Funny)  It would actually have been funny had a player like Chauncey Billups took the midlevel from the Lakers or something to be number 2 to Kobe and go to the Finals next year.  He'd rather dwell in Detroit and be out in the semis for the next 2 years before being out in the first round before being in the lottery.  But I digress

What the hell is Jeff Green and Kevin Durant going to do with each other!?  You have two 3's one that actually looks like he'll be ineffective against any agressive defender and "Play Patty Cake during the Final Four" Green.  No 2 guard, an undersized 1 and a lot of raw 5's.  What's the plan?  Durant will be McGrady or Dirk.  Not Michael, Larry, or the Logo.  He won't be one of those " I don't care if my teammates suck.  VICTORY WILL BE MINE!" type of players.  So you can't have him and pick up game scrubs and attempt to get to the Finals.

 

What the hell is Ray Allen and Paul Pierce going to do with each other?!  Now Boston is overstocked with scorers and are missing some defenders somewhere in there.  The sad part is they'll make the playoffs and believe they accomplished something. 

 

 

In light of this Kobe trade debacle I must shed light to the biggest misconception in basketball.  An absurd statement that is mentioned by supposed analyst.  Steven John Nash is the best player in basketball.  He isn't even the best player on the Suns and he isn't even the best point guard the league.  I like to refer to Nash as Chris Leak or Danny Wuerffel, system quarterback on the talented team that has superior atheletes and gameplanning.  I respect him as a very good point guard that has had his stats hot air balloned into two mvps and into mounds and mounds of undue praise. 

Check his career statline and explain how his statistics have gotten better as he gets older.  Any Nahs fan take an evaulation method from baseball, find another player in history that has ever did such as thing.  If a baseball player does something of the similar then he is using performance enhancing drugs and in most cases they are.  There is no drug to help shooting or dribbling skills.  He cast of teammates wasn't that bad.  Its not as if Steven was on a bad team with a bad coach  that surpress his abilities.  His running mate was the current MVP, his coach just pulled the greatest upset in playoff history.  I don't want to begin to compare the effectiveness of STAT vs. Dirk or Nellie vs. D'Antoni, but SJN couldn't have exploded into the second coming of Magic magically.  Could he?

Where does Nash rank in a pickup game?  He is at least one of the two best passing 1's in the league.  Smart player and always makes a good decision.  Unselfish and makes his teammates better. He also doesn't have the athleticism of Baron or Deron, scoring abilities of Chauncey or Gilbert, or the all around game of J Kidd.  Not to mention he's a flopper.  But all the reason that these guys or someone like Kobe or Tracy are placed in such a negative light is that they aren't winners; neither is Steve.  There are excuses every year but has he ever led any of his teams to anything but a high seed in the playoff.  The reason why the Suns are so good have been gilded just a bit to make a player better in the public's eye than he really is.

I honestly believe that Steve Nash was the MVP of  the Association this year but the writers consistenly getting it wrong.  Two years ago Shaq was robbed and last year Kobe got shafted(it was 81 points for god's sake).  Everyone knows that the media hates Kobe Bryant.  I don't think anyone has ever came to his defense on any subject.  But to accomplish a slightly racial and Stern's fun & gun agenda Shaq had to be sacrificed.  NBA MVP voters has shown a history of using any small hole to discredit a rightful canidate and assign an award to its personal choice.

I really don't want to change anyone's opinion.  I expect that my arguement will be blasphemy to some nice guy thats a fan of the Suns as an opinion that believe Kobe isn't the best since Jordan is to me(even though I've heard it so much I don't pay attention to silly notions like that).  In the offseason when Tracy and Dirk try to get there mojo back and Kobe and KG try to keep from commiting a murder of themselves or someone else, I just hope that Mike D'Antoni is finally given credit for turning a very good point into a two time Most Valuable Player and leader of the three time 2nd best team in the Western conference.  I'm sure that helps his ringless hands sleep at night.