Of the large contingent of people that the Lakers' 2012 acquisitions upset, I was hurt the most. Not just by Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, but Antawn Jamison! NO! And then I remembered that Ron Artest is still in LA posing as a Buddhist, albeit poorly. (And let's face
it, he's not fooling anyone. We all know that the crazier Ron Artest is,
the better he plays, and he's balling right now.) NO! This Lakers
team upsets me so much that I truly, sincerely like any of my friends who are
Laker fans a little less than I did before. The upside, though, is that every time there's a consolidation of figureheads,
an angel gets its wings, and new players are born. Most of this next
group of Players to Watch will be directly effected by the player movement that
has occurred this offseason. It's possible these players will know what
it takes to become successors to the leadership positions left vacant in their
current or new locations, and it's also possible these players will be content
to retain their current titles, show up for work everyday, pay into their
401(k)s, become Fox Sports Net analysts, then die, and in a thousand years when
future civilizations come upon our long-abandoned lands, no records or
artifacts will be found to denote the existence of these men.
(Potential) Heirs to the Throne
Goran Dragic
Dragic has been trying to rise up since he got in the league, but
The Man been holding him down, subjugating him to the pine. Goran
probably could've started in his sophomore season in Phoenix, but the
omniscience of Steve Nash is of the hardest things to rise above. Dragic got shipped to Houston in '11 and sat behind Kyle
Lowry's whiny ass (I don't know I'm making fun of Kyle Lowry, I like him more than I like Goran Dragic, though, he is whiny, and an ass) for a year before usurping
the starting job when Lowry got injured midway through the season. And Dragic played so well, that Lowry didn't retake his starting position when he came back. Now, as
Nash embarks for LA on a final crusade in the autumn of his career like so many downtrodden men before him, Dragic returns to Phoenix with a new contract,
the starting point guard job, and the fool's errand of erasing the memory of
the most deified Phoenician since Barkley. Dragic has only gotten
better with time, becoming a better and more versatile shooter inside and
oustide, becoming a better passer, and adding the ability to orchestrate a
half-court offense to his run-and-gun technology. His career averages are as
indistinct as any other bench player's, but his career averages as a starter
are Nashian (17 ppg, 8 apg, 4 rpg., 48% FGs). Dragic is the same size and speed as
Nash, but he's twelve years younger, will play almost ten more minutes a game, and is slightly more attractive than Nash was even in his
prime. The Suns have kept their underwhelming roster of interchangeable
rotation players perfectly in-tact, and added Louis Scola and Michael
Beasley, both of whom should have no problem assimilating to an underwhelming style of play. But this roster is serviceable, and I guarantee those
rejects in the Suns' locker room are watching game film of the 2011 Mavericks
playoff run and believing. But who'll lead them? Who'll be the one
to prevent Michael Beasley from taking twenty shit-poor shots a game? By
all appearances, Dragic has the keys to the solar-powered machine that carries the
Suns. This year, there'll be no Kyle Lowrys oppressing Dragic with their I was here first routine.
This is the year we'll see who Dragic really is. Is he the next Steve
Nash, or is he the next Beno Udrih?
Kenneth Faried
It's no coincidence Kenneth Faried was dubbed the next Rodman during his college
career, in which he went to the NCAA tourney twice in four years with Morehead
State, a school from the Ohio Valley that hadn't been to the dance since '84.
Faried consciously based his game on Rodman's, neglecting to develop
a rounded offensive game in order to focus on being the best rebounder on the
planet. As a result, the Rodman comparisons are there in nearly every
aspect. They both came from no-name schools, they're both undersized,
they both went late in the draft—shit, they were born an hour away from
one another in Jersey. Unlike Rodman, Faried did not come from Division II
obscurity. Keep in mind, Faried left Morehead State as the NCAA Division
I career rebounding leader, just ahead of Tim Duncan—a dubious honor,
considering it's almost a failure in this era for a player to leave college
with a degree. Last year, when Faried arrived
in Denver as a 22-year-old rookie, the pre-production period was short before
the Manimal was released into the mainstream. A month into the season,
Faried was funneled into the rotation to back-up Nene, who had been a god
damn institution in Denver—the Todd Helton of the hardwood. Soon thereafter,
Faried cracked the starting lineup and started outplaying Nene, because not
only does Faried grind, he also hustles. Essentially, he out-Nene'd Nene.
Nuggets management soon realized that Faried basically is Nene, sans gravity, so they sent Nene's
tired ass to D.C. Because, as it turns out, you don't need more than one Nene
in any city. Faried finished the
year on a tear, scoring 12 ppg and pulling down 8.5 rpg in just 25 minutes per game after the
all-star break. Additionally, he played an integral role in the Nuggets' run into the playoffs, in which they took the Lakers to seven games, but lost. Kyrie Irving winning Rookie of the
Year was a joke. Sure, he put up numbers, while leading a Cleveland
shit-parade. Faried was a unanticipated surprise to the
Nuggets last year. This year, they need him. Denver may be a better team this
year after subtracting Nene and adding Iguodala and having Wilson Chandler back, but they
now have an obvious lack of track record in the frontcourt. George Karl
likes playing small, and Faried is just small enough for his configuration,
though Karl is asking him to run, play big at the same time, and bring the physical presence. They
don't need him to generate his own offense, but he can't just be the garbage
man like he was last year. George Karl needs Faried to be the Director of
Waste—to pull down fourteen rebounds a game, to become a Rodman. The
matrices indicate that this is possible, but you can't become a Rodman purely
on hustle. Becoming a Rodman requires an acuteness so sophisticated that
it functions like instinct. This year we'll see whether the mythology of
Kenneth Faried is just, or if he's just another Reggie Evans.
Glen DavisBefore the '09 Playoffs, Glen Davis's defining moment was when Kevin Garnett made him cry. Then in '09, Garnett went down just before the playoffs and I was sure the Celtics would fold like a chair to the burgeoning Bulls, but Glen Davis filled-in and played heroicly, helping the Celtics beat the Bulls in seven games. Then during the Orlando series in the East semis, where the Celtics would end up losing in seven, Glen Davis's defining moment became him making that little cherubic boy cry like a little girl. Always with the tears, Glen. In an equally surprising turn of events, Glen Davis got traded to Orlando last year, and now that same kid may very well be walking around Epcot with a Glen Davis jersey on. When Dwight Howard went down with a back injury last year right before the playoffs, like Garnett in '09, Glen Davis started in his place and again took it to another level in the playoffs (19 ppg, 9 rpg), but this time his team got whomped on by the Pacers. I'm not sure what the Magic are intending to do this season. Is this yet another reconstruction period for them? Are they willing to let the season tank on its own accord, or are they going to tank intentionally like the Celtics did in '06-'07, which incidentally gave them enough draft-pick trade bait to assemble the first NBA supergroup of the era, the "Big Three, " and draft Glen Davis in the same offseason. If the new Magic GM, Rob Hennigan, lets the boys play, who knows. Orlando still has a lot of proven veteran guys who've been rotation players in successful offensive and defensive systems. They also have Hedo Turkoglu and Al Harrington, which is what you make of it. There's no reason to believe new Magic coach, Jacque Vaughn, will be any sort of messianic figure for Orlando, but if he's smart he'll forge a capable leader out of one of these Other Guys. Glen Davis is a capable post scorer, he sets roadblocks not picks, he's got a jumpshot, he's a good post defender and help defender, and he rebounds. He won't block any shots, but he may make his free throws. Above all, he's fiery, and also he's somewhat fat. And anybody's who's played streetball knows that fat guys pass the rock. If I'm at the park, putting together a squad, and I have to pick between a fat guy and a skinny guy, nine times out of ten I'm picking the fat guy. Because fat guys know how to use their body, they know how to rebound, and they love to pass, maybe out of necessity. Skinny guys just love scoring. Jacque, if you're listening: give Glen Davis the rock. I know Glen is not a great player, but he's a player whose shown intermittent spurts of greatness. Sometimes a player only reaches maximum potential when he's handed the keys, or forced to take them. And we know that sometimes that player takes the keys and drives to the moon.
What's the story with these guys? Their careers have all stalled, and I'm not sure why. I mean, I know what happened to them, and I will tell you, but I don't know why these guys didn't, or just couldn't, prevent it from happening. In a way, it's good that Dirk will be out for the beginning of the season, because that will give one or all of these guys a chance, without Daddy around holding their hands, to become worthy wingmen to the Nowitzki endeavor. The Mavs are now back to where they were before they won the championship in '11. They're back on the frontier, where anything can happen. Hell, they may not even make the playoffs this year if one of these guys doesn't become a gunslinger. And they better step up and take some accountability before Christmas, or Antoine Walker is just gonna have to come back.
Darren Collison started behind Chris Paul in New Orleans, and put up nearly the same numbers as a starter (19 ppg, 9 apg, 3.5 rpg, 49% FG) when Paul got injured in Collison's rookie season. Collison got traded to Indiana before the next season to be their point guard, did okay, not as great. Then last year, Collison becomes wallpaper and eventually loses his job to little ole George Hill. Darren, what's the story? You've got every desirable point guard skill: speed, shooting touch, court vision, intelligence, explosiveness. Do your thang, Darren, whatever that may be. We still don't know.
Chris Kaman as a Clipper was prohibited by a lack of touches whilst playing alongside the pre-geriatric Elton Brand—one of the best post-players of the 2000's (who will now be prohibited in Dallas by Kaman's touches—that didn't come out right). Finally, Kaman started putting up numbers when Elton Brand was injured in '07-'08, then Kaman went down mid-way through the season. The next year, the Clips let Elton Brand leave for Philly, largely because they had Kaman lying in the wait, and Kaman went down again. Then the next year Kaman had a good season (19.5 ppg, 9 rpg) on a bad Clippers team—blame Baron for that one, I don't know. Then just when Blake Griffin was all set to roll it out in LA, Kaman went down again, then got traded to the Hornets and barely played. What's the story, Chris? STAY. UP. Do what you did in '09-'10, just do it better somehow. And go back to the post. Dallas doesn't need another seven-foot man, with ancestral beginnings in the Nordic region, shooting jumpshots. That position has been filled.
O.J. Mayo. Good well-rounded game as a rookie (18.5 ppg 3 apg, 4 rpg), good well-rounded game as a sophmore (17 ppg, 3 apg, 4 rpg), then Tony Allen kicked his ass, took his job (probably took his girl too in the whirlwind of things), and the Grizzlies went on to make the playoffs for the first time in five years, and also establish themselves as a regular contender, all while Mayo came off the bench. It dun't look good for Mayo. Come onnnnnnn back, O.J. Come onnnnnnn back.
