Sports Blog

The San Antonio Spurs got a little younger and more dangerous on Tuesday.  In a 4-player deal involving the Milwaukee Bucks, the Spurs will receive Richard Jefferson for three aging bench players with expiring contracts (Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas, and Fabricio Oberto).  The Bucks were just looking to get rid of the $29.2 million still owed to Jefferson in the last two years of the contract.  They needed that money to sign other important players that are in the last years of their current contracts.  Because of this, the Spurs were able to come in and get Jefferson, a versatile wingman who averaged 19.6 points last year, for almost nothing.  Well, if you call $29.5 million over the next two years nothing!  The deal makes the Spurs a threat in the strong West again as they lost in the first round last year.  It gives them a formidable core of Jefferson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili.  I’d say that’s a pretty good team and probably second only to the Lakers out West.  And, as a Laker fan, I have to admit that it’s going to be different not seeing Bruce there to guard Kobe.  Though I hated him, he made the games more fun to watch and I enjoyed the intensity between the two.  He was getting old and last season he was no where near the player that he used to be so a change was needed.

In another trade in the NBA, the Minnesota Timberwolves gave themselves some good leverage and ammunition for another big deal on draft day tomorrow.  The T-Wolves traded Randy Foye and Mike Miller to the Washington Wizards for their number one draft pick (5th overall) and three others.  This gives the T-Wolves four first round draft picks (5th,6th,18th,28th) and frees up some cap space.  There is talk that they will use some of those picks to move higher in the draft or trade for another quality player.  We’ll have to wait and see what they do tomorrow.  The Wizards, on the other hand, get an up-and-coming point guard in Foye and a great shooter in Miller.  They believe that their team already has a good core of players and the only reason for the bad year was injury.  Coming back next year will be Gilbert Arenas, a former All-Star who missed all last season with a knee injury.  They believe that’s like getting a top 5 pick in the draft.  I think the Wizards will be a lot better next year if he can come back as the same player he was.

Photo Source: AP Photo

A lot is being made of USA Olympic Basketball Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s decision not to play Jason Kidd in the final minutes of a recent exhibition game against Russia.

Kidd was supposed to be a leader of the team, who after suffering crushing defeats in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and not winning a major international tournament since 2000, is clearly in need of something. That something was supposed to be Kidd, whose experience and leadership was supposed to help transform the Redeem Team into something closer to the glory days of the Dream Team.

However, the emergence of Chris Paul and Deron Williams has at the very least made Krzyzewski and company question who will receive the bulk of the minutes and how to best integrate the other two into the lineup. What it got me thinking was who the best point guards in the league are.

So I asked myself if I had to start the next season with any point guard; who would it be? Assuming that it was for one year only and the only goal was to win a NBA championship this year, here is my list for the top four.

4] Steve Nash: Nash is difficult to peg because while he has led one of the most prolific offenses this decade, there are some questions about his defense and age. A couple years ago he would have been a lock to be number one on this list, but at age 34 the decision is complicated.

He was second in assists per game last season and has averaged at least 10 since arriving in Phoenix, but his numbers in Dallas weren’t nearly as strong. This makes one wonder how effective he will be in a more traditional offense, like the one he looks to have next year with Shaq.

3] Tony Parker: It is hard to argue against Parker’s resume. Since being drafted 28^th overall by San Antonio in 2001, Parker has won three NBA championships and was the NBA Finals MVP in 2007. He works the pick and roll as well as anybody in the league and is deadly around the basket.

One could argue that he has the benefit of playing alongside Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, but you don’t see the point guards that play with Yao Ming, Kevin Garnett or Dwight Howard on here.

2] Deron Williams: Williams is in a difficult situation. He plays for a franchise that housed one of the all-time greats in John Stockton and Williams was drafted one spot higher than Chris Paul in 2005. As a result, he will be compared to Paul his entire career, but maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.

He only scored about two points less than Paul a game last season and shot slightly better than Paul from the field and from behind the arc. The greatest thing you can say about Williams at this point: it isn’t crazy to argue that one day he ends up with more hardware on his fingers and in his trophy case than Paul.

1] Chris Paul: Even with the high upside of Williams, in the last year no player in the NBA has had their stock rise higher than Paul. He’s played a huge part in reinvigorating not only the Hornets, but the city of New Orleans.

Paul was the biggest reason the Hornets secured a number two seed in the mighty western conference last year and has turned Tyson Chandler into the player the Chicago Bulls hoped he would be. If that wasn’t amazing enough, among point guards last year Paul was a statistical powerhouse – second in scoring, first in steals and first in assists (on a per/game average).

That’s good enough to be number one on my list – and if Team USA wants to bring home the gold – Krzyzewski better have Paul as first on his.

Photo Source.

Photo of the Day:

Desperate Housewives starlet, Eva Longoria, jumps on her fiance, Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, after his team beat the Cavaliers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

Photo Courtesy of Sports Illustrated.

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