duncan228
11-21-2009, 02:26 AM
All-Lefty Team: These Players Are Better Than All Right (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-091121-22)
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Confession time: I've just been waiting for my opening.
Been wanting to bust out an NBA All-Lefty Team for years to properly acknowledge my favorite fellow left-handers. The challenge was always being able to justify more than the usual preferential treatment southpaws get in this cyberspace.
Which brings us to the new Milwaukee Bucks.
With Brandon Jennings bombing away, Milwaukee has just given me my opening. Add up that 55-point detonation from the rookie and the fast-approaching return of longtime Stein Line favorite Michael Redd and you have an all-lefty backcourt that demands special coverage.
Here, then, are the would-be five starters and sixth man on my dream team, as chosen from the 30 lefties currently on NBA rosters:
SF: Josh Smith (Atlanta)
If there's a face of the Hawks' emergence as November darlings in the East, it's Smith.
No longer satisfied to be adored for his spectacular dunking and shot-blocking but just as often hounded about his shot selection, Smith has launched only one 3-pointer all season. One in 12 games.
The result? One of the league's most tantalizing entertainers has inched away from his equal and well-chronicled tendency to frustrate, and he is playing the best all-around ball of his life.
I checked in this week with one trusted scout who assured me back in October that the Hawks could be this good -- consider this my formal acknowledgment of your sageness, Trusted Scout -- and naturally, I wanted to know the specific areas of improvement that have turned Smith into a better player.
The scout countered: "I wouldn't say better. Just more mature."
Perhaps Smith is simply playing a smarter game, making good use of his many summer tutorials in recent years from a Houston-based legend Kobe Bryant is consulting these days, as well: Hakeem Olajuwon.
It also doesn't hurt that the Hawks, as a group, are creating more transition opportunities with their defense than they used to, which gets them running more than coach Mike Woodson has previously sanctioned. Which only helps J-Smoove.
(PS -- I realize Smith almost exclusively plays power forward for the Hawks nowadays. Really could have just listed J-Smoove and the next guy as forwards, without using SF and PF, because they're interchangeable in this mythical frontcourt of mine. Just wanted to let you know we're well aware Smith is a full-time 4-man in real life. Let's proceed.)
PF: Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Lakers)
How many lefties (or righties) can play all five positions? Odom's presence on that short list is just one of the reasons he was an automatic choice here.
The other reasons?
Odom's ever-increasing importance to the defending champions should make them all pretty obvious.
His athleticism and versatility, combined with the gifts possessed by Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, give the Lakers what must be the league's most dynamic trio of 7-footers (and near 7-footers). Odom also gives the Lakers at least one player in that locker room who speaks Ron Artest -- since he grew up with Artest in New York -- and showed his coach a glimpse of his newfound championship wisdom by telling Phil Jackson this week that he needed to make an immediate return to L.A.'s otherwise-thin bench now that Gasol is healthy.
Odom is doing more as he gets older, not less.
C: Chris Bosh (Toronto)
Even though only 6.7 percent of the league's population is left-handed, there are a lot of big men to choose from for this squad. New York's David Lee, Golden State's Andris Biedrins and Indiana's Troy Murphy are all warmly appreciated here … and ESPN colleague/famed retired lefty Jalen Rose chided me for leaving Memphis' Zach Randolph out of the lineup.
However …
You can quibble about designating Bosh as a pure center, but there can't be much debate about his standing as the league's pre-eminent lefty big man. Although it has to help that he has more offensive talent around him in Toronto than ever before, Bosh is playing with a ferocity and a consistency we haven't seen before in the run to his much-anticipated foray into free agency.
"Obviously, one thing I think everyone notices right off the bat is that he's bulked up," says Raptors guard Jarrett Jack, who sees the change more than most since he roomed with Bosh for a year at Georgia Tech.
You'll also notice some seriously beefed-up statistical production when you examine Bosh's first month of the new season. Playing two minutes less per game than last season, Bosh is averaging better than four points and two rebounds more per game than he did in 2008-09, nudging his averages up to 26.8 points and 12.2 rebounds.
The problem? At the rate Toronto is giving up points these days, Raps fans are either going to have to see their team mix in some defense soon, or get some sort of positive signal from Bosh about his forthcoming free agency, to enjoy any of this.
SG: Michael Redd (Milwaukee)
My man-crush on Redd's shot-making is old news.
The impossibly quick lefty release. The way he turned himself into a shooter after he got drafted by living in the gym until he had transformed himself into a 3-point bomber. The journey from collegian who barely shot 30 percent on 3s at Ohio State to All-Star and Olympian.
I'm still a sucker for all that. I am in spite of the knee injury that limited him to 33 games last season and the resultant skepticism about Redd's ability to ever shake his knee problems and get back to being the scorer he was at his peak.
If Redd finally does recover -- after lasting only two games this season before returning to the rehab room -- Milwaukee will have my favorite guard tandem in the league. Two explosive lefties?
Yet we have to concede, when we finally calm down, that it remains to be seen whether Redd and Jennings can actually play together. And you have to believe that the onus will be on the vet, as opposed to the youngster, when it comes to fitting in. Especially with Redd approaching the final year on his contract … at a whopping $18.3 million in 2010-11.
"It'll be Redd's problem," one Eastern Conference observer said this week. "Not Jennings' problem."
PG: Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee)
Bucks coach Scott Skiles is right. It is way too soon for the Tiny Archibald talk.
Although he's mostly remembered in this household for the blasted Achilles' injury that prevented him from playing a single game for Buffalo after my beloved (but doomed) Braves traded for him in 1977, Archibald is the only player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season. Jennings? He's played a total of nine NBA games.
But it is most certainly not too soon to put the 20-year-old on the closest thing to an official All-Lefty Team. Not after Jennings went scoreless in the first quarter against Golden State and then rung up 55 points in the next three quarters, breaking a record that stood for nearly 50 years. You can look it up: Wilt Chamberlain didn't score 50 points in the NBA until his eighth game as a pro. Jennings did so in only his seventh game.
We don't know how he's going to cope physically with the NBA grind or how he'll handle teams game-planning for him in greater detail with each passing week. What we already do know, though, is that Jennings has instantly infused the Bucks with a sense of chic that they haven't had in ages. Maybe dating all the way to their powerhouse teams in the 1980s.
Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson and Andrew Bogut are No. 1 overall picks of recent vintage, but the little guy who fell to the Bucks at No. 10 in June is the first Buck in ages who has really made the nation pay attention. So he has to be my point guard.
Sixth Man: Manu Ginobili (San Antonio)
Don't want to hear about the injury woes that left him one-legged in the 2008 Western Conference finals and dragged him all the way out of the 2009 playoffs.
Not going to listen when you try to tell me he's an old 32.
Manu?
His contributions to three Spurs championships in the space of seven seasons and the frequent doses of un-Spurs-like flair make it impossible to omit Ginobili.
Demoralizing as it has to be for the Spurs to know that they didn't make it to Thanksgiving without Ginobili (groin), Tony Parker (ankle) and Tim Duncan (ankle) all missing time with the sort of injuries that will only fuel the perception that all those playoff miles are wearing them down, Manu is still widely regarded as the most influential sixth man of his generation.
I can't argue: Wednesday night was an undeniable downer. In the Spurs' locker room before the game, when informed about the story I was planning, Ginobili playfully volunteered Toni Kukoc, former teammate David Robinson and Argentine tennis legend Guillermo Vilas as his favorite all-time lefties. The mood was light. Less than two hours later, Ginobili was out of the game with a fresh groin injury.
Yet we've seen too much dependability and creativity for too long from Ginobili -- who's just 32 -- to give this spot to a pretty deserving Philly kid named Thaddeus Young. Not yet, Thad. Not quite.
Southpaw Central
• Lefties in the league: 30
• Percentage of league that's left-handed: 6.98 percent (430 players overall as of Friday morning)
• Team with the most left-handers: Golden State (Andris Biedrins, Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright) and Memphis (Mike Conley, Zach Randolph and Marcus Williams) have three each
• Division with the most lefties: Pacific (8)
• Division with the least: Northwest (2)
The complete list of lefties (alphabetical order):
• Joel Anthony (Miami), Michael Beasley (Miami), Andris Biedrins (Golden State), Chris Bosh (Toronto), Derrick Brown (Charlotte)
Mike Conley (Memphis), Goran Dragic (Phoenix), Derek Fisher (Los Angeles Lakers), Manu Ginobili (San Antonio), James Harden (Oklahoma City), Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee), Acie Law (Charlotte).
David Lee (New York), Josh McRoberts (Indiana), C.J. Miles (Utah), Darko Milicic (New York), Troy Murphy (Indiana)
Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Lakers), Morris Peterson (New Orleans), Tayshaun Prince (Detroit), Anthony Randolph (Golden State), Zach Randolph (Memphis)
Michael Redd (Milwaukee), Kareem Rush (Los Angeles Clippers), Josh Smith (Atlanta), Beno Udrih (Sacramento)
Delonte West (Cleveland), Marcus Williams (Memphis), Brandan Wright (Golden State), Thaddeus Young (Philadelphia)
Two special cases:
1. We didn't include him on this list, but our team-by-team check to make sure no lefties were left out returned this tidbit from the Clippers: They regard Chris Kaman as fully ambidextrous. There is no official ruling on the matter because "handedness" is not something officially tracked in the NBA as seen in, say, baseball or hockey. The Clips, though, contend that Kaman is equally good with both hands.
2. The Cavaliers reminded me of something I had forgotten: LeBron James eats and writes with the same left hand he appeared to injure with that vicious throwdown in Wednesday night's loss to Washington.
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Confession time: I've just been waiting for my opening.
Been wanting to bust out an NBA All-Lefty Team for years to properly acknowledge my favorite fellow left-handers. The challenge was always being able to justify more than the usual preferential treatment southpaws get in this cyberspace.
Which brings us to the new Milwaukee Bucks.
With Brandon Jennings bombing away, Milwaukee has just given me my opening. Add up that 55-point detonation from the rookie and the fast-approaching return of longtime Stein Line favorite Michael Redd and you have an all-lefty backcourt that demands special coverage.
Here, then, are the would-be five starters and sixth man on my dream team, as chosen from the 30 lefties currently on NBA rosters:
SF: Josh Smith (Atlanta)
If there's a face of the Hawks' emergence as November darlings in the East, it's Smith.
No longer satisfied to be adored for his spectacular dunking and shot-blocking but just as often hounded about his shot selection, Smith has launched only one 3-pointer all season. One in 12 games.
The result? One of the league's most tantalizing entertainers has inched away from his equal and well-chronicled tendency to frustrate, and he is playing the best all-around ball of his life.
I checked in this week with one trusted scout who assured me back in October that the Hawks could be this good -- consider this my formal acknowledgment of your sageness, Trusted Scout -- and naturally, I wanted to know the specific areas of improvement that have turned Smith into a better player.
The scout countered: "I wouldn't say better. Just more mature."
Perhaps Smith is simply playing a smarter game, making good use of his many summer tutorials in recent years from a Houston-based legend Kobe Bryant is consulting these days, as well: Hakeem Olajuwon.
It also doesn't hurt that the Hawks, as a group, are creating more transition opportunities with their defense than they used to, which gets them running more than coach Mike Woodson has previously sanctioned. Which only helps J-Smoove.
(PS -- I realize Smith almost exclusively plays power forward for the Hawks nowadays. Really could have just listed J-Smoove and the next guy as forwards, without using SF and PF, because they're interchangeable in this mythical frontcourt of mine. Just wanted to let you know we're well aware Smith is a full-time 4-man in real life. Let's proceed.)
PF: Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Lakers)
How many lefties (or righties) can play all five positions? Odom's presence on that short list is just one of the reasons he was an automatic choice here.
The other reasons?
Odom's ever-increasing importance to the defending champions should make them all pretty obvious.
His athleticism and versatility, combined with the gifts possessed by Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, give the Lakers what must be the league's most dynamic trio of 7-footers (and near 7-footers). Odom also gives the Lakers at least one player in that locker room who speaks Ron Artest -- since he grew up with Artest in New York -- and showed his coach a glimpse of his newfound championship wisdom by telling Phil Jackson this week that he needed to make an immediate return to L.A.'s otherwise-thin bench now that Gasol is healthy.
Odom is doing more as he gets older, not less.
C: Chris Bosh (Toronto)
Even though only 6.7 percent of the league's population is left-handed, there are a lot of big men to choose from for this squad. New York's David Lee, Golden State's Andris Biedrins and Indiana's Troy Murphy are all warmly appreciated here … and ESPN colleague/famed retired lefty Jalen Rose chided me for leaving Memphis' Zach Randolph out of the lineup.
However …
You can quibble about designating Bosh as a pure center, but there can't be much debate about his standing as the league's pre-eminent lefty big man. Although it has to help that he has more offensive talent around him in Toronto than ever before, Bosh is playing with a ferocity and a consistency we haven't seen before in the run to his much-anticipated foray into free agency.
"Obviously, one thing I think everyone notices right off the bat is that he's bulked up," says Raptors guard Jarrett Jack, who sees the change more than most since he roomed with Bosh for a year at Georgia Tech.
You'll also notice some seriously beefed-up statistical production when you examine Bosh's first month of the new season. Playing two minutes less per game than last season, Bosh is averaging better than four points and two rebounds more per game than he did in 2008-09, nudging his averages up to 26.8 points and 12.2 rebounds.
The problem? At the rate Toronto is giving up points these days, Raps fans are either going to have to see their team mix in some defense soon, or get some sort of positive signal from Bosh about his forthcoming free agency, to enjoy any of this.
SG: Michael Redd (Milwaukee)
My man-crush on Redd's shot-making is old news.
The impossibly quick lefty release. The way he turned himself into a shooter after he got drafted by living in the gym until he had transformed himself into a 3-point bomber. The journey from collegian who barely shot 30 percent on 3s at Ohio State to All-Star and Olympian.
I'm still a sucker for all that. I am in spite of the knee injury that limited him to 33 games last season and the resultant skepticism about Redd's ability to ever shake his knee problems and get back to being the scorer he was at his peak.
If Redd finally does recover -- after lasting only two games this season before returning to the rehab room -- Milwaukee will have my favorite guard tandem in the league. Two explosive lefties?
Yet we have to concede, when we finally calm down, that it remains to be seen whether Redd and Jennings can actually play together. And you have to believe that the onus will be on the vet, as opposed to the youngster, when it comes to fitting in. Especially with Redd approaching the final year on his contract … at a whopping $18.3 million in 2010-11.
"It'll be Redd's problem," one Eastern Conference observer said this week. "Not Jennings' problem."
PG: Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee)
Bucks coach Scott Skiles is right. It is way too soon for the Tiny Archibald talk.
Although he's mostly remembered in this household for the blasted Achilles' injury that prevented him from playing a single game for Buffalo after my beloved (but doomed) Braves traded for him in 1977, Archibald is the only player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season. Jennings? He's played a total of nine NBA games.
But it is most certainly not too soon to put the 20-year-old on the closest thing to an official All-Lefty Team. Not after Jennings went scoreless in the first quarter against Golden State and then rung up 55 points in the next three quarters, breaking a record that stood for nearly 50 years. You can look it up: Wilt Chamberlain didn't score 50 points in the NBA until his eighth game as a pro. Jennings did so in only his seventh game.
We don't know how he's going to cope physically with the NBA grind or how he'll handle teams game-planning for him in greater detail with each passing week. What we already do know, though, is that Jennings has instantly infused the Bucks with a sense of chic that they haven't had in ages. Maybe dating all the way to their powerhouse teams in the 1980s.
Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson and Andrew Bogut are No. 1 overall picks of recent vintage, but the little guy who fell to the Bucks at No. 10 in June is the first Buck in ages who has really made the nation pay attention. So he has to be my point guard.
Sixth Man: Manu Ginobili (San Antonio)
Don't want to hear about the injury woes that left him one-legged in the 2008 Western Conference finals and dragged him all the way out of the 2009 playoffs.
Not going to listen when you try to tell me he's an old 32.
Manu?
His contributions to three Spurs championships in the space of seven seasons and the frequent doses of un-Spurs-like flair make it impossible to omit Ginobili.
Demoralizing as it has to be for the Spurs to know that they didn't make it to Thanksgiving without Ginobili (groin), Tony Parker (ankle) and Tim Duncan (ankle) all missing time with the sort of injuries that will only fuel the perception that all those playoff miles are wearing them down, Manu is still widely regarded as the most influential sixth man of his generation.
I can't argue: Wednesday night was an undeniable downer. In the Spurs' locker room before the game, when informed about the story I was planning, Ginobili playfully volunteered Toni Kukoc, former teammate David Robinson and Argentine tennis legend Guillermo Vilas as his favorite all-time lefties. The mood was light. Less than two hours later, Ginobili was out of the game with a fresh groin injury.
Yet we've seen too much dependability and creativity for too long from Ginobili -- who's just 32 -- to give this spot to a pretty deserving Philly kid named Thaddeus Young. Not yet, Thad. Not quite.
Southpaw Central
• Lefties in the league: 30
• Percentage of league that's left-handed: 6.98 percent (430 players overall as of Friday morning)
• Team with the most left-handers: Golden State (Andris Biedrins, Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright) and Memphis (Mike Conley, Zach Randolph and Marcus Williams) have three each
• Division with the most lefties: Pacific (8)
• Division with the least: Northwest (2)
The complete list of lefties (alphabetical order):
• Joel Anthony (Miami), Michael Beasley (Miami), Andris Biedrins (Golden State), Chris Bosh (Toronto), Derrick Brown (Charlotte)
Mike Conley (Memphis), Goran Dragic (Phoenix), Derek Fisher (Los Angeles Lakers), Manu Ginobili (San Antonio), James Harden (Oklahoma City), Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee), Acie Law (Charlotte).
David Lee (New York), Josh McRoberts (Indiana), C.J. Miles (Utah), Darko Milicic (New York), Troy Murphy (Indiana)
Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Lakers), Morris Peterson (New Orleans), Tayshaun Prince (Detroit), Anthony Randolph (Golden State), Zach Randolph (Memphis)
Michael Redd (Milwaukee), Kareem Rush (Los Angeles Clippers), Josh Smith (Atlanta), Beno Udrih (Sacramento)
Delonte West (Cleveland), Marcus Williams (Memphis), Brandan Wright (Golden State), Thaddeus Young (Philadelphia)
Two special cases:
1. We didn't include him on this list, but our team-by-team check to make sure no lefties were left out returned this tidbit from the Clippers: They regard Chris Kaman as fully ambidextrous. There is no official ruling on the matter because "handedness" is not something officially tracked in the NBA as seen in, say, baseball or hockey. The Clips, though, contend that Kaman is equally good with both hands.
2. The Cavaliers reminded me of something I had forgotten: LeBron James eats and writes with the same left hand he appeared to injure with that vicious throwdown in Wednesday night's loss to Washington.