duncan228
01-09-2008, 01:13 AM
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-heisler9jan09,1,3931053.story?coll=la-headlines-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true
Chris Paul leads changing of the NBA guards
The Hornets star has gone from wunderkind to even more wonderful, becoming the best example of the new-wave guards who don't just run teams, they dominate games.
By Mark Heisler
No-names from nowhere, playing before nobody in a long-running game of musical franchises. Little interlopers among the big teams in the West race. . . .
Wrong.
At least, the last part is. The Hornets are No. 30 in attendance in their forlorn return this season to New Orleans but they're No. 5 in the West, and despite the skepticism locally and everywhere else, not planning on going anywhere.
What little is known about the franchise, other than its many relocations, revolves around 22-year-old Chris Paul, but whatever you've heard, he's better.
That's because whatever Paul was, he's better. Two-plus seasons after NBA coaches fell in love with him, they're stunned to see how wonderful this wunderkind has become since.
The Hornets "only can't keep this up if he can't keep this up," Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy says. "If he can keep this up, they can keep this up."
If Paul's upward track suggests anything, it's that he can keep this up.
He was rookie of the year and better in his second season when he kept the injury-plagued Hornets in contention. However, he was only starting to hit three-pointers (he made 28% as a rookie) and opponents still backed off and let him shoot.
Now he's up to 37% on three-pointers and 48% overall . . . while leading the NBA in steals and ranking No. 3 in assists and No. 17 in scoring at 21.6 points.
If New Jersey's Jason Kidd remains a triple-double machine at 34, the era in which he represented the gold standard among point guards is over.
Still unmatched as a playmaker, Kidd has averaged 14.4 points for his career and shot 40.1%.
Old-school point guards from Bob Cousy to Magic Johnson to Kidd passed first and worked from the perimeter.
The new wave -- Paul, Phoenix's Steve Nash, San Antonio's Tony Parker, Utah's Deron Williams, Denver's Allen Iverson and Golden State's Baron Davis -- score anywhere from Nash's 17 a game to Iverson's 27, specializing in getting in the lane and making plays inside the defense.
In a new era with the three-point line opening the floor and rules protecting them from being mugged, the new-wave guards don't just run teams, they dominate games.
Cousy was the only point guard to win MVP before Johnson in 1987, 1989 and 1990. None had won since . . . until Nash and Iverson took home three of the last seven.
Nash finished 1-1-2 in the last three seasons, and if the league could vote again on last season, it would be 1-1-1.
Iverson and Nash arrived in 1996, but the Day of the Point Guard is a more recent phenomenon.
The end of the Chicago Bulls Dynasty left a struggle among giant teams: the Shaquille O'Neal Lakers, the Tim Duncan-David Robinson Spurs, the Vlade Divac-Chris Webber Kings.
The Spurs, who just won their fourth title in the nine seasons since, still have Duncan but are now halfway to the Suns' spread offense, opening the floor for Parker and Manu Ginobili.
"The times they're not a-changing," says Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, "they've changed.
"We've tried to keep up with that and done a decent job. But you've got to have perimeter people that can score and penetrate and cause problems, four men [power forwards] that can shoot and spread the floor."
After every loss, NBA coaches ritually bemoan all the penetration their teams allowed, but good luck staying in front of these guys.
By hook or by crook, on pick-and-rolls or crossover dribbles (expanding tolerance for palming being another favorable development), they get into the lane where they, not the defense, dictate.
Davis and Williams are big and strong. Parker and Iverson are speed burners. Nash, the greatest of them, does it on pure technique.
At 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds, Paul is not only cat-quick but built like a tank and especially feared for his relentless probing.
"I was giving my guys a scouting report on them," says Dunleavy. "I just said, 'If you think you've seen anybody this year that is really great at going at people, that puts pressure on you to defend, [with] this guy, just triple it right now.'
"Because he goes the first time, backs up, explores two or three times."
Popovich says of Paul: "The best thing he does, and it makes a lot of things happen for him, his change of pace might be the best in the league."
"If you look at him, he'll explode for a dribble or two, he'll hesitate, he'll go again. . . . Most of the other point guards have speed, they have quickness but he changes it up more than anybody."
As if heralding a new age no one expected, Paul and Williams arrived within minutes of each other in the 2005 draft, with Williams going No. 3 and Paul No. 4.
They've been compared to each other since, the problem being both are still going up like rockets.
Paul is more spectacular and his team is doing better this season.
For his part, Williams now even challenges Nash, the deadeye of deadeyes. Nash is shooting 51% this season and 46% on threes; Williams is at 51% and 41%.
"I think since their career has started, you see that," says Dunleavy of the Paul-Williams comparison.
"It's like, 'Who's the last guy I just saw? That guy is really good.' "
"They're franchises in themselves and usually point guards aren't franchises," says Popovich. "It's that scorer or it's that big man in the middle."
The new wave is also fun to watch. Viva la difference.
Chris Paul leads changing of the NBA guards
The Hornets star has gone from wunderkind to even more wonderful, becoming the best example of the new-wave guards who don't just run teams, they dominate games.
By Mark Heisler
No-names from nowhere, playing before nobody in a long-running game of musical franchises. Little interlopers among the big teams in the West race. . . .
Wrong.
At least, the last part is. The Hornets are No. 30 in attendance in their forlorn return this season to New Orleans but they're No. 5 in the West, and despite the skepticism locally and everywhere else, not planning on going anywhere.
What little is known about the franchise, other than its many relocations, revolves around 22-year-old Chris Paul, but whatever you've heard, he's better.
That's because whatever Paul was, he's better. Two-plus seasons after NBA coaches fell in love with him, they're stunned to see how wonderful this wunderkind has become since.
The Hornets "only can't keep this up if he can't keep this up," Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy says. "If he can keep this up, they can keep this up."
If Paul's upward track suggests anything, it's that he can keep this up.
He was rookie of the year and better in his second season when he kept the injury-plagued Hornets in contention. However, he was only starting to hit three-pointers (he made 28% as a rookie) and opponents still backed off and let him shoot.
Now he's up to 37% on three-pointers and 48% overall . . . while leading the NBA in steals and ranking No. 3 in assists and No. 17 in scoring at 21.6 points.
If New Jersey's Jason Kidd remains a triple-double machine at 34, the era in which he represented the gold standard among point guards is over.
Still unmatched as a playmaker, Kidd has averaged 14.4 points for his career and shot 40.1%.
Old-school point guards from Bob Cousy to Magic Johnson to Kidd passed first and worked from the perimeter.
The new wave -- Paul, Phoenix's Steve Nash, San Antonio's Tony Parker, Utah's Deron Williams, Denver's Allen Iverson and Golden State's Baron Davis -- score anywhere from Nash's 17 a game to Iverson's 27, specializing in getting in the lane and making plays inside the defense.
In a new era with the three-point line opening the floor and rules protecting them from being mugged, the new-wave guards don't just run teams, they dominate games.
Cousy was the only point guard to win MVP before Johnson in 1987, 1989 and 1990. None had won since . . . until Nash and Iverson took home three of the last seven.
Nash finished 1-1-2 in the last three seasons, and if the league could vote again on last season, it would be 1-1-1.
Iverson and Nash arrived in 1996, but the Day of the Point Guard is a more recent phenomenon.
The end of the Chicago Bulls Dynasty left a struggle among giant teams: the Shaquille O'Neal Lakers, the Tim Duncan-David Robinson Spurs, the Vlade Divac-Chris Webber Kings.
The Spurs, who just won their fourth title in the nine seasons since, still have Duncan but are now halfway to the Suns' spread offense, opening the floor for Parker and Manu Ginobili.
"The times they're not a-changing," says Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, "they've changed.
"We've tried to keep up with that and done a decent job. But you've got to have perimeter people that can score and penetrate and cause problems, four men [power forwards] that can shoot and spread the floor."
After every loss, NBA coaches ritually bemoan all the penetration their teams allowed, but good luck staying in front of these guys.
By hook or by crook, on pick-and-rolls or crossover dribbles (expanding tolerance for palming being another favorable development), they get into the lane where they, not the defense, dictate.
Davis and Williams are big and strong. Parker and Iverson are speed burners. Nash, the greatest of them, does it on pure technique.
At 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds, Paul is not only cat-quick but built like a tank and especially feared for his relentless probing.
"I was giving my guys a scouting report on them," says Dunleavy. "I just said, 'If you think you've seen anybody this year that is really great at going at people, that puts pressure on you to defend, [with] this guy, just triple it right now.'
"Because he goes the first time, backs up, explores two or three times."
Popovich says of Paul: "The best thing he does, and it makes a lot of things happen for him, his change of pace might be the best in the league."
"If you look at him, he'll explode for a dribble or two, he'll hesitate, he'll go again. . . . Most of the other point guards have speed, they have quickness but he changes it up more than anybody."
As if heralding a new age no one expected, Paul and Williams arrived within minutes of each other in the 2005 draft, with Williams going No. 3 and Paul No. 4.
They've been compared to each other since, the problem being both are still going up like rockets.
Paul is more spectacular and his team is doing better this season.
For his part, Williams now even challenges Nash, the deadeye of deadeyes. Nash is shooting 51% this season and 46% on threes; Williams is at 51% and 41%.
"I think since their career has started, you see that," says Dunleavy of the Paul-Williams comparison.
"It's like, 'Who's the last guy I just saw? That guy is really good.' "
"They're franchises in themselves and usually point guards aren't franchises," says Popovich. "It's that scorer or it's that big man in the middle."
The new wave is also fun to watch. Viva la difference.