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I think it's easy to say that Parker is going to be among the very best in the league at his position when he's playing well like he currently is, but this talk will subside when he struggles again. Two weeks into the season, I kept hearing that Manu was going to be the second-best shooting guard in the NBA behind Kobe. I think fans tend to take a player's best moments and judge the player on that and that alone.
The fact is that consistency is an important factor in a player becoming among the very best at his position. Practically every player has flashes of brilliance, many perform at a very high level much of the time, and the true superstars bring their best almost every night. If you look at the top players in the game, they show consistency every night and they adjust and are able to get the job done in practically all cir stances.
If you look at Tony's best moments, it's clear that he can do some special things. But he hasn't yet done them on a consistent basis. Until he does, he won't be in that upper echelon of point guards. He's going to take time to develop and many have claimed that he just needs more time to learn how to dominate consistently at a very difficult position, but after four years in the league, it's unclear if he's ever going to able to avoid the bad stretches that sometimes plague his game. How many years is it going to take? Nobody really knows. It could take two, four, or sixty.
Great players also make adjustments. Many will blame last season's playoff collapse primarily on the coaching staff, but in my mind, they deserve to take only half of the blame. As little as Pop did to adjust, the point guard did practically nothing. After dominating for two games, Parker couldn't figure out how to make a positive impact after the Lakers focused on stopping him. The very best players figure out how to score against the odds, and if they can't do that, they figure out how to get their teammates easy baskets. Once the Lakers took away Parker's ability to score, his impact was minimal. That's a step he needs to take if he wants to be considered among the best at his position. He needs to do positive things to help his team win when faced with adversity.
The point about franchise players is well taken. It's hard to consider Tony to be a better player than Franchise, Marbury, and Iverson when those players are leading their teams to the playoffs and they are practically carrying their teams night after night. Could Parker do that? We can't know for sure, but his performance in the playoffs last season and his tendancy to struggle for extended stretches suggests that he couldn't.
Will he be the best in five years? Marbury and Francis will still be around, Bibby will still be playing, Wade will be in his prime, and some other new studs may enter the league. It's tough to know that will happen, but I can't say with any confidence that I believe that he will be the best at his position.
And the point isn't to take anything away from Parker. He's playing exactly as he needs to be playing. He's got great ability and flair. And he's only going to get better. But will he attain a high level of consistency and learn to adjust and make an impact under all cir stances? That's far from certain, and they are traits that the best point guards possess.
