Monday Insider

[Guest]

Searching for Shaq Jr.

by Terry Brown

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NBA Insider Chad Ford is off this week. He'll return on Tuesday, Oct. 1

Summer and winter. Black and white. If I say that Jason Kidd is the best point guard in the game today, you answer with Gary Payton.

Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Tim Duncan and Chris Webber. You answer with Baron Davis, Vince Carter, Peja Stojakovic and Dirk Nowitzki, respectively. Or Andre Miller, Allen Iverson, Shawn Marion and Rasheed Wallace. Or Steve Francis, Ray Allen, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Elton Brand.

Hot and cold. Sweet and sour. North and South. Wilt had Russell had Kareem. Olajuwon had Ewing had Robinson. But if every action causes an equal and opposite reaction, then what are we to make of Shaquille O'Neal?

And what if there isn't even a second-best center in the entire NBA?

Michael Olowokandi averaged 11.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks on 43 percent shooting last season as his agent proclaimed him the next best thing to Shaq, despite his being the sixth-leading scorer on his non-playoff team.

But is there really any difference between Dikembe Mutombo, who averaged 11.5 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks on 50 percent shooting, and Vlade Divac, who averaged 11.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks on 47 percent shooting?

What about David Robinson (12.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks on 50 percent shooting) and Antonio Davis (14.5 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1 block on 45 percent shooting)?

There are a total of 52 7-footers in the NBA today not counting the hundreds of guys listed at 6-foot-11 and 6-foot-10. In 1999, Elden Campbell began the year as Shaq's power forward listed at 83 inches because the Lakers thought that an even 7-feet would put too much of a burden on a player yet to touch his potential. But somewhere on the plane ride from LAX to Charlotte, Campbell became an 84-inch center who averaged 13.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks on 48 percent shooting last year.

But what's the difference between him and Raef LaFrentz:, who averaged 14.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3 blocks on 46 percent shooting for the Nuggets last season?

It's gotten to the point that O'Neal can average 27.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2 blocks on 58 percent shooting while leading his team to its third consecutive NBA Championship claiming his third consecutive NBA Finals MVP on a busted big toe that will require offseason surgery and not even make the Top 2 in the NBA MVP balloting.

Tim Duncan won it last year before Shaq beat him 4-1 in the Western Conference semifinals. Kidd came in second before Shaq swept him in the Finals. Iverson won the award the season before when Shaq eventually beat him in the Finals.

And this is only the beginning of the cause and effect of O'Neal. All of a sudden, the rest of the NBA is drafting 7-foot high schoolers at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 and listing them at 6-foot-11 as Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry average a combined 17.3 points per game. Or a 7-foot-5 center from China at No. 1 and raving about his three-point shooting.

Our legitimate 7-footers are now power forwards who dribble between their legs, shoot from distance and foul out by the third quarter as Shaq puts his back to the basket and the future of the game without a legitimate center.

The second-team All-NBA center was Nowitzki who, at 139 three-pointers last season, is more small forward than center. There were only two centers in the entire All-Star Game for both sides: Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning, who may have already played his last game.

Quick . . . name three college centers not playing for your alma mater.

Heck, the USA National Team gets hammered in the World Championships and we argue among ourselves that only if LaFrentz, a long-range threat at center, had been used instead of Ben Wallace, the 6-foot-9 rebounding champion and defensive player of the year, we would have won.

We forget a time when Bill Russell won 11 NBA titles, eight of them in a row, as a 6-foot-9 rebounding champion and defensive player of the year simply because today's NBA starting center averages 6-feet, 11 1/2 inches, 9.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.

In an attempt to bring order to an NBA world with an average height of 6-foot-7, the Blazers brought 7-foot-3 center Arvydas Sabonis out of retirement for a rumored $8 million per season deal in the hope that the 38 year old can duplicate his 10.1 point and 5.4 rebound averages of 2001.

After all, he could very well be the second-best center in the game today.

[ersimo2889]

52 7-footers? Damn! That's about 35 more than I thought.

[cyman3]

cuz on our team, nobody is 7 ft

hmm... i challenge someone to look up the numbers cuz 52 is kinda high

[Diesel]

Dare I say Dikembe is the second best C in the land? That means that NJ has the second best C and the first best PG in the game.

Add in a Kenyon Martin, Richard Jefferson, and Kendall Gill and you got a 5 that looks like they will be very hard to beat?

[Guest]

Depends on if Martin finds a shot or post-up moves. He depends so much on Fast Break finishes (RJ will now take some of those) and put backs...but his jumper is off and he doesn't have the post moves...

Without them, he and Deke combine for a very low power offense frontcourt; can't throw the ball into the low post cause you might never get it back...and they can't get their shot off.

[Traceman]

Deke may very well be the 2nd best Center but other than Shaq, there are no dominant Centers in the game any more. Deke certainly helps their interior D but I'm not convinced that NJ will be able to score enough to be a great team. Do they have a legitimate 20 ppg threat on the roster? I think Jefferson COULD be a 20 ppg scorer but will he be able to step up to the challenge when they need it? I think NJ will be good but I don't think they will be unbeatable.

[Diesel]

Yeah, Kittles.

for Some reason, they are together in my mind.

However, as far as offense goes....

I think that Jefferson is defenitely a 18 ppg and Kittles too.

The scoring should balance out like this.

Kidd 14 ppg.

Deke 11 ppg

Kittles 18 ppg

Jefferson 20 ppg

Martin 16 ppg

That's roughly 79 ppg from their starters. They should get about 20-25 from the bench. The key is this. Defensively they will be able to STOP teams. They have three really good defensive players. Deke, Jefferson, and Martin. All three are good man on man defenders. Rebounds should increase. Plus they can pull Childs off the bench as a fourth stopper. I see this team doing a lot of damage.

[Diesel]

Martin's not that bad. He's a running PF yes... But he does have some back to the basket moves. I imagine Scott will make some plays for Martin. On thing that the trade did was clear out their three point shooters. Bad in a way but Good in a way too. I think it was the lack of aggression by Van Horn that caused their eventual downfall.

[Guest]

If they make it to the finals again they will have

a 0-4 downfall again aswell.

[Traceman]

that much but the good news for them is that they have Rogers, Harris, Williams and Childs coming off the bench. Rogers will likely average double figures off the bench and Harris will be close to that. Williams and Childs can score a little too. I still don't think they will be great offensively and I wonder how they will score consistently in the half court set but they do have some weapons.

[Guest]

I think they have a western conference

type of bench but they the only draw

back they have is no explosive scorer...

However they should win 57 games.

[Diesel]

Kittles scored 14 ppg last season with Van Horn taking a lot of shots. So you believe that Kittles will have a problem get 16 this yr?

Jefferson put up about 10 ppg in 24 minutes... You think if he played 35 mpg that it would be hard for him to get more than 18 points?

[Diesel]

They don't have the one star player to put up 24+ points... But they should have an even distribution that will get them well over 100 ppg and I don't see a lot of teams that will be able to score more than 90 ppg on them. They will be a very tough team to play against.

However, just imagine had they not traded Griff.

Deke/Martin/Griff/Kittles/Kidd. That would be one of the best defensive fronts in the History of the NBA.

[Traceman]

You said:

"The scoring should balance out like this.

Kidd 14 ppg.

Deke 11 ppg

Kittles 18 ppg

Jefferson 20 ppg

Martin 16 ppg"

There is a significant difference between Kittles going from 13.4 ppg (not 14 ppg) to 16 ppg as you said below and going from 13.4 ppg to 18 ppg as you originally said. Kittles has NEVER averaged 18 ppg and hasn't come close to it since his knee troubles started.

There is also a difference between Jefferson going from 9.4 ppg to 18 ppg and 9.4 ppg to 20 ppg. If he were to go from 9.4 ppg to 18 ppg, that is a HUGE increase but I don't EVER remember a guy increasing his scoring average by more than 10 ppg from one season to the next without changing teams and McGrady is the only one I remember doing it who did change teams.

[jaywalker72]

It happened two seasons ago....

The guy went from 8.1ppg to 19.7ppg and he didn't change teams...

Do you remember now....lol...

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/jason_terry/...x.html?nav=page

[Guest]

The only real thing that keeps New Jersey

from being a legit challenge to the Lakers

is a top SG.If they had a Top SG to go along

with Kidd/the bench/Martin they could be a

legit challenger for the title.

[Traceman]

liberated when Lenny left! That's too funny! Okay, TWO guys!