The NBA's Top Five Up-and-Coming Duos #4: Danilo Gallinari and Ty Lawson

After trading Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to New York last season, the Denver Nuggets roared into the playoffs as the best offensive team in the league, a squad replete with a mix of explosive scorers and consistent high-efficiency finishers.  Melo and Mr. Big Shot were anchoring a top-notch offense before the trade, but Denver pushed it into high gear post-trade and finished with 50 wins and a decent playoff showing against a more established Oklahoma City team (weird saying OKC is more established- boy are they old now or what?).

While Denver used incredible depth and commendable teamwork to achieve the post-jettison results, Danilo Gallinari and Ty Lawson were major impetuses for it.  Melo was traded for reasons mainly dealing with his impending free agency and possible departure, but Denver had a host of packages to choose from and chose one centered around Gallinari.  They were also cozy with trading Billups away because they had seen some of what Lawson could do and liked him as a point guard.       

Danilo Gallinari, #8, and Ty Lawson, #3, are a potent offensive duo.

Gallinari has become one of the most efficient players in the league.  He's a dead-eye 3-point shooter with unlimited range who uses screens effectively.  Now, he's using his shot fake ability to help him get by hapless defenders and draw fouls inside.  A lot of fouls inside.  In NY, he had a foul draw rate of 18.8 percent; in his 14 games with Denver, it went to 24.3 percent.  For perspective, Dwight Howard had a foul draw rate of 27.1 percent, and most high-volume wings hover in the teens.  Rooster's passing creativity should be unleashed on his new team as well, and if he maintains his healthy vitriol of losing, he could become a borderline all-star type- kind of like how DeMar DeRozan was described last post.     

Lawson saw a boost in his numbers following the trade, too.  After the all-star game, he started 25 games, averaging 14.4 points and 6.9 assists on 50.6 percent shooting and 42.4 percent from 3 in 31.5 minutes.  Lawson can dart into the lane with television camera-evading speed to wreak havoc on opposing defenses.  He can shoot the ball, and he's a solid defender.  If he works on his mid-range game and develops a floater, he could become one of those point guards who will continually get screwed out of future all-star games because the point guard position is so ridiculously deep in promising talent right now.  That's a compliment.

Gallinari and Lawson have burgeoning skill sets ready-made to compliment each other and anchor a perennially elite offense for Denver.

The NBA's Top 5 Up-and-Coming Duos Countdown #5: DeMar DeRozan and Ed Davis

The Toronto Raptors didn't have a very good decade in the 2000s, especially when it came to perimeter players.  They lost Tracy McGrady, traded Vince Carter, got torched in historic fashion by Kobe Bryant, and were beaten by Allen Iverson during the playoffs in their most tantalizing season of the decade.  The most haunting perimeter player-oriented debacle for the franchise: the center they drafted with their number one overall pick turned into a shooting guard, too.  Or at least, he rebounds like one- on a good day.

Yes Ed, the camera is on. 

But this decade should be different.  Guard DeMar DeRozan has all the makings of quality swingman, from size to athletic ability to work ethic.  While he doesn't have the potential of a T-Mac or VC, he's got a combination of traits that should allow him to become a 20 point, 6-7 rebound, 3 assist, 1.5 steal shooting guard/small forward who scores efficiently from 20 feet in and defends well.  Those are the numbers of a borderline all-star- something like prime Caron Butler or a better Josh Howard, but geared more toward SG.  He'll need to work on his ball-handling, shooting, and defense, but he's only 21, and the team needs somebody to produce. 

Ed Davis is DeRozan's fellow 21-year-old partner in this up-and-coming duo.  Davis is already one of the better defenders on the team- it doesn't say much considering Toronto was the worst defensive team in the league last year, but still- and gives them efficient frontcourt offense (7.7 ppg on 58.3 percent True Shooting in 24.6 minutes per game last year).  He rebounds on both ends and has shown himself to be a decent shot-blocker (1.5 blocks per-36 minutes last year).

DeRozan and Davis need better spacing from their teammates- Toronto was the worst 3-point shooting team in the league last year- especially DeRozan, whose games is based on slashing and scoring in the mid-range.  If they get that, it is more likely they will flourish offensively.  Together, D&D can put some D in the dinosaurs, too.

This duo alone won't get Toronto to any future NBA Finals, but they're a great starting point that will make the team relevant again. 
 

The NBA's Top 5 Up-and-Coming Duos Countdown: Introduction

Dynamic duos. Left jab, right hook combos. Kris and Kim Humphries. Every successful NBA team needs them (Next season, your 2017 NBA Champion New Jersey Nets…). Few have them. If a franchise can obtain a young pair to cultivate for the future, they can add pieces around them and build a champion within five years. At least, that’s the plan.

Even a small pair can pay large dividends in the end.

I’ll be doing a top five countdown on the best up-and-coming duos in the NBA today. The criteria door is held wide open for interpretation- as interpretative and free-flowing as John Wall’s Dougie- but there are some general guidelines. Recently drafted players who haven’t played a second of NBA basketball will not be included. Neither will established NBA stars, such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant and even Derrick Rose. What? He won an NBA MVP for Jordan’s sake!

The duos also must be the projected key members of their teams’ cores. James Harden and Serge Ibaka would have ranked high if not for this unfair golden rule which I have no power to change. As we see every day from our favorite duo, Republicans and Democrats- change occurs at a glacial pace.

I first want to introduce two duos that didn’t make the top five cut: Minnesota’s Michael Beasley and Kevin Love, and Indiana’s Roy Hibbert and Darren Collison.

Michael Beasley and Kevin Love just missed the cut.

Beasley and Love are definitely more talented than some duos in the top five, but they did not make it for one reason: they play the same position. Love is a pure, traditional 4; Beasley is a modern, versatile 4, but a 4 nonetheless. B-Easy has small forward skills like Lamar Odom has small forward skills (and hopefully a similar maturity arc); it’s what creates their advantage against other power forwards. Slot Beasley in at the 3 and he loses his quickness advantage while providing sub-par catch-and-shoot ability and poor defense. Too much redundancy from this pair, especially on Minny.

Hibbert and Collison didn’t make it because Danny Granger is still in play for the team. Granger is young enough (27) where he may still be part of this Pacer core. Indiana has a very good young nucleus, however.

My apologies to Jrue Holiday, Derrick Favors, Stephen Curry and Metta World Peace. Holiday, Favors and Curry are great young players, but most of their non-rookie teammates are known quantities at this point. Evan Turner or Spencer Hawes intrigued, but Evan’s rookie year scared me off, while Spencer’s fear of the post frightened me even more. Sixer, Jazz and Warrior fans shouldn’t take this as an indictment on the future of their respective teams; all three squads have solid overall cores.

As for the new star on the block, Metta, you barely missed the cut. Most of your teammates are veterans (Andrew Bynum’s knees say he’s a vet all right).

The next post will feature the fifth best new duo in the league…

The Great Hall of Yao

Yao Ming retired last week.  The asteroid hit and the extinctions continue.  The old dinosaurs keep falling like Pteranodons this locked-out NBA offseason- first Shaquille O'Neal, now Yao- as the great beasts of the low-post exit the game with fewer replacements than ever before.  Yao decided to call it quits after numerous leg injuries forced him to miss significant portions of too many seasons.

Too many seasons.  Yao only played in eight NBA seasons since being drafted number one overall by the Houston Rockets in 2002 amidst hype that he'd offer Shaq a resistant and worthy foe.  Eight injury-plagued seasons isn't a lot of time to make a Tyrannosaurus-sized footprint in basketball's biggest league.  Were those eight years, combined with everything else Yao has accomplished in his basketball life, enough to get Yao into the Basketball Hall of Fame?    

Yao Ming's 7'6 frame was an imposing sight in the paint.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, though inadequate, serves as a basketball fan's resource for information about the sport's history and important figures (I'm not talking about the Miami Heat cheerleaders, though one could argue their figures are indeed an integral part of NBA.com's traffic).  It isn't really about who the best players were in terms of statistics or talent- part of the reason why it's inadequate- as much as it's about your impact on the sport's history.  If somebody thinks about an era of basketball, will they think of you?  Did you do something to promote the sport?

Yao, though an accomplished Olympian individually, lacks medals.  He was not an NBA MVP and only had modest team success in the NBA.  These, along with the missed games, are legitimate black marks.

However, his impact on the connection between Asian basketball and the NBA shrouds the basketball universe of the 21st century.  Kobe Bryant has been huge in Asia for years, and obviously the total globalization of the NBA has made many other NBA stars accessible and recognizable in Asia and other places around the world.

But who else could get a broken down Tracy McGrady all-star votes and appearances he had no business getting?

In all seriousness, you can't think of NBA globalization without Yao Ming.  You can't think of the NBA reaching Asia without Yao Ming.  Yao made Yi Yianlian relevant for a game (their first NBA meeting was watched by over 100 million people).  That's impact.  When Dirk Nowitzki led his team to a title in 2011, it symbolized how far the NBA has reached.  This is the era of basketball globalization, and Yao has been a central figure in it.

Yao has five All-NBA teams to his credit.  He was a 19/9/2 center for his career and held his own against latter-prime Shaq and prime Dwight Howard, the dominant centers he played against.  Yao offered us a rare glimpse into the past when classic back-to-the-basket centers roamed the NBA.  He never got into trouble and always represented the game well.  Even Michael Jordan followed his lead: before His Airness bought Charlotte, Yao bought his former team from China, the Shanghai Sharks, back in 2009.

Like the asteroid that presumably wiped out the dinosaurs, Yao Ming landed in 2002 and made a global impact.  A request to the Hall:  Remember this Rocket.           

Reaction to the Iman Shumpert Selection

The New York Knicks selected Iman Shumpert out of Georgia Tech with the 17th pick of the NBA draft last month, a decision that has gotten mixed reviews.  I feel I can pretty much project this guy as Michael Jordan II and not get proven wrong seeing as how the NBA is never going to play another game again, but doomsday lockout scenarios are far too depressing to talk about on a holiday weekend.

Apparently, Shumpert is a ridiculous athlete, a top-of-the-list run/jump draftee with length.  Any and every team can use a player like that.  If a long perimeter athlete develops enough brains to play smart team ball, he can usually find a way to be a championship role player.  He can also be one of the many talented flameouts who have graced the modern era of the NBA.

Iman Shumpert with David Stern on draft night.

Shumpert is going to be a lead guard in the NBA, not a pure point.  He wasn't a pure point in college, and because of his size and the fact that it's difficult to transition into an NBA point guard once you're in the NBA, I think he'll be a wing with handles that can play point occasionally.  With his athletic tools, he should be a solid defender, especially in terms of closing out on three-point shooters, something the Knicks could greatly use right now.

The Knicks need size and a young pure point guard who can grow with Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.  Chauncey Billups is one of the best point guards of his generation, but he is declining.  I feel like the Knicks are either extremely confident they can lure Chris Paul or Deron Williams to N.Y., or they think Toney Douglas brings what they need already.

Shumpert is a solid pick overall.  He doesn't fill N.Y.'s most pressing needs, but he shores up some weaknesses the Knicks had and makes them more athletic.  The board at 17 was bare of any sure pick that could address the major team needs, and it would have been counterproductive to try to fit a square peg in a round hole just for the sake of showing the public that they understand what needs to be done.  It was a better decision to shore up a secondary weakness of wing depth and perimeter closeout ability.  And absolute best case scenario, he turns into an explosive peripheral scorer.   

Or maybe Michael Jordan...