Contrary to popular belief, the Miami Heat didn’t buy every good player in the world. In the summer of 2010, they bought three of the top 20 and two of the top five. They did not buy either a point guard or a center. If you know the slightest bit about basketball, you know the two most important positions are PG and C.
This isn’t to say a team cannot win championships without an All-Star at those spots. The Chicago Bulls won six. The Heat won last year and still might this time. But it’s easier to construct a titlist if you have one of those positions covered. If you have both, you can win really big for a really long time.
We recall the Boston Celtics with Bob Cousy, who was a point guard long before the description had been coined, and Bill Russell. Also the Los Angeles Lakers with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Now the San Antonio Spurs with Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, who’s listed as a power forward but who plays like a center. In any era, pairing a great big man with a great little man (not that Magic, at 6 foot 9, was little) is the surest way to sustain success.
Trouble is, those two positions are also the least populated. Wings grow on trees. Power forwards aren’t that hard to find. (The Atlanta Hawks have had two very good ones on their roster since 2007.) But how many great point guards work in today’s NBA? Five? How many great centers? One?
As talented as Miami is, it’s not impervious to the longstanding truths of basketball: If you have a little guy to get the ball to the right people and a big guy to drop it in the basket — and to inhibit the other guy from dropping it in the basket — you’re ahead of the game. The Spurs are making the Heat work very hard to score. The Spurs are also highlighting the hidden flaw in the LeBron James/Dwyane Wade partnership. Each is a great player. Each is a willing passer. Each, however, plays a similar game.
LeBron and D-Wade do the most damage off the dribble. It’s a bit harder to space the floor around a penetrator, who’s moving toward the goal, than it is a low-post center, who has his back to the basket and can see where his mates have arrayed themselves. We saw the Orlando Magic reach the 2009 finals by surrounding Dwight Howard with four 3-point shooters. In no way was that a great team, but those Magic men played off one another expertly.
The Spurs do it even better. They throw it to Duncan, who scores. They let Parker drive and score or drive and kick, and just like that, the opponent is chasing shadows. Do you double-team Duncan? Do you run a second defender at Parker to make him pass? And if you’re doubling those two, who tags Danny Green? (Answer: Nobody. He has hit 25 treys in five finals games.)
Given that there are few first-class PGs and even fewer Cs, most teams looking to score big in free agency will have to go the Heat route and chase the best players available. As fate and savvy roster maintenance would have it, the Hawks stand a chance of snatching both valedictorian and salutatorian from the class of 2013. Chris Paul, who’s at worst the NBA’s second-best point guard, figures to be available. So does Dwight Howard, who by default is the league’s best center.
The smart money holds that the two will remain with their respective L.A. outposts. Still, it’s agreed that if any team occupies Position A for a Paul/Howard double, it’s the Hawks. ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported last week that the two have discussed such an alliance. After what happened in 2010, we cannot discount the power of superstar-sized wishes. Nobody believed LeBron and D-Wade would agree to share the ball, but here they are.
If the Hawks could — again, let’s stress the degree of difficulty — persuade Paul and Howard to sign, they would, at least in pure basketball terms, have out-Heated the Heat. They would have authored a coup that didn’t result in the duplication of services. (Chris Bosh, the third member of the Miami triumvirate, is a power forward who plays like a small forward, which is technically LeBron’s position.) There would be no need for Paul or Howard to do anything different; their skills and responsibilities could never overlap.
The Heat changed the basketball landscape by signing three Big Names. If the Hawks can land Paul and Howard, they’ll have grabbed two Big Names who play the most important positions. Yes, it’s a long shot. If the shot somehow drops, the Hawks will become a title contender overnight.
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