In his blog entry today, Mike Kahn takes a cue from my Caron Butler love-fest and me and Ori’s bickering (in the comments here and continued here) and suggests that Caron Butler might be the ideal player to pair with Lebron.
Ultimately he picks Dwight Howard to provide a running mate and shot blocker.
And since the subsequent comments are retarded (if the comments here reach that level, we’re rededicating this blog to cricket), let me add a quick note about my ideal.
First, we’d need someone who can function as a running mate. Shaq and Kobe clashed because neither could set aside his ego. Scottie Pippen was always embattled but recognized the greatness when MJ was around to take the final shot. I wonder if Boozer might have left not only for monetary greed but because he knew he could never blossom into a superstar in Lebron’s shadow.
Next, he’d have to be a capable scorer. One of the big problems with the current composition of the team is that nobody is reliable as a 2nd option when Lebron is sitting. If he’s going to be guard, he’ll need to be able to create for himself, even if that just means busting his ass through screens and shooting with a hair-trigger like Rip Hamilton. If it’s a big, he needs to be a threat on his own. Z is decent on the block, but mostly hopeless whenever a defense keys in on him, while an Al Jefferson puts up numbers even though nobody else on his team can be counted on.
Third, I’m not putting anybody next to Lebron unless the effort to play D is there. Maybe Larry Bird wasn’t a great defensive player, but he put thought and effort into maximizing his contribution within the team. Maybe the perfect fit here would be a ball-hawking guard, a la Gary Payton in his prime, to man up smaller ball handlers while Lebron can check the big guards. Or if it’s a big, Tim Duncan’s combination of man defense and help shot blocking is ideal.
So who, if every player turned free agent tomorrow, would I go after to put next to Lebron?
I thought it over for literally at least 5 minutes, and after consider every imaginable factor, I pick Brandon Roy.
It struck me as a little odd, because I couldn’t put a single “true point guard” in my mental finalists, but I’m picking Roy over all the forwards because he can fake it until he makes it.
For the record, the finalsts were:
- Brandon Roy – Obviously
- Dwight Howard – With no reason NOT to pick him, call it a non-tie tie
- Caron Butler – I continue my latest crush
- Tim Duncan – Age works against him
- Tayshaun Prince – I’d give him 15 shots without batting an eye
- Josh Howard – Could’ve been higher, but I like Caron more in most respects
- Kevin Garnett – Also loses for age, though gaining for real world evidence
- Rasheed Wallace – Too volatile, old
- Shawn Marion – Would he be a malcontent as #2 instead of (debatably) #3?
- Andrew Bynum – Youth both for and against him
I picked Roy because of how well he fits each criteria. For starters, he seems to “get it”. Right now he’s the lynchpin of a talented, unproven team, burdened with the responsibility of leadership in the locker room and on the floor. By all accounts, he’s a “good guy” who puts winning first. Sure, it’s all cliche, but it goes a long way to showing he can be both a glue guy and a leader. He’s smart enough to put himself and the team in the best position to win whether that means the shot goes to Lebron, himself or another player.
He’s also a good scorer. Just 5 months older than Lebron, he’s used his second season to show that he can be the goto guy (career high 33 Saturday night) while also being a distributor when others get hot (11 assists already twice this season). He is technically a shooting guard, but he doubles as a point. He can penetrate and distribute or play off the ball, much in the way Lebron’s versatility demands a complement.
And while it’s tough to measure his defensive prowess in as short a period as a season and a half with as little national exposure as Portland receives, the indicators are that he’s at least capable. His 82games.com profile shows him to be, statistically, the best defender on the Blazers, and his size and speed works well with Lebron. At 6′6″, he combines speed and length to trouble most point guards, much in the way Larry Hughes is able to, while being naturally suited to off-guards. Lebron could handle any bigger guards (think Vince Carter) and small forwards.
As with any player, there are flaws in his game. I expect he’ll be able to raise his shooting percentages a tad and I’d be hoping he knee holds up indefinitely. He seems to struggle a bit on the road, when the stars need to step up, but as with the shooting, some more experience should swing the advantage towards Brandon Roy, the optimal sidekick to Lebron James.
Am I an idiot for not going Howard?
