Me first.
I’ve got stuff to tell you.
It’s important.
A lot of guys are on missions this year.
Like Carmelo Anthony. That kid’s on a mission. He’s about to make the leap. The leap I told you all he would make when the playoffs started last year. He’s on a good team with a coach who knows how to lead (I’m referring, of course, to Chauncey Billups). You know the last time Melo was on a good team? 2003, when he won a NCAA title for those orange homies at ‘Cuse. He was pumped up last year going into the playoffs and it showed in his performance. He was far more aggressive going after boards and getting his shot down low. He moved the ball and picked his spots. And he played really respectable defense on Kobe Bryant in crunch time. It was the kind of defense that makes announcers say, “there’s nothing more he could have done. That was just great defense and better offense” every time Kobe scores against it. His offensive game has secretly been the most impeccable and fundamentally sound in the league for a couple years.
He’s the Tim Duncan of swingmen with the ball in his hands. Watch Anthony next time he gets the ball on the wing in isolation. Triple threat, jab step, shot fake, to the hole. Stop Your Blood Clot Crying. I know it’s early, but we can get a little hyped up for Melo averaging 37.7 points through his first 3 games, can’t we? This guy didn’t make the all-star team last year. 0.00% chance that happens again. I don’t know if the Nuggets will grab a No. 2 seed this year or if they’ll make the Western Conference Finals again, but I do expect to see a lot out of Melo this year as he learns to fly in the NBA’s First Class.
Like Chris Paul. That kid’s on a mission. He already made the leap to superstar, but all these puppets stole his spotlight. As a matter of fact, he made the leap in 2008, but was overshadowed by this whole old-school rivalry and Paul Pierce dressing up as Willis Reed for Halloween/Game whatever it was—I’m still too angry to look (he faked it). But back to CP3…See! It happened to me right there! There’s always other stuff going on when Chris Paul is blowing up. Picked behind Deron Williams in the 2005 draft. Injured in his second season when Deron Williams got to take his own team to the Western Conference Finals and was talked about as a new elite point guard in the league. Chris Paul came back and got his team a 2-seed, putting up MVP numbers. And do you want to know what he did last year? 22.8 Points, 11.0 Assists, 5.5 Rebounds, 2.8 Steals, and shot 50% from the field (impressive on 16 shots a game from a guard). How was he not talked about more seriously in the MVP race? I mean, we all knew who it was going to be in the end, but he ended up 5th in the voting! 5th!!! Was this the best performance of a 5th place finisher ever? I’m not saying he was better than the guys who finished in front of him (in order: LeBron-1,172 votes, Kobe-698, Wade-680, Dwight Howard-328, Chris Paul-192). I’m just saying he is doing incredible, INCREDIBLE things while you’re not looking. You know he’s elite. You know he’s a superstar. But do you know Chris Paul is just as likely as all these other guys to do something historic this year? You don’t, but you will after he does to your basketball mind what Chase Utley does to Yankee pitches and Lil’ Wayne does to new Jay-Z beats.
Dwyane Wade is on a mission. Mission: Impossible. (Zing.) This team sucks. But do you know who doesn’t suck? Dwyane Wade! This kid is AMAZING. He was my MVP last year. Mostly because he brought back the Nelly band-aid-on-the-cheek look.
Could LeBron have rocked that oldie but goodie from the Country Grammar first aid kit? Hell to the Nah. Add that to the list of things Dwyane Wade has done but LeBron James can’t do (right now all it has on it is 1. Win a title in 2006 with the roster Dwyane Wade had and the lack of shooting skillz Bron-Bron had and 2. Get in Charles’ Barkley’s Fave Five. That shit’s mad exclusive but I think Chris’ friend Nitro is in it. Come on, his name is Nitro! (still unclear whether or not he’s talking about the American Gladiator (you know what’s a sick name for a gladiator? Nitro. You know what’s not? Maximus. Take that, Ancient Rome!)). I don’t know what we’ll see from the Heat this year (Beasley is playing well. Chalmers and Haslem, too), but I do know what we’ll see from Dwyane Wade. We’ll see him kill himself out there for what might be a .500 record, because that’s the only way he knows how to play. The Heat are just hoping that next year he won’t be doing it for another team. Last year was a great comeback season for Wade (he should have been—but wasn’t—the first guy to ever be in the top-3 for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Most Improved Player of the Year in the same year), but it still ended on a sour note. He played well at less than 100% health for the team that lost the most boring 7-game series of all time. Erik Spoelstra, who I love, is in his second year. So are two rookies with promise. Let’s see what happens.
Dwight Howard is on a mission to make people take him more seriously as the heir apparent for the NBA’s token guy who reminds us not to take anything too seriously once Shaq retires. Also he wants to win a ring and might actually have the pieces to do it. One thing I thought was odd, but I’m not sure Dwight did, was the talk about how Hedo Turkoglu was the linchpin of that offense, especially in crunch time. Uh, y’all need to chill on Hedo. He’s definitely a talented ballplayer, but he was not the linchpin of that offense. The linchpin was Dwight Howard. Their inside-outside game was kind of like Florida’s when they won back-to-back championships in ‘06-’07. They pounded the ball inside until defenses started to double the guy on the block, at which point their big men would start kicking the ball out to 3-point shooters. The difference is that while Dwight Howard is only one post player instead of two (maybe 1.5), he is coming into the game already having a reputation as someone who needs to be double-teamed in the post. He’s creating shots for his teammates before he steps on the floor. He has really improved his passing. And whatever people say, his offensive game doesn’t need to get THAT much better—he averaged 20 points per game on 57% shooting from the field last year—although he supposedly worked a lot on post moves and face-up game in the off-season. He just needs to learn how to adjust to playing against top talent in games that matter. Before this year, Dwight’s last appearance in a semi-final was with his future high school state champion team in 2004. He has the pieces to get back. We’ll see how he uses them. And, hopefully, see how he’s grown.
Chris Bosh is on a mission to give me more to write about him. I forgot to include him initially (which is part of the problem). I have always loved Bosh’s play. He came into the league being compared to Kevin Garnett. That actually seems fair. Bosh has gotten a lot stronger since 2003, just like Garnett after he came into the league in 1995. He has become a solid defender in the post and has developed a face-up game to compliment his post moves. Perhaps most importantly, he has been working on becoming a better team leader. His team had some playoff trips early in his career, but last year’s finish was a huge disappointment. Now Chris Bosh has some talent around him (Hedo Turkoglu is a nice addition and Andrea Bargnani is playing aight for an Italian). He might be headed back to the States after this season, but for at least one more year Bosh will try to show the world why he and his team are still relevant. If we see him emerge as the clear-cut leader on a talented and successful Raptors squad it will do a lot for his image and reputation (and bank account). There’s no doubt in my mind Chris Bosh’s talent will get the attention it deserves as soon as he’s on a good team again. His mission is about leadership. Can he be the general that leads his eager troops back to playoff glory? Bosh wants to answer a question a lot of general managers will be asking themselves when Chris becomes a free agent this off-season: Can Chris Bosh be the best player and championship-caliber team and lead them to the promised land?
I’m not going to write about Kobe or LeBron at this time because everything there is to say about them has been said 3,476 times. They’re both out for rings. Maybe LeBron also wants certain numbers from himself too, but I don’t think he’ll be counting. Neither has anything left to achieve other than winning (a) title(s).
I’m not trying to say you wouldn’t have watched these guys otherwise. Everyone knows they are great. These are just the things I find interesting about their potential for super-charged greatness (a la Tony The Tiger) going into this season.
A.C. Green is on a mission teaching people about Jesus (he’s ill (A.C. I mean, not Jesus (okay, Jesus too, sometimes (quadruple parentheses are ill too, though)))).