Defending Brandon Roy

So I got a lot of comments on my last blog post where I said Brandon Roy was the 5th best player in the league. Some people pointed out Tim Duncan, some Paul Pierce, some even said Manu Ginobli and Rip Hamilton.

None of them are as good or important to their team right now than Brandon Roy. Duncan probably comes the closest, but he's not asked to do as much as consistently. The Spurs system and defense, does most of the heavy lifting. Though I must say the Tim Duncan/Shaq debate for most dominant player of the 2000s is a good one. I'd go with Shaq when he was really on. But that rarely happened, so I'd take drafting Duncan over drafting Shaq in both of their respective primes. Unfortunately he's obviously on the downside of his career. Brandon Roy is asked to do more, and plays at a higher level overall(Though he's nowhere near the defender Duncan is) for a longer amount of time. In 2009 I'd rather have Brandon Roy on my team than Tim Duncan.

Paul Pierce started the season shooting in the 30s, sorry accuracy counts. He's also obviously conserving his energy for the postseason. I will say that the three guys I trust most when the game is on the line are Lebron, Kobe and Pierce in some order. I'd probably go Kobe first, Lebron second and Pierce third. I hate saying I'd take Kobe first for anything, but he's a killer. A sociopathic killer...

Ginobli is great but missed a large percent of the first quarter of the season. He's also been rusty as his 14.4 points per game indicate. He's not there this year. Yet. Manu last year was the clutchest guy in the nba statistically speaking. I love his funky slicing drives to the basket, I think he's probably the third or fourth best finisher in the league and he's got the best bald spot in sports. I'd still rather have Brandon Roy.

The only one who comes close to Roy's value was someone no one even mentioned. Dwight Howard. He's huge, he's athletic, he's better on the defensive end, but... He's got no offensive game outside of a hideous jump hook, dunks, and offensive rebounds. He's also Shaq like in the one place no one wants to be like Shaq. The free throw line. I wouldn't say he's soft, but he's a really nice guy. Like David Robinson nice.

Let's look at the numbers to see just how well Roy is playing. He's hit two game winners. Three if you count the one that should have won the Rockets game. He averaged over 36 pts a game for over a week. Including the second highest scoring outburst this year. He's averaging 23pts a game on 47% from the field, 36% from 3 and 84% from the line for a true shooting percentage of 55% for a guard. That's almost Nash like. He's also averaging over 5 assists a game as he acts as both Portland's table setter and go to guy. A role only Chris Paul plays better.

Overall The Blazers are overachieving for a reason and it's not Greg Oden. To say he's not one of the 5 best players playing this year is ignorant.'

J