All-NBA third team
G- Rajon Rondo
I am not afraid of what Celtics fans will say about this. Much like Eminem’s closing freestyle in the 2000s film “8mile,” I simply know everything they have to say against me. I know all about the 12.3 assists Rondo is averaging per night, three full assists ahead of the next closest player. Rondo is also having his best overall shooting season (.516/.250/.635) and is on track to put up a career-high 50 double-doubles. But there are a lot of very good point guards in the league – including players like Steve Nash and Derrick Rose, who are not even eligible for this list due to injuries – while Rondo is, at times, the league’s most inexcusable knucklehead.
Just 26-years-old, he has played six-plus seasons with a collection of hall-of-famers and one of the greatest head coaches of the era. Who he has been playing with and whom they have been coached by have given Rondo the privilege of playing in 92 playoff games over the past five years, allowing Rondo the opportunity to win an NBA championship before his 23rd birthday. But the gifted young guard seems to have a difficult time remembering how lucky he was to end up in Boston and not Phoenix, the team that originally drafted him.
The Nov. 28 ejection during the first half against Brooklyn and the two-game rip that followed was the latest example of how their seems to be something missing in Rondo’s mental game, even when there might only be a few pieces missing from Rondo’s physical game. Chris Paul does not get ejected in the first half of games. Neither does Tony Parker, Deron Williams or even the oft-discussed Russell Westbrook. Rondo cannot be considered the game’s best floor general if he continues to do sophomoric things that keep him off the court. Not when his team is middling and ordinary, barely above .500 in the conference’s deepest division.
G- Stephen Curry
For comparison’s sake, Golden State’s leading guard probably couldn’t be any more different than Rondo. Curry is not a freakish athlete or a world-class passer like Rondo. He attacks from the perimeter with one of the games purest three-point shots; he doesn’t miss from the foul line; and he averages about 20 points a night. Curry is also a level-headed leader on and off the court, which has helped Golden State post a 17-9 record in just his third season with the team. Curry is two biological years younger than Rondo but plays and acts about ten years older. His name is seldom mentioned amongst the league’s elite point guards, a discussion that almost always includes Rondo. By season’s end, if Curry can keep his Warriors in the playoffs, the former NCAA tournament hero will be supplanted in the mix with the other top guards in the game.
G- O.J. Mayo
Mayo is only 25 and in his fifth season, but there was no denying how important this season was to the future of his career. After starting 163 games and averaging just under 18 ppg in his first two seasons for Memphis, Mayo watched his numbers get fractured after the addition of shooting guard Tony Allen in seasons three and four. A move which left Mayo out of the starting lineup. Suddenly a free agent this past summer, Mayo left Memphis for Dallas and an opportunity to once again prove he is a top end starter in the NBA. With career-highs in scoring (20.2), rebounding (4.0), assists (3.7), field-goal shooting (.478) and three-point shooting (.500), he has done just that. He is the best player on the Dirk-less Mavericks, begging the question: assuming Mayo is as good as Jason Terry (or better), what kind of team could Dallas have once the former MVP winner returns?
F- Anderson Varejao
During his eight-plus seasons in Cleveland, Varejao has seen the best of times (71 playoff games) and the worst of times (consecutive losing seasons and last place finishes in the central). Varejao has battled the injury bug his entire career, missing at least one-third of the season in five of his first eight years in Cleveland. At 30-years-old, a player with a career averages of 7.7 ppg and 7.6 rpg is not supposed to find his way on all-NBA teams.
So with all of this working against him, Varejao has a career-high 14.1 ppg and a league-high 14.4 rpg through 25 games this season. Varejao has always had ability, and his scoring and rebounding numbers have improved every season the last five years, but his production in 2012 is absurd. Unpredictable. But also so undeniable.
And while discussing the topic of Varejao, I disagree with the premise that Cleveland “has to trade Varejao” just because he is such a desirable commodity. Teams do not win in the NBA without quality big men and rebounding. Building around Irving (superstar guard) and Waiters (promising rookie) might make Cleveland a good team, but in order to become a contender, they’ll need to stockpile forwards like Tristan Thompson and Tyler Zeller. But Varejao is the piece that completes the puzzle. An elite rebounding center goes a long way on a team featuring two guards as their leading pieces. Don’t trade Varejao for a few risky draft picks and/or cash. Irving likes playing with him and he pulls down well over a dozen boards a night. They won’t win many games this season, but this might be the last year Cleveland struggles with a trio like Irving/Waiters/Varejao.
F- David Lee
Rounding out my third team all-NBA is one of the most consistent players in the league, year in and year out. Over the last five seasons, he has averaged at least 16 ppg, 9.6 rpg and shot over 50 percent from the field. He is an automatic double-double, fairly durable for a forward and plays with as much hustle as any player in the league. And yet, Lee is seldom mentioned amongst the leagues best forwards, or even mentioned at all. It’s like the league would rather pretend that an unorthodox, undersized, average-athlete cannot be a rebounding machine and leader on a playoff team. Lee is certainly not the sexiest or most marketable player in the league, but he and Curry are captaining one of the best teams in the Western Conference. They are not going to go away anytime soon. Much to the chagrin of their divisional opponent and the media’s favorite story, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Look out for my second team all-NBA in the coming hours.
I always found it interesting that the Knicks really just let David Lee walk. A great “blue collar” forward that goes about his day and consistently pulls down a double-double. He was playing at that level in New York – how much better would the Knicks be if they had Lee instead of Stoudamire?
Not suggesting that Lee is better than Stoudamire, but based on the make-up of the current Knicks – wouldn’t Lee be a better option for them?
Agreed. What were the details of Lee leaving the Knicks?
I think it might have been money and a new contract , but I could be mistaken.