He's A Good Man

I've been thinking it all through the NBA Playoffs and now he comes out and shoves it down my throat as he plays my beloved Cavs. Tony Parker is really quite talented. Watch him run the Spurs offense and you may not notice. Like The Big Fundamental, he's not flashy and you don't notice him blowing up the stat sheet. Yet every game, there he is, scoring, dishing, grabbing some rebounds, playing solid D, and generally just being smarter than most of the people on the court.

Parker will never really be noticed unless he tosses up a 40-point game in the finals or pulls his scoring and assist average up to 22 and 8 for a season. Those things seem unlikely because he plays for the Spurs. He won't be scoring 40 unless he shoot 17 for 18 with a few free throws tossed in. He just doesn't take enough shots. Ever. The most shots he took in a game this season was 22 (which he did thrice). The most points he scored was 35, which was on his last 22 shot night where he happened to get to the line a lot.

What about assists. Jason Kidd and Steve Nash could get 8 assists a game with D-league guys. They could probably get 8 assists playing 2 on 5. Parker did drop 15 in a game this season. Once. Other than that he's hit double digits just three times, plus two more in the playoffs. Nash averages double digits.

But Parker isn't being asked to get an assist every time down the floor, that's not the Spurs offense. They're boring and methodical. They pass it around and get the right angle and the right shot. His job is to take care of the ball, score when he's the man with the angle, and keep the defense on its toes. Also, he has Ginobli who gets some assists as the off guard. Duncan gets his assists too. That's just how their offense works.

There's one thing he does exceptionally well - slash to the basket. As has been repeated many a time, the man is quick, so fast he could dodge bullets. Maybe he wouldn't even have to. Like a French AI, the guy cuts into tiny spaces and gets to the basket. Unlike AI, he doesn't absorb enough contact to kill a gorilla. He glides between guys, tosses in a nice layup or smooth pass. Except for that initial burst, he really doesn't make it look that exciting. No jump-back 12 footers. No hanging in the air for three seconds, contorting around the big men (every once in a while he does do this). No behind-the-back, no-look passes. It's just not what he does.

Then of course there's the defense. He knows what to do, where to go, and how to get the job done. He can take another quick guard out of the game. Most importantly, it's the mental aspects though. The point of team defense is that every player fits in, and he can fit it wherever he is needed. I'd say he's an underrated defensive player, but he plays for the Spurs who everyone thinks are defensive gods (true) and the word underrated bores me.

I'd say he's like the Tom Brady of the NBA, strong leader, consistent, good-looking, dominant mental player, but Tom Brady has never played with a guy like Duncan. He's more like Brian Dawkins. He's got the star player there, but he's a great player in his own right. Switch him with Larry Hughes and I promise you, we'd have a series. The Cavs trotting out Parker, Gibson, Pavlovic, Gooden, Varejao, Big Z, and LeBron as their seven is scary. Gibson can back up both the one and the two all game, still getting his 30 minutes. And Hughes couldn't run the Spurs. Jacque Vaughn would be starting. Could they make the finals? Sure, the have Duncan Ginobli and great role players. Would they beat the Parker/LeBron Cavs? In that series, my money would be on the Cavs.