All right, I'm putting Rose over Durant and Paul. Paul was brilliant in the playoffs this year, and I honestly think a healthy Paul could win MVP replacing Rose on Chicago. The thing is, Paul wasn't at 100 percent throughout the season. Although he was dominant in the playoffs, he WAS facing a terrible perimeter defense. I said before the series that Paul would come away with big numbers in a series loss. Though the series was closer than I expected, Paul's production was not larger than I anticipated it'd be. He only gets credit from me for doing what he was supposed to do. I've got to take Rose. He was phenomenal in the playoffs up until the ECF. He gets most of the tiebreakers over Paul as well.
Durant needs to create better.
Rose isn't on tier one for me. There's no question about that. James, Wade, Nowitzki and Howard are all clearly ahead.
Now the fun part.
I've already got Nowitzki over Howard. I do believe Wade is a superior basketball player overall to Nowitzki and Howard (by a little bit). Wade had a poor ECF statistically, but he was aggressive, moved a 5-as-1 defense around in order to help Bosh and James (as opposed to just handing the ball off to them and telling them to create for themselves), made some big plays at important times and played solid defense. He was a menace against Boston and Dallas, and he did his job against an overmatched Philly team. All in all, Wade was amazing this season. Dwight wasn't given the chance to do enough to catch up to Wade as far as tiebreakers go. I'm going with Wade over Howard.
Wade vs. Dirk is interesting...did Dirk do enough to overcome Wade's superiority? Does the title and Finals MVP get him over the hump?
Dirk's change this season isn't very significant imo. There's no inverted peak for him. He became a better player a long time ago, and this past year is just a result of some maintenance, fine-tuning on reading the court and impressive longevity.
http://ronnymacswire.blogspot.com/2011/06/morphing-maverick.htmlHe's been a championship-caliber offensive anchor for a few years now. I think Wade was superior from 2009 onward- and that's taking into account how I and others had underrated post-2007-debacle Dirk Nowitzki. Wade didn't slip up this season to the point where I need to dock him for playing below his 2009-2010 self. He wasn't as valuable to his team with two stars on it, but he didn't change as a player. I don't believe the accolades get Dirk above Dwyane.
So as of right now, I've got Wade/Dirk/Howard.
And now, for the grand finale...
I thought LBJ was playing better than ever throughout this entire season up until the NBA Finals. Peak LBJ is clearly superior to my D's trio. Then in the Finals, for whatever reason- could be injury, succumbing to the pressure of scrutiny, tired, not knowing how to react to Wade's energy, a shooting slump that hurt his confidence, personal issues, excellent defense by Dallas, thinking facilitation of Wade's game was the way to go since Miami appeared to be successful using that blueprint, etc.- he became a peripheral player. He made himself into a peripheral player.
Early in the year, I talked about exactly how James and Wade had shown an ability to coexist despite their redundancies:
Dwyane Wade and James are underrated long range shooters, but that certainly isn't their strength. By my observations, they are doing just fine together though. Why? Because they take advantage of each other's presence on the court. A reasonable account of a good Miami possession goes like this:
Wade slashes from the top of the key and gets into the paint. He passes out to Mario Chalmers in the corner, who swings it to Lebron on the wing. Now instead of Lebron driving into the teeth of a set defense every single time like he did in Cleveland, he is driving by a recovering defender and into the heart of an already chaotic defense (chaotic because they had to stop Wade). Miami will get:
1. Another series of passes resulting in another slash by a superstar
2. An efficient shot at the rim by James
3. Free throws for James
4. An open, in-rhythm 3-pointer from one of the spot-up shooters
All it takes is a little patience. Just manipulate the defense enough, and you'll get your efficient shot.
In the Dallas series, Lebron gave the ball up to Dwyane early in the shot clock, which is a solid decision at all times because Wade usually had a favorable matchup in which he could start the above cycle of events in a more efficient way than James could. Dwyane did do that.
But when the ball ended up in LeBron's hands and he had a chance to attack a defense in chaos, he generally didn't. By my observations, Dallas didn't defend LBJ differently in THESE PARTICULAR scenarios. They doubled him at the beginning of possessions, but they weren't doubling him off the ball, and no defense is good enough to immediately double a player after said defense has been manipulated to the point that Wade manipulated the Maverick defense.
James screwed up. For some reason, he didn't take advantage. How many times did we see a Miami possession, especially in the final two games of the series, end badly because of overpassing? And how many times did Lebron James get a second touch on these possessions and only contribute a worthless pass to a covered player instead of attacking the defense.
I always say swing passes make champions. But there's a fine line. In such a close series like this one, all James needed to do was play like a struggling Lebron James. Instead, he didn't even give himself a chance to struggle. He just settled into the role of being a very good role player, when that isn't what his team needed at crucial times.
That's a fatal flaw.
So do I put inferior players who i know could still get me to a Finals and didn't show any problem with reading what their respective team needed over James. Or do I take this superior player who gives me the best chance of going far but proved inferior to Dwight/Dirk/Wade at reading what the team needed?
What makes this unprecedented for me is how dominant LBJ looked all season, and how great he was at finding the balance not just in these playoffs, but throughout his entire career.
It's a tough call that I may get heat for, but I'm putting James at fourth. I let 2010's game five pass because it was one game. But this was six straight games of the same crap. Throughout the series of events that transpired within this series, James never realized what his team needed for some reason, a failure that is inconsistent with the LeBron James that I know.
But that happened. I need to dock him for that, and i need to dock him hard.
I value greatly the regular season in which he helped the team adopt championship habits. I think he adapted well enough. His stats were dominant as always. And his playoffs up until the Finals were unreal. He's a great, great player. It sucks that I feel I need to dock him that hard, but...
Final Rankings:
Dwyane Wade
Dirk Nowitzki
Dwight Howard
Lebron James
Derrick Rose
HM: Amar'e Stoudemire, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant
Honorary Honorable Mention: Shaquille O'Neal
