The NBA is sometimes a predictable league. The Los Angeles Lakers will always be a part of the Christmas Day doubleheader, Stephon Marbury will always do something that makes you shake your head and big men will always be at a premium.
The Chicago Bulls, however, changed that last mantra in June when they took a point guard at the top of the draft instead of going with a big. With so many great young point guards helping to establish their team as contenders, perhaps that decision was not so difficult to foresee.
This is no longer an era dominated by Steve Nash, who won back-to-back MVP awards to lead the Phoenix Suns, or Jason Kidd, who has regressed since bringing the New Jersey Nets to consecutive finals appearances earlier in the decade and is now a member of the Dallas Mavericks. A new crop of point guards has emerged, led by Chris Paul and Deron Williams.
Paul and the New Orleans Hornets are off to a 9-6 start, and with the addition of free agent swingman James Posey, they are a legitimate threat to represent the Western Conference in the finals. Paul, who finished second in the MVP race last season and was a nearly unanimous first team All-NBA selection, is once again leading the league in both assists and steals, while averaging 20 points per game.
The fourth-year star is only 23 years old and is already regarded by many as the best point guard in the league. Paul has picked up his scoring since his rookie season and has scored in double figures in all 15 games this year. He has also dished out at least 10 assists in all but three games.
Just behind Paul in terms of talent is Williams, who forms a dynamic duo with Carlos Boozer to pace the Utah Jazz. Although he has only played in five games this year, Williams had a strong showing as part of the U.S. Olympic team. He averaged 19 points per contest and had 10.5 assists last season as the Jazz fell to the Western Conference champion Lakers in six games in the conference semifinals.
Both Paul and Williams have proven that an NBA team can feature a point guard as its centerpiece, and it appears that other teams are starting to take notice. The Bulls bypassed NCAA Player of the Year Michael Beasley to take Derrick Rose, and he has not disappointed thus far. After struggling last season with a regressing Kirk Hinrich at the helm, the Bulls drafted a pure point guard. Rose leads his team in minutes and is averaging 18.4 points and 5.8 assists, making him an early favorite for Rookie of the Year.
Another ROY candidate is Memphis Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo. Although he has been playing at the two-guard spot as the team has second-year point Mike Conley in the fold, Mayo could end up being the focal point of his team's offense in the future -- particularly with whispers that Conley is on the trading block.
Mayo has proven that his game can translate to the pros, as he has piled on over 30 points four times already this season. In fact, he is also in the top 15 in the league in points per game. As one of three guards taken in the top five in last June's draft, along with Rose and the Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook, Mayo is proving that the hype he received since high school was warranted.
There are a number of other point guards who, despite having played a few seasons, are just starting to round their games into elite form. Devin Harris, sent to New Jersey for Kidd at the trade deadline last year, is having an All-Star-caliber season, averaging almost 24 points and 6.3 assists per game, and he's still only 25 years old.
And 22-year-old Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics showed the value of a good point guard in the NBA Finals last year when he torched the Lakers to help his team win the championship. If anything, Rondo's play demonstrated that a team can only reach its true offensive potential if it has a player who can run the offense and create opportunities for teammates through dribble penetration.
Even with the "Big Three," Rondo is probably the most important player on the defending champions' roster, as the team's two losses so far this year have come in games where Rondo has averaged a mere two points.
The number of quality floor generals under the age of 25 is impressive, and many of these players are just scratching the surface of their potential. As good as Paul was in his rookie season, averaging 16 points and almost eight assists, he has raised his field goal percentage from the floor and beyond the arc and has become the best distributor in the game. This ought to give Bulls fans hope as they try to build their team around Rose, and maybe even cause Memphis fans to dream that Mayo will finally be their solution in the backcourt after the squad spent much of the last few seasons stockpiling young guards.
The point guard position has not seen so many potential superstars in some time. And with Spanish sensation Ricky Rubio -- who at just 17 years old showed flashes of brilliance in helping Spain to a silver medal and a near upset of Team USA at the Beijing Olympics -- likely to be a top three pick at some point in the future, there is a chance that another team will be shaped around a rookie point guard. With the success so far of players like Paul and Rose, it is not a bad place for a rebuilding team to start.
