After going 44-28 last season, good enough for the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference, the Wizards look primed for a big season ahead of them in 2014-2015. For a team that has been trying to get over the hump since the Gilbert Arenas days, this will be their best team in a long time.

The time is now for John Wall to take the Wizards far into the playoffs. By Geoff Livingston (Flickr: John Wall) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

They added free agents Paul Pierce and DeJuan Blair to the mix to give them much needed veteran leadership especially from Pierce. Pierce replaces Trevor Ariza who had a stellar year for Washington last season.

Even at his advanced age, Pierce is still a better scorer than Ariza, but definitely doesn’t play the same kind of defense. The main catalysts of the Wizards are in their backcourt where Bradley Beal and John Wall have figured out how to play together and create a very scary duo.

Washington will bring back veteran and spunky point-guard Andre Miller. They also brought back center Marcin Gortat, who averaged 13.2 points per game and 9.5 rebounds per game to pair with power-forward Nene. With that physical duo patrolling the middle, it will be tough for anybody to score at the basket without a fight.

Washington averaged the 16^th most points in the NBA but held their own on the defensive side of the ball being ranked in the top ten in points allowed. Head Coach Randy Wittman has this team primed to make a long postseason run and lucky for him, they finally have the pieces to do so. The fans at the Verizon Center should be very hopeful when the season starts and should do their best to make it a tough place for opponents to play.

The East has gotten a little better than last season and the Wizards will have to play their best basketball all season long if they want to keep up with the East’s elites but they have the man and firepower to do so. A note to the rest of the NBA, don’t sleep on Washington — the nation’s capitol has a relevant basketball team again.

Paul Pierce (seen here without his trademark wheelchair), may be getting old, but he still made L-Man’s top-10 active players. By Keith Allison, via Wikimedia Commons

LeBron James recently was awarded his fourth MVP award in five years which is an astonishing accomplishment, only have being done by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6), Michael Jordan (5), Bill Russell (5), and Wilt Chamberlain (4).  Not too bad of company I’d say for LeBron to be in but this got me thinking, who are the top ten NBA players currently in the league? Many people have disagreed about this fact and now I am here to put my input in about the debate. I am basing my order not only on statistics but also mental aspect, hustle, and winning. So here is in my opinion, the top ten current NBA players in order:

1. LeBron James: I can’t even argue this; the man is a freak of nature on the basketball court. This is the easiest placement of the players on my list so I won’t take too long on it. Career Stats: 27.6 PPG, 6.9 APG, 7.3 RPG
2. Kobe Bryant: A lot of people would have placed Kevin Durant here instead of Kobe but I am a person of resumes not just the “now” part of this. Kobe is still the best closer in the NBA defying basketball odds and opponents over and over again. At 34 years old, he can still put up the same of not better numbers than the younger players, which is incredible. Many people overlook the Mamba, but not me. Career Stats: 25.5 PPG, 4.8 APG, 5.3 RPG
3. Kevin Durant: Once Kobe retires then Durant will move up into the number two spot at least on my list but until then he is third which isn’t that bad at all. Durant is a unique talent with his length and shooting ability and I believe he will go down as one of the greatest scorers this league has ever seen. Durant said he was tired of being second all the time, well Kevin you aren’t second…you are third. Career Stats: 26.6 PPG, 3.1 APG, 6.8 RPG
4. Chris Paul: The best point guard in the NBA lands in the fourth spot on my list and I think he fits perfectly here. The way Paul can run the floor, pass and shoot is incredible. Almost like Kobe, Paul is a killer. By that, I mean he is clutch and will end you in a game. Paul is of my favorite players in the game and a great leader on the court. Career Stats: 18.6 PPG, 9.8 APG, 4.4 RPG
5. Dirk Nowitzki: This one might be a bit of a surprise to some as Carmelo or Russell Westbrook are neither in this spot but as I said, I base this off of resumes and every aspect of the game and Dirk has it all. He has won MVP awards, a championship and hits huge shots in huge moments. I don’t care about the age factor, he still is one of the most versatile big men to ever play this game and is still highly productive. The “German Moses” is about a year removed from many people agreeing with me, but I don’t care. He is the fifth best player in the NBA. Career Stats: 22.6 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 0.9 BPG

   //www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6UHBYJOUw

6. Carmelo Anthony: Carmelo is a tough one to cover because he has so many skill sets but lacks the mental aspect of the game. To me the mental aspect of the game is just as important as the skills part. He is a superstar, no doubt about it, but he needs to learn how to act like one. If he can do that, he could be in the top-5. He can flat-out score the basketball and in my opinion the best scorer in the game at the moment but until he finds his mental toughness he won’t get any higher than here. Career Stats: 25.0 PPG, 3.1 APG, 6.4 RPG
7. Russell Westbrook: Now here is a player that is great at getting people out of their seats, he can shoot, he can dunk, he even plays defense. And what a scary thought that two of the top ten NBA players play on the same team (Thunder) and both are under 25 years of age. Westbrook has a lot of talent and with experience with continue to grow as a player and leader. He might just want to get the ball to Durant for a few more shots during a game. Career Stats: 19.9 PPG, 6.9 APG, 4.8 RPG
8. Tim Duncan: Four championships. That is all I have to say about Duncan, who I believe will go down as the greatest power forward to ever play the game. Career Stats: 20.2 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 2.2 BPG
9. Paul Pierce: The Truth. Well, the truth is that Pierce is still a top ten player even with his age and it is sad that he may be done soon. Even as a Laker fan, I admire Paul Pierce and his game. He has a knack for silencing the crowd on the road and hitting clutch shots. He grew up near the Forum in Inglewood and with the exception of the wheelchair incident, he’s been a pretty tough player throughout his career. Although he had to beat the Lakers to do so, I am glad that he won one title. Career Stats: 21.8 PPG, 3.9 APG, 6.0 RPG
10. Dwight Howard: Much like the Thunder, the Lakers have two of the top 10 NBA players on their roster (for now) and hopefully it stays that way. Howard may not be the offensive beast that Shaq was but he can flat out play defense and is a force at the rim. Many players could deserve to be number ten, but I gave the nod to Howard because of the defense aspect. Defense does win championships and maybe one day Howard will be holding up the trophy he is coveting. Career Stats: 18.3 PPG, 12.9 RPG, 2.2 BPG

While people may disagree with me, at least we can agree to disagree. Obviously this list will change yearly with players retiring, age and just the progression on younger players but for now this is in my list of the top ten current NBA players. What do you think? Leave your comments below.

There is only one man who can answer these pondering’s, that being “Big Shot Bob,” otherwise known as Robert Horry, who made a living with the Rockets, Lakers, and Spurs, en route to seven rings by nailing the clutch shot.

Why does this matter? He was never a star, but he has rings galore bronzed on his swish- svelte fingers. 

In today’s NBA we judge  all-time greats by how many rings they’ve won and whether or not they led their teams to title town. But is this a fair assessment, considering a life-long bench guy like Horry can be carried to seven?

Never was Horry the franchise guy. In fact, as great as he seemed in closing minutes, Robert Horry never became the player we expected him to be after his timely three point shooting for Houston’s 2nd title run.

Horry’s brief stint in Phoenix after a trade in 1996, proved he was not endowed with a star motor. A hot tempered, dramatic and aloof head case, Bob languished averaging 6.9 points at a career low shooting clip: 41.8%. A trade by mid-season to the L.A. Lakers–a team filled with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Elden Campbell, and Cedric Ceballos changed the trajectory of his failing career.

So why then is Bob a champion? Why not franchise guys like Barkley, Malone, Stockton, Dominique, Ewing, or Reggie Miller?

Each of those listed above were worthy of winning gold, were they not? All of them were respective franchise pieces with the heart, skills, and late game heroics to hold the O’Brien.

The answer to their problems was Michael Jordan’s Bulls: a team of role guys surrounding the king of the sport with that IT factor needed to win it all. Something today’s critics use to gauge greatness and rank the all time elites.

So what is the issue then with the tautness of this old-time equation? Why not turn a blind eye and allow this to be the answer to everything?

Simply because it just does not add up. It does not offer enough answers. If Big Shot Bob has seven, or the likes of Jack Haley–former twelfth man for Jordan’s final three peat has three, the equation’s a bit off. We need something else, a new perspective when thinking of the greats and why and how they never hung the O’Brien.

And I believe individual luck IS the partly the answer, luck, a maddening machine random like the California Lottery. Historians prefer the term historical happenings–a notion that choices are made for no other reason except that they were made, and the dominoes re-arrange the cosmos of a world more closely inter-connected than we might wish it to be (think guy who smells like farts at the movies, or the swine flu victim winding a cough onto the back nape of the neck.)

Luck.

To think Michael Jordan fell to number three in the 1984 draft could be easily overlooked for a variety of reasons: Sam Bowie, the number two pick before MJ, was a  college superstar and a big man compared at the time to the greats. The Blazers already had a gifted wingman in Clyde Drexler andat the time the league was built around bigs: Kareem, Sampson and Olajuwan, Robert Parish, Patrick Ewing, and Moses Malone.

But that doesn’t make things less ludicrous.  Look at how the draft shaped the NBA forever. MJ goes to an ordinary Bulls team built in perhaps the greatest city in America, where he wins ROY, ultimately five MVP’s, slam dunk contests, becomes the games biggest mogul, and wins six titles. Alongside Oprah, MJ is easily the greatest name in Chicago history and can be attributed for an economical explosion that saved the lower West side of the city once run with crime: drug abuse, gang wars, and prostitution.

Bowie, in the annals of the NBA, is known as ‘the bust.’ He never won a thing in the pros: no all star games, no shoe deals, thus injuring the once bright ideal the Blazers had in trading their franchise Center Bill Walton to Boston.

This, my friends, is the Sam Bowie, a supernatural element that cannot be ignored.

Luck.

Yet like so many children born into inner city poverty without the tools necessary to change their lives, we cannot judge the stars through the a similar bias, because not all players are born lucky into a posh franchise. The gift of playing in Los Angeles or Boston does not come to everyone. Not every player is born into a showtime era, a team so deep they make the ocean look like a kids pool.

For some, seeking a new home is like divorcing an abusive wife. In order for Mitch Richmond to adorn gold, the talented and true shooting guard had to eventually break ties in the perils of Sacramento. Karl Malone found it necessary to join with Kobe and Shaq in 04′ after a long tenure in Utah. And even the humble Clyde Drexlerleft a hell of a situation in Portland to win it Houston. All three of which were great with or without (Sing it Bono) a championship.

The reality of the situation is heart breaking for most. We as childish dreamers wish our favorite player could be greater than the others, but this is not real. Embracing a pragmatic approach to the sport tied less to your heart strings will allow you to see greatness wrapped in many different packages. 

Reality 1: Great players DO NOT win championships, great TEAMS win championships. The 2004 Detroit Pistons are a perfect example of this. A team of role guys without a future hall of famer, the Pistons had the momentary IT. Call it faith, hard work, purity, and any other beautiful thing you want, but to explain why they won a title over an L.A. Laker team stocked with four future hall of famers would be absurd.

Reality 2: Like the stars in the sky, NBA STARS need other STARS. Think for a moment about the teams who’ve won championships the last thirty years. All of them have one thing in common: team depth and stars surrounding stars. Magic had Kareem and Worthy; Bird–Mchale and Parish; Dr.J–Moses Malone; Isaiah–Dumars and Rodman; MJ–Pippen; Hakeem–Clyde; Shaq–Kobe and Wade; Duncan–Robinson, Parker, and Ginobili; Pierce–KG and Allen.

Reality 3:  Winning titles does mean a lot, but it does not mean everything for a myriad of reasons. If the 1919 Chicago Blacksox or dirty referees like Tim Donaghy can throw World Series and playoff games, then how serious can we take this thing? Not very. Take everything with a grain of salt and learn other decided facets when it comes to judging all-time greats: MVP’s, All Star appearances, Career Totals, Game Winners, Ability to close, Athleticism, Re-defining the sport, dominance-ometer, and sociological affects.

LeBron James is not a sell out because the guy wants to win, he’s a realist. A star unselfish enough to admit that NO star including himself, can win a title completely on his own.

LeBron is stuck in the the Bill Clinton Vacuum. Though he does great things, he is brushed aside because of one unlikeable decision.

But greatness is not a grade school quiz on being friendly, it is brutal giftedness. And likeability is not the twin brother to being great.

LeBron made a  decision to better his career andhis life. Leading a Cleveland Cavs team the last seven years, that never boasted anybody better than a has-been version of Antawn Jamison warrants James departure.  No it does not warrant the overdone TV cinematic’s regarding “the decision,” nor the Pat Riley blowout introduction party in South Beach. Yet neither should it foster the illogical hysteria across America attempting to deny the man’s sheer dominance and greatness.

This isn’t patty cake kids. We are talking about a production entertainment, where all titles are but a decorative decor. They might help the woman look fine, but if that woman is not fine without the jewelry or the tight fitting jeans, I say run, run as fast as you can.

Drop by the nearest bar and have a scotch on me. Look through the world with freshness and at what is truly great (it is not the girl next to you.). It is the scraggly bartender able to whip up drinks faster than the average Joe.

When trying to capture the overall implications of this most recent trade deadline, one needs to realize that there were a lot of risks taken and futures mortgaged. There hasn’t been a deadline similar to this in recent memory where so many superstars were swapped. Some trades could be honestly questioned. Some made complete sense. Some teams made out and some teams got taken for the proverbial ride. Let’s go ahead and delve into “who, to where, for what and why?”

The headline for months was the much hyped “Melo-drama,” as it was so cleverly described. We couldn’t see that one coming, could we? While ESPN’s Chris Broussard basically conjured the validity of a Carmelo Anthony for Andrew Bynum trade out of thin air, the real competition in the waning days for Anthony’s services was between New Jersey and New York.

It was much publicised that New Jersey was having significant talks with Denver up to about a month ago, when in a display of impatience, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov nixed all talks between the two. They became the New Jersey “Nyets.” Most thought this was due to Denver simply needing more in return for an Anthony package than New Jersey was willing to give up. The truth of the matter may have been that Prokhorov finally saw the light and realized what was truly going on.

It had been blatantly obvious from day one of all trade discussion that Carmelo wanted to be a New York Knick. He is from New York and saw playing in the Mecca of basketball, Madison Square Garden, as a life-long dream. While the Nets have particular fan strongholds in the New York/New Jersey area, and even though they started vertical construction on their new Brooklyn Barclays Center three months ago, they are no competition for the Knicks as far as the brightly lit stage of the big city of dreams is concerned.

Prokhorov is no idiot. He is the 89th richest man in the world. You don’t find yourself at that level of wealth by getting played by 30-year old team presidents and general managers like Josh Kroenke and Masai Ujiri. He finally came to the realization that the Nuggets were only using trade discussions with his Nets as a leverage play against New York. If New York thought New Jersey was a player and had a legit shot to score Anthony, Denver could trade him to New York, where he was inevitably going to go anyway, for much less than they would have had New Jersey not been in the picture.

All of this front-office analysis aside, what does this trade do for the bottom line of buckets?

The Nuggets parted with a superstar in Anthony, as well as a serviceable point guard, albeit in the sunset of his career, in Chauncey Billups. The less newsworthy of these two players was a significant part of this deal. Billups still can hit big shots, is one of the best veteran leaders in the league, and will mesh with Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni’s run-and-gun system almost instantly. New York also got throw-in forwards; Renaldo Balkman, who was originally drafted by New York in 2006, and Shelden Williams, whose only note of significance in his meager NBA career has been being the husband of WNBA superstar Candice Parker.  Quite a resume.

The Knicks parted with a young and improving point guard in Raymond Felton, as well as New York sociological attraction, Italian forward Danilo Gallanari. Also headed to the Rocky Mountains are roundly-skilled forward Wilson Chandler and big-man project Timofey Mozgov.

The Nuggets got a full hockey line, but the Knicks got a superstar, a championship-seasoned veteran and two expiring and insignificant contracts. While each team got a lot of what they needed for the point each franchise currently is in their overall process, the advantage still has to go to the Big Apple. A top five superstar is a top five superstar, especially packaged with a solid veteran point guard.  You trade what is needed to be able to acquire these two if you are the Knicks, even if you have to give up your right arm and your first-born to get them.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

A cornerstone and respected leader in this league, Jerry Sloan, retires? The longest tenured coach in the NBA just walks away after twenty-two seasons right in the middle of his twenty-third? Now that all-star point guard Deron Williams has been traded to New Jersey two weeks after this unpredicted turn of events, popular and reasonable belief can only consider two options as to why Sloan walked away. Either Williams did what he could to push Sloan out the door through open defiance simply out of his own choice, or the “bling” in his left ear that should belong on Kate Middleton’s finger whispered to do the same because old man Sloan was cramping his style. Either way, Williams played a part, and I have a feeling Jazz management and ownership saw the writing on the wall. The fact that Williams was going to become a free agent in 2012 only had something to do with his ousting. His attitude and arrogance is what ultimately got him shoved out the door and banished to one of the league’s worst situations.

Not only did Utah get to unload an egotistical malcontent, but they made out with the biggest trade deadline steal in recent memory. Williams may be arguably the most complete point guard in the NBA today, but he is still only one player. Last I checked, Deron Williams can’t pass the ball to Deron Williams.

In return for Williams, the Jazz received a solid point guard replacement in Devin Harris. They also acquired last year’s number two overall pick in the draft, twenty year-old potential-phenom forward, Derrick Favors. Giving up on this kid so soon is seemingly a display of impatient haste by the Nets, is it not?

What a great deal for the Jazz, given there was no way Williams was going to resign with Utah after next season, right? Well, that’s not all they got. Let’s toss in two first-round draft picks, one from the Nets and one from the Golden State Warriors.  Both of these picks could very well be lottery picks, given the foreseeable ineptitude of New Jersey and Golden State in the coming years. Wait, that’s not all? How bout three million in cash for the pocket as icing on the cake? A top ten to fifteen point guard, a number two overall pick who is twenty, two potential lottery picks, and cash?  For one player?  Feliz Navidad, Utah.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

In the most questionable move made when considering the implications of the real race for the ultimate prize this season, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge sent stalwart center Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City along with jitter-bug guard Nate Robinson. Wait, I thought Perkins getting hurt during last year’s finals was the sole reason you guys couldn’t get over on the Lakers, Danny?  He is supposedly that important to your team in crunch-time, yet he is this movable less than a year later? Sounds like that excuse back then was just a cry for a crutch, reminiscent of the squeaking from Paul Pierce’s wheelchair brakes. Yes, this trade has now proven that was in fact cow excrement you were smelling from the mouths of New Englanders after the Lakers were celebrating the spoils last year. How does your excuse look now, crybabies?

On the red-eye to the land of “chowdah” comes former Thunder forwards Nenad Kristic and Jeff Green. Green was originally drafted by the Celtics, and was then subsequently traded on a draft-day deal to the then Seattle Supersonics for Ray Allen. Ainge was obviously high on Green that draft, but when given the opportunity to add a sharpshooter like Allen to the centerpiece of Paul Pierce and at the time, recently signed free agent Kevin Garnett, he sold out.

While that move then ended up helping bring a championship to Boston in 2008, Ainge now making the deal for Green reeks of desperation, ego, and a chance at some sort of twisted “I told you so.” When you consider the thought-process of the idea behind the trade, Ainge claiming Green could be the heir-apparent to Kevin Garnett, what he gave up to be able to claim this possibility is borderline comical.  Ainge trading Perkins for Green because he kind of ‘reminds’ him of Garnett is the equivalent of Mitch Kupchak trading Andrew Bynum for Thaddeus Young because he kind of ‘reminds’ him of Lamar Odom. Way to go, Danny. This is the move that people will point to when you are forced out the door in a few seasons.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

As the schedule continues, unflappable to the time needed to digest all the recent changes in the league-wide chemistry, the positioning for playoff seeding will obviously become more heated than it has been to this point. Now comes this very segment we have all been debating for months, and with the shock of these recent moves, questions instantly arise:

Can the Lakers ‘flip the switch’ and make child’s play of the Western Conference like in recent years past?

Is the Spurs’ chase-rabbit record really who they are?  Did regular season records do anything for the Cavaliers the past two seasons? Can unproven playoff role-players like George Hill, Dejuan Blair and Gary Neal become championship-level counterparts?

Does Dallas still even have a seat at the Western Conference table?  Are they to be taken as a serious threat?

Is the addition of Kendrick Perkins the much needed ingredient of inside presence the Thunder need to be an actual and legitimate player in the Western Conference shakedown?

Can the defensive blockade Tom Thibodeau’s Bulls are displaying carry them up to the level of the Eastern Conference elite, and most importantly, carry them in a seven-game series?

Are Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy’s mess of wing players even relevant as we come down the finish line?

Will Danny’s Ainge’s ego in trying to prove he was right about Jeff Green cost the Celtics a realistic chance at the title in their now dwindling years near the top? I know this much for sure, Laker and Heat fans are ecstatic about the loss of Kendrick Perkins. The Lakers now hold a distinct size advantage and the Heat now don’t have such a size discrepancy against Boston.

And lastly, as far as the Heat, will the most gravy-trained collection of elite stars in recent memory topple the naysayers? Will they reach The NBA Finals in their first try at conceived and orchestrated glory? Good luck big three. You’re going to have to drag your dirty-dozen along with you en route to a title. The bricks of Mike Miller and James Jones are building a structure of mediocrity thus far for the level of overall talent you have boasted. The Heatles? Give me a break, “King.” Win something, then talk. I’ve never heard of a King who doesn’t have a crown, you paper champ.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

Questions and vemon aside, when all is said and done, the choices made and paths sought at this deadline will effect these upcoming moves as much as they will effect numerous moves down the road. Some teams played for now and some teams played for later.  Playoff-time reveals destiny, and the free will of the trade deadline move-makers plays a major role in the fate of the actual move-makers on the court.  Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, the time to really make your move is upon us.