In the weeks leading up to the NBA Draft debates raged about which top prospect the Portland Trailblazers should've selected with the first overall pick. Oden or Durant. Center or swingman. Scoring or defense. It was a debate that was philosophical at its core. What is more important in basketball? A dominant scorer or a dominant defender? Does the age old axiom, "Defense wins championships" really hold true? Should the NBA game resemble the Suns or the Spurs? In the end the Blazers seemed to settle the issue, opting for the stalwart post player Oden over the scoring dynamo Durant.
It seems however, that in spite of the widely lauded choice by the Blazers to take Oden the NBA as a whole is not neccessarily backing that choice's logic with their actions in free agency. How so you might ask? Just listen. Who is the most talked about free agent this year? Rashard Lewis. Lewis is a fantastic offensive talent. Simply put, there are very few basketball players on this earth that are 6-10 and can shoot the ball the way that he does. Whenever Lewis steps foot on the court he is an instant matchup problem for the opposing defense. The trade-off in Lewis' case however, is that his defensive game, or lack thereof, also creates an instant mismatch when the Sonics are on defense. Lewis' defense is so bad that after the 2005-2006 season John Hollinger described it thusly:
"The Sonics were the worst defensive team of all time, and Lewis was a big reason why. He has never been the most interested defender, but like a lot of teammates he suffered a noticeable drop in intensity last season. While Seattle had myriad problems and Lewis was only a part of them, it's simply shocking to look at his defensive numbers from a year ago.
As bad as the Sonics were defensively, they were worse with Lewis on the floor. A LOT worse. Seattle gave up 6.6 points per 100 possessions more when Lewis played -- and keep in mind, his replacement most times was Vladimir Radmanovic, who won't be appearing on an All-Defense team any time soon. Additionally, Lewis' man was doing most of the damage -- he surrendered an 18.6 opponent PER from the small forward spot, and a staggering 23.5 at power forward."
This isn't to say that Rashard Lewis is a bad player. That just wouldn't be true. What is shocking about the Lewis situation is not that he is a desireable free agent; it is that he is the most desireable free agent of this entire class, even though there is another free agent at Lewis' very own position who is younger, cheaper, and an elite defender. Where is the love for Gerald Wallace? If defense wins championships, don't you want one of the three players in NBA history to average at least 2 blocks and 2 steals in an NBA season on your team? (The other two were David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon by the way) Alas, despite his defensive prowess Wallace is likely to either re-sign with Charlotte or go to the runner up in the Rashard Lewis sweepstakes. I will guarantee you this though; the team that gets Wallace will be much better off than the team that gets Lewis. I mean for goodness sakes, Wallace is only 24 years old. An elite defender in his prime is on the market and all everyone can talk about is a 6-10 jump shooter that is too slow to defend on the perimeter and too weak to defend on the block? Obviously people did not read the memo about Oden, or see the Spurs win the title on the strength of a suffocating defense.
It isn't just isolated to the Lewis/Wallace situation either. Take a look out West in the Arizona dessert. The Suns are pressed up against the lottery tax, and are trying to deal Shawn Marion to get cap relief. That's right, Shawn Marion, the man who is arguably the best defensive player in basketball. The Matrix is a defensive freak, and like Wallace also has a pretty good offensive game to go with his lockdown D. So why on earth would the Suns be looking to get rid of him? To guard Amare Stoudemire of course. Amare, who only scored 3 more points per game than Marion even though Marion scored the vast majority of his points in transition and on broken plays. Amare is sexy though, Marion is not.
You know who else is being ignored in free agency right now? A former All-Star center, Jamaal Magloire. Right now rumor has it that he is being looked at for mid level exception money by a few teams. They should pull the trigger. And they should play him. Again, Magloire does not play a sexy game. He is a big man that gets position down low on offense and defense and is hard to move. He is still one of the best defensive rebounders in the game. Yet nobody seems to be making a serious play at him. Last year his own team didn't even give him a serious look, as Magloire found himself behind both Joel Pryzbilla and LaMarcus Aldridge in Portland. Do you want to know what happened when Magloire did get some serious PT though? In the 12 games last year where he played at least 30 minutes last year Magloire averaged 11.4 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks. Yet, you don't hear a peep about this center that could be a double double machine somewhere if he got the playing time. Because he isn't sexy. He doesn't run the floor or shoot three pointers. He just plays a tough defensive game and puts the ball in the hoop effectively on offense. It really is too bad that a league that seemed so close to understanding what winning basketball is all about with the Oden pick is ignoring it so quickly. Some teams do get it though, and those teams will be the ones that sign up Gerald Wallace, trade for Shawn Marion, and snap up Magloire for the mid level exception. And those teams will be winners.
