Wallace has a short memory

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

Teams have won few championships in this era with a ball 
distributing point guard. Wallace's short memory has to 
go back to Isiah for the last great lead guard to take 
his team all the way.

So he can choose either direction, but its not that 
obvious which one is right. I don't fault Wallace/Obie 
for making a mental note of history. 

Unfortunately, a championship team does need one or more 
franchise players that can score the ball without the aid 
of a screen or a perfectly timed pass. 

Just as in any era, the NBA now has a ton of perennial 
All Stars and up-and-coming All Stars who need the system 
to make them into 20 ppg scorers. 

The last USA Team amply illustrates this. 

By contrast, the way Walker and Pierce have been 
developed as stars is definitely odd. They remain flawed 
players. 

But they also are 25 or 26 years old guys who can score 
the ball without any help whatsoever from a teammate. 

In that one regard, Walker is something distinct from 
KarlMalone and CWebb and Paul Pierce distinguished 
himself for Team USA from a Reggie Miller or Allan 
Houston. You can dispute that point, but I think its 
valid. 

As flawed as they may be, they share the score-creating 
thing with Kobe and MJ and Bird, not just with your 
average All Stars. 

And the last thing Kobe, MJ and Bird would have benefited 
from was a slick, ten-second-per-possession dribbler like 
Mark Jackson (or a more talented, more expensive and 
younger version of the same). 

Go get a proven ten-assist guy out there to cooly direct 
traffic for MJ or Kobe and see what happens. Well you 
know what would happen. 

The correct thing for management to do was to go get 
someone who would stay the heck out of the way: play 
defense, shoot without hesitation when open, and never 
fiddle and diddle extra seconds off the clock before 
giving the stars the damn ball. Spend your cap money 
someplace else.

The 02-03 Boston team might not be on the correct path to 
a championship, but when you have two still young, first 
team All Stars on a team coming off 57 wins, its 
definitely a gamble to invest lightly in the point guard 
but not a totally irrational one. 

Its how championships have been won, factually speaking. 












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