Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.
Issue link: http://dimemagazine.epubxp.com/i/130678
LETTERS Imagine being Damian Lillard. We're betting the majority of readers didn't even know the name so much as 18 months ago. Now, he's the runaway favorite to win Rookie of the Year. We called him the most exciting rookie since LeBron James, and while going through the years, we came upon a number of fascinating point guard names: Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Tyreke Evans and Kyrie Irving. Te NBA game is more wide open than ever, and having a great point guard can make magic happen. Yet because there are so many incredible lead guards coming up, our allegiance often switches. Hype. Injuries. Wins and losses. Tey all play a part in roller coaster NBA careers. With point guards, it often comes back to how successful they are, how many playof series they win, how many deep postseason runs their team makes. And everyone has a diferent formula for that. Trust us when we say the rankings will be diferent a year from now than they are presently. But that can't keep us from arguing over whom we'd want. Around the time we put Lillard on the cover of Dime #72, we asked our DimeMag.com readers: WHICH YOUNG POINT GUARD WOULD YOU START A FRANCHISE WITH? Sorry but I like a true PG to start as my point guard: a young, healthy CP3. He is not only a good shooters and great passer but he can control the fow of a game and has great leadership qualities, even in his frst few years… he was fast just not super athletic… but great intellect and nasty on defense. second; same with Westbrook, Jennings and Evans: SGs in a PG body. They have the ability but mentally they aren't PGs. Durant in terms of leadership and development of an NBA franchise. -Pac Bryant Pippen Lillard has a great mix of all the characteristics but he has one great thing going for him… he learns fast. -Rob IronMan Jarrell Rondo has the same but not quite the leadership skills (polarizing character) or shooting ability. Derrick Rose! He's clutch, explosive, a leader, relatively young, and the scary thing is, we have yet to see his peak! Could be AItype numbers in his future. -Grant Van Dyke I would have to go with Derrick Rose. He's not so young that he doesn't have experience like Irving or maturity like J. Wall, but he's still young at 24 years old. He's got every aspect of the game covered and doesn't have many weakness like other PGs (CP3's size, Rondo's jumper, Westbrook's I.Q., Deron's heart). Rose also has plenty of experience in leading his team to the big time (Memphis '08 Final four, Bulls playoffs every year and East Finals two years ago). Rose also has proven himself as one of the hardest workers as each year his game has grown leaps and bounds (midrange J, longrange J, leadership, defense, I.Q.). So much so that he was able to break up the LeBron love-a-thon and grab the 2011 MVP award. No other PG under 30 years old can touch his resume. To me he's the obvious choice minus the ACL injury. -Chicagorilla Rose has the drive to get better as he has shown, but not quite the natural leader but he leads by example and effort. Wall is similar but to lead a team he needs to stay away from the streetball courts and work on his game through drills and workouts. That screwed him up when the lockout ended. He played nothing but summer league pickup games which kept him in shape but did not teach him anything new because he was so much better than the competition. No nuances were learned. Curry has the nuances and skills but not the natural physical gifts in athletic ability. I like Irving but he is scorer frst, passer I would start Iverson as my point guard all day everyday. Right now - Derrick Rose: closest crossover to Iverson's since Iverson left. -Andrew I would start a franchise with Derrick Rose. He is the only point guard who can make a team become a contender growing around him, a true MVP who does not care about his numbers. Being only 24, he has already led the Bulls to back-to-back best regular season records, four consecutive playoff appearances and a conference fnal. He is at the level of LeBron James and Kevin 18 I would have to go with Kyrie Irving. Let's see how Lillard does next year before we give him the key to the city. -marcus berzat