NBA Draft 2009: The Year of the Point Guard

This is the type of year for NBA rookies to rule the basketball court. When the youngsters come into the league, they have no idea that they will be tested by their sharp mentality and overall physical condition as soon as training camp begins. There is no way that college basketball will be any indication that NBA basketball will be as rigorous as before. No way. NBA basketball is much more physical and the contact is more hard-driven than NCAA basketball.

The 2009 NBA Draft, in my opinion, is the year of the point guard. The dinosaur that is the power forward or the pivot man, no longer exists in the NBA Draft. Sure, there are the Blake Griffins, the Michael Olowokandis, the Joe Smiths, etc. but the NBA rules suits the little guy. No longer can the big guys roam the paint and see that the lane is open for guards to put up easy shots. No way. Rules restrict big men to put their bodies in harm's way and put the smaller players out of commission. Hand-checking is no longer allowed. This is the draft that the guards will rule the basketball court.

I can tell that the traditional point guards are still available. The idea of the pass-first point guard is the most traditional position that head coaches still crave for. They want a floor general who is able to direct his teammates and can execute plays on a consistent night-by-night basis. In this year's draft, Ricky Rubio, Johnny Flynn, and Brandon Jennings are winners in my book, when it comes to analyzing traditional point guards. Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Eric Maynor, Darren Collison, and Rodrigue Beaubois all qualify for being traditional point guards, but none more than Flynn, Rubio, and Jennings. What the three guards can do is that they are able to make the extra pass to make their team look good on the stat sheet, and not on the score board. That is the difference between the great players and the ultimate winners. Rubio and probably Jennings too are going to be the cornerstones of their respective franchises, because their teams are going to expect a lot from these point guards to contribute. Pass-first and scoring second is the motto of the traditional point guard. Long gone are the days of the John Stockton-era when the basic pass ruled the basketball court. All the point guards want to do is score first and pass second. There are very few and very, very, rare point guards who are willing to sacrifice their game for the good of the team and be able to set up plays for their teammates and pass the ball like a traditional point guard always does. You don't want a shoot-first point guard on your team. You want a floor general who can execute plays for your head coach. That's why this draft is the year of the traditional point guard.

I don't see the top two draft picks, number one and number two respectively having an impact any time sooner than Ricky Rubio or Brandon Jennings in Blake Griffin and Hasheem Thabeet. There is no way that Griffin and Thabeet have any basketball value more than Rubio and Jennings. Other than the fact, that the big guy has the ball in his hands to score, he needs the traditional point guard to set up the play. Otherwise, he'll have a ego boosting and shooting first point guard on his team and the head coach will not be 100% happy to see that happen.

If anything, the shooting guards or should I say the tweeners, will be happy to see traditional point guards on their teams. The 2-guards in this draft are James Harden, Tyreke Evans, and DeMar DeRozan. They seem to be the classic mold of the shooting guard and nothing more than that. They will be expected to do nothing, but shoot the lights out of the basketball into the rim.

The small forwards are no more impressive in my book, than the traditional point guard. There aren't any spectacular forwards in the draft, but Earl Clark and Israeli import Omri Casspl come to mind. They are decent forwards in the basketball bible, when it comes to acting like point guards and being able to do multiple skills at the 3-spot. They're not Scottie Pippen-type of small forwards, but they can get the job done.

I don't see the other positions, besides the point guard position rule the 2009 NBA Draft. What we can expect to see is that there will be lots of excitement in seeing the basic pass come to form again. No NBA-era has seen the exceptional passing skills better than John Stockton, the point man of the Utah Jazz who has retired and played with one of the best power forwards and power post players in the game in Karl Malone.