"Roy on the Rise"

I think Christmas came early for GM Paul Allen and the Portland Trailblazers. Brandon Roy, the third year guard from the University of Washington is becoming one of the truly elite players in the league. Last night he managed to put up 52 points against the "improved" defense of the Phoenix Suns. Simply put, he was unstoppable. Crowd him to prevent the shot. The next thing you know he's at the rim with his left hand finger-rolling it in swiftly. Give him a little space to take away the driving lanes and he pulls up from behind the arc. All you can do is put your hand up and listen for the "swish".

Last night's performance against the Phoenix Sun's might be the greatest single-player performance of the current season. With the Suns leading by 12 points in the third quarter Brandon Roy decided to take over the game. All by himself. Hitting contested three-point shots, driving and completing three point plays, and even crossing-over and pulling up in the mid-range. He did it all. The Blazers won the game 124-119 in what was a highly fueled offensive game. Roy's stat line for the night:

52 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 block, 0 turnovers
FG:14-27, FT:19-21, 3pt:5-7

Are you kidding me? He had 52 points on 27 field goal attempts. He probably had the ball in his hands all game, creating shots for himself and others, yet he managed to get six assists and ZERO turnovers. That is mind blowing. Add in he was nearly perfect from the free throw line and the three-point line... easily the best single-player performance of the year. This was far more impressive than Tony Parker's 55 against Minnesota, Stoudemire's 49 against Indiana, and some other great games by Wade, Lebron, and Kobe.

I think Roy needs to be considered in all discussions when the subject is elite shooting guards. He may not be on the level of Kobe, and not quite up to par with Dwayne Wade, but other than that I can't be so sure he's not the next best shooting guard in the league. Ray Allen. Rip Hamiltion, and Michael Redd are all great guards, but they are more of the conventional catch and shoot players who don't take on facilitating and leadership roles. That leaves a small amount of company when it comes to "elite" shooting guards that can do it all. I'd put Roy on the same level as Joe Johnson, and sooner or later he might be able to climb to the star level of Dwayne Wade.

Of course, I might be getting ahead of myself. Only time will tell, but this kid is the real deal. At the age of 24 he is only showing progress and improvement in all aspects of his game. It's only his third year in the league and he has already proven that he is an All-Star and a top 5 shooting guard. His numbers for the season are rock solid, but the last couple of weeks he has been damn near perfect. He's been playing Kobe-like recently. The past five games:

36.4ppg 5.6rpg 5.0apg 1.4bpg 0.8spg 1.2topg 52%FG 45%3pt

It's true. The NBA is where amazing happens. These are ridiculous numbers. The fact that he has the ball in his hands so often, scoring and creating for others, while only turning the ball over 1.2 times per game is damn near close to perfection. He has become one of the most efficient players in the league, and Nate McMillan knows if he puts the ball in Roy's hands, well, something positive will come out of it. This kid has a very, very bright future. I am curious to what his "ceiling" will be, because currently it appears he hasn't quite come close to reaching it. He's followed his first year performance(Rookie of the Year) with improved numbers consistently. At this rate it's not a stretch to think Roy could put up Kobe-like numbers in the next couple of years. Something like 30ppg, 6apg, 4rpg 1+spg and shooting solid percentages is not out of reach for this kid, and I hope I get to witness it.