[Dallas News] 'Big Threes' may foretell NBA West race (Hou:T-Mac, Yao, Rafer)

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Big Threes' may foretell NBA West race

12:56 AM CST on Sunday, February 24, 2008


Tim Cowlishaw


Between them, they represent six Most Valuable Player awards, seven Finals MVP awards and right at 100 All-Star Game appearances. They are the Big Threes of the Western Conference contenders, and they are the reason I think the Jason Kidd trade made the Mavericks relevant again.

There are exceptions to the rule, but mostly teams win NBA championships with a core of three players. People talk about Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago, but those Bulls teams always had big contributions from their power forwards – first Horace Grant and later Dennis Rodman.

The Celtics won in the '80s with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. The Lakers of the '80s won even more with Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The Spurs have captured three of their four titles on the strengths of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

There are nine teams in the Western Conference race that is too close to call with less than two months to go in the regular season. In something we have never before seen, Golden State entered the weekend five games out of first place.

And out of the playoffs.

That's all that separates first from ninth. The closest from top to bottom we have seen this decade was 2001, when top seed San Antonio finished 11 games above eighth seed Minnesota.

I don't think any of these teams is going to fall off the pace by that amount in the final seven weeks.

So ranking teams by the chance of their Big Three carrying them to the Finals, we proceed.

9. Denver (Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby): It's interesting that both Iverson and Anthony are averaging 26-7-3. Iverson's seven is assists, of course, and Anthony's seven is rebounds. Camby pitches in with nine points and 14 rebounds a night.

I don't think there's enough around this core and enough defense being played to get the Nuggets anywhere near the Finals. Iverson can hit big shots but he still misses an alarming number. Right now, they are the team I would pick to miss the postseason.

8. Golden State (Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Monta Ellis): This team gets 60 points a night from their Big Three, and the Warriors have a number of players who are fearless about taking big shots and nailing them. Watching them beat Boston the other night, I started to move them up the charts.

But they won't surprise anyone this April. Everyone knows they are good. And they still have some limitations inside that the Mavericks simply weren't equipped to expose.

7. New Orleans (Chris Paul, David West, Tyson Chandler): Yes, I saw what they did to the Mavericks on Wednesday, and I realize they have the West's best record. But their lack of playoff experience is going to hurt them in the postseason. Paul has a terrific game and might challenge Kobe Bryant for MVP.

But last year's MVP didn't get out of the first round, either.

6. Houston (Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, Rafer Alston): McGrady remains inconsistent, and the Rockets tend to play about as well without him as with him. Alston is probably the weakest player to make this list, but he's having a nice season at point guard.

I still like the Rockets to scare someone in the playoffs, and if they ever get beyond the first round, watch out. My preseason pick to win it all is starting to show signs they can do that. We'll see.

5. Phoenix (Steve Nash, Shaquille O'Neal, Amare Stoudemire): OK, I admit that sounds like the best Big Three on paper. You've got former MVPs at point guard and center and a monster at power forward. And they may get it together.

But their defense is getting worse and worse with every move. I don't know if the Suns have time to fully adjust what they need to do to get the most out of Shaq while limiting his exposure to his weaknesses. I don't think they do.



Tim Cowlishaw ranks the Mavericks' Big Three of Dirk Nowitzki (left), Josh Howard and Jason Kidd fourth-best in the West in terms of reaching the NBA Finals.


4. Dallas (Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard): The chemistry will get better as Kidd figures out what he's doing and who can do what. By April, Dirk and Josh and Jason Terry will be getting better shots than they have seen in the last three years.

And that could be enough to overcome the fact this team really hasn't been as sound defensively as previous Avery Johnson teams. I think with Kidd on board, Nowitzki can just relax and do his job and feel less of the burden to carry this team to wherever it can go. That has to help.

3. Utah (Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko): The fact that Boozer is a beast to guard down low, that Williams will challenge Paul for best point guard in the West the next few years and that you could substitute center Mehmut Okur for Kirilenko places the Jazz near the top of the list.

Consider how easily this team dismissed the Warriors after they were flying high from the Dallas series. And that's when the Jazz was getting next to nothing from Kirilenko, who is back on his game now. If not for the Pau Gasol trade, I would rank them No. 2.

2. Los Angeles Lakers (Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom): Since he got a reprieve from Memphis and was given the opportunity to play with Bryant, where he would not be an opponent's No. 1 concern, Gasol is a new man. He's averaging 22 points and seven rebounds a night to give great support to Bryant's 28 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Their game is strong now. They beat the Suns in Phoenix on Wednesday, and they will get better when Andrew Bynum returns to the lineup. The Lakers haven't been able to make a statement in the playoffs since O'Neal left. This year, they will.

1. San Antonio (Duncan, Ginobili, Parker): Maybe it's boring, but the best Big Three in the league remains right at the top of its game. The Spurs have played 22 games without one of these three in place and they remain just off New Orleans' pace at the top of the West.

A lot of people scoffed at me when I said Ginobili could have superstar numbers if he played for a different team. Playing without Parker has afforded him that opportunity, and his averages of 21 points, five rebounds and five assists are about identical to McGrady's. The only thing is he shoots better from the field, from 3 and from the free throw line ... by significant margins.

Parker has plenty of time to get healthy from the ankle injury that caused him to miss 13 games. The Spurs, for all they have done, never have gone back to back, and that is their motivation for this postseason.
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The West is crazy this year and anything can happen, which you can't often say regarding the NBA playoffs. But if the same old thing happens in June, and they have a parade down around the Riverwalk, it shouldn't surprise anyone.

The Mavericks have no shortage of firepower with Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, but it's just one of many potent "Big Threes" among West contenders.

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I find it quite odd (maybe interesting is the word that I want to use here instead of odd) that Rafer Alston was chosen in the Big Three as opposed to Battier who is the one who is typically chosen. Granted that Rafer has been playing well consistently over the last few weeks.

T-Mac and Yao are obviously part of the BIG THREE for the Houston Rockets...who would you pick as the third person in the BIG THREE?

Note: The third person does not necessarily have to be what people call the third scorer.

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I guess it would be fair to put my pick...Currently, I would say Rafer Alston...although potential candidates would also be Scola, Landry, Battier.