Royce Webb from ESPN.com wrote:
Three years from now, who will be the best player in the notorious Joe Johnson trade? Will it be Johnson, who will have developed his fine talents in the obscurity of Atlanta? Will it be one of the two first-round draft picks -- lottery picks, no doubt -- the Suns received from the Hawks? Or will it be Boris Diaw, the player the Hawks handed the Suns to seal the deal?
The surprising answer is becoming clearer during every Suns game. As Diaw, the drive-and-dish specialist with the Mensa-level basketball I.Q., continues to grow in confidence, he is showing a very rare set of skills that have us searching for the right comparison.
Or, to put it another way: Maybe it's just me, but if I'm running the worst team in basketball, I don't give away an athletic, 23-year-old, 6-8 guy who can do a reasonable impersonation of Magic Johnson.
Is Boris Diaw really another Magic? Of course not. Not yet, anyway.
For one thing, there is no one else like Magic Johnson. For another, Magic had the ball in his hands all the time, as the point guard for one of the greatest teams ever. And, perhaps most significant, Diaw's personality is passive and Kareem-style cool, whereas Magic was an effervescent leader who had the same effect on the staid Lakers of the late '70s that Steve Nash did on the Suns in 2004-05.
But, then again, how many guys can even be in the sentence with Magic?
In Atlanta, Diaw had a big problem. He could get into the lane at will, but he wouldn't or couldn't finish at the basket -- he preferred to look for a teammate on almost every drive. He had, as John Hollinger noted, an "inability to score," largely because he was "almost comically unselfish."
The Hawks, as dumb teams do, focused on what he couldn't do. The Suns, as smart teams do, saw what he could do.
So, in a genius move that probably only Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni would try, they took the point guard and made him a center. (This is where the Magic comparisons start to make a little more sense, if you recall Magic playing the post in the 1980 Finals or during his 1996 comeback.)
Diaw's got some work to do to reach his peak. His shot is flat, which costs him a potential weapon in the Suns' run-and-gun offense.
Also, he needs to finish stronger. He can drive past almost anyone, with his long, smooth strides. (It's not his first step that gets you, it's his third, when he turns the corner and swoops in for a layup or draws the help defender and makes the dish.) But he tends to still look to pass or flip the ball up instead of dunking it when he approaches the rim.
Sunday night, the Suns started to see signs that he's getting it, and fast. He tried a power slam on a drive in the first quarter, drawing a foul. In the second quarter, he followed a Suns miss with an Amare-like one-hand rebound jam, and in the third, he rolled to the basket for a convincing two-hand throwdown. If that's what Diaw's finishes of the future look like, watch out.
Because otherwise he's got the total game. He guards power forwards and centers routinely, shutting down the 'Sheeds and Yaos of the world. He grabs boards and starts the break (though, unlike Magic, he doesn't often lead the break, given that the Suns have Nash). And he has eyes on all sides of his head and the imagination and passing touch to match.
On Sunday, in his return to Phoenix, Joe Johnson played a very respectable game (23 points on 9-for-16 shooting, with an assist and two rebounds), especially considering the boos from the stands and the utter lack of help on the floor from the hapless Hawks. It certainly wasn't his fault the Hawks were blown out, trailing by 36 on the way to a 112-94 loss.
But it was Diaw's nifty play and the efficiency of his stat line -- 5-for-6 FGs, 4-for-5 FTs, nine assists, four boards, four blocks -- that bring us back to the original question: Which team got the best player in the trade?
Glad he can finally show the NBA what he can do...
what do U guys think about it ?
