Boost or bust? Young season offers insight

Ira Winderman

By its nature the pro game moves faster. Twenty-four seconds per possession. Back-to-back sets. Eighty-two games jammed into five and a half months.

So is two weeks into a season too early for snap judgments?

Not in the NBA. The sample size already is tangible.

Some of the early season boosts have been surprising, as have some of the busts.

In a league of momentum, don’t discount the start as having a way of setting up the finish.

Boost: Ben Wallace
Typically, these types of reunions tend to sour quickly, with age taking the edge off what once was there. The difference with the Pistons is that expectations were minimal. Wallace never was expected to re-emerge as the starting center. Yet there he is, a stabilizing presence in the starting lineup, providing his typical rebounding and even blocking shots. No, he's not the Ben Wallace of the start of the decade, but he is more than Kwame Brown and Chris Wilcox in the middle.

Bust: Allen Iverson
And then there is the reach of trying to recreate the magic of the past, at least the marketing magic. While Wallace has been smart enough to stay out of the way of progress in Detroit, Iverson only could say the right things upon his arrival in Memphis. Then the games began and Iverson couldn't fall in line behind Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo, accept the reserve role that Wallace was willing to accept. The Iverson signing never made sense for Iverson or the Grizzlies.

Boost: Brandon Jennings
No, no one quite saw this one coming. The preps-to-pros pipeline long had been fueled with question marks, let alone a prep prodigy who skirted NBA rules by spending a mostly unproductive season overseas. But with his quickness and guile, Jennings has proven to be the real deal in Milwaukee, a T.J. Ford type without the injury history. In the end, it was a brilliant draft gambit by John Hammond at No. 10.

Bust: Joe Alexander
Of course, not all Hammond has touched has turned to gold. Last year, the Bucks went for uber-athletic West Virginia forward Alexander with the No. 8 overall selection. What they got was a 59-game injury-riddled season that offered little insight into the future. With Alexander now injured again, Milwaukee bypassed Alexander's 2010-11 option. That will make Alexander an unrestricted free agent next summer and likely another team's project.

Boost: Quentin Richardson
For most of the offseason, the journeyman swingman must have felt as if he was caught in a never-ending loop of the infamous Seinfeld "Re-gifting" episode, going from the Knicks to the Grizzlies to the Clippers to the Timberwolves and finally to the Heat. Yet Richardson has emerged not only as the surprise starter at small forward in Miami, but a solid defender and rebounder, providing the type of value never offered by the faulty label-maker in that Seinfeld episode.

Bust: Fabricio Oberto
Speaking of re-gifting, then there is the curious case of Fabricio Oberto, who ended last season with the Spurs and then was passed through the Bucks and Pistons before settling in with the Wizards. Asked merely to keep the power forward spot warm until Antawn Jamison's return, Fabricio has been mostly uneven and inconsequential in his starting role, as Washington has stumbled out of the gates.

Boost: Jamal Crawford
Rather than leave themselves at the mercy of Flip Murray's free-agent decision, the Hawks got busy in June, peddling Speedy Claxton and Acie Law to the Warriors for the certainty of Jamal Crawford's scoring. While there were concerns about Crawford adapting to a bench role, the boost has been tangible as a No. 2 scorer to Joe Johnson.

Bust: Andre Miller
And then you have the headstrong offseason acquisition. Miller made such a fuss of suddenly being cast as a reserve, that coach Nate McMillan's hand became forced into trying Miller in a hybrid lineup alongside Steve Blake. Yes, it's working now, but is small forward where you truly want to cast Brandon Roy? From the get-go this signing was confounding, as if the Blazers were looking to sign anyone after Hedo Turkoglu turning his back on what appeared to be a verbal agreement.

Boost: Ty Lawson
Sometimes good things do come in small packages. While many wrote off the North Carolina point guard because of his stature, the Nuggets got a considerable boost from the No. 18 overall selection amid J.R. Smith's suspension. Suddenly, there is more behind Chauncey Billups than the mere steadiness of Anthony Carter.

Bust: Hasheem Thabeet
And sometimes good things don't come in big packages. Yes, Marc Gasol has gotten off to a solid start. And yes, Zach Randolph can also handle minutes in the middle. But the way the Grizzlies have been utilizing Thabeet, it's as if they're trying to hide the No. 2 pick in last June's draft. Well, what do you know, Memphis drafted a one-dimensional prospect and he is turning out to be a one-dimensional player. Shocking.

Boost: Aaron Brooks
The team that features the smallest starting point guard and the smallest starting center in the league is remaining afloat because Brooks is more than a flash in the pan. After all the point guards the Rockets have gone through in recent years, they have unearthed a true game-changer in Brooks.

Bust: Nate Robinson
Well, there's always the dunking contest. Not only did Robinson fail to cash in as a restricted free agent this summer, but the novelty act appears to be wearing thin. The shots aren't dropping, the turnovers are up, injuries are a concern and the novelty, frankly, has worn off.

Boost: Rajon Rondo
When the deadline for a contract extension off the rookie scale arrived, the Celtics and Rondo smartly reached an agreement to continue the partnership. For all the veteran talent assembled by the Celtics, Rondo might be the most irreplaceable member of the roster. While there were tensions at last June's draft amid trade rumors, this is a union that needs to endure.

Bust: Rudy Gay
Gay also had an opportunity to lock in an extension at the rookie-scale deadline. Instead, there was a wide-eyed vision of a $12 million annual salary, a viewpoint hardly shared by Memphis management. Instead, Gay well could be peddled by the trading deadline or left to loiter in next summer's free-agency pool. Not only did Gay lose out on guaranteed cash, but the Grizzlies lost any opportunity to gain a much-needed foothold to some sort of stability.

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