CP3 Ain’t My MVP

Chris Paul did prove something this season: Namely that he is still at least a year away from being a full fledged MVP. While Paul had one of the best seasons for a point guard in the history of the NBA he is not quite ready to will his team to the championship. After Kobe delivered the dagger to Utah in game 6 on the road, and Lebron almost single handedly beat Boston’s big 3 on the road, with one of the great game 7 playoff performances of all time, CP3 failed to live up to top billing in his own building in his own game 7.

Paul finished the game with 18 points and 14 assists; however, he was nowhere to be seen in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. The Hornets went down by double figures heading into the fourth and Paul’s backup, journeyman Jannero Pargo ended up turning up the tempo and scoring on numerous big shots to bring the Hornets within 3 in the final two minutes. But that is as close as they got. In fact, Pargo was torching the Spurs so badly that they ended up putting

All-World defender Bruce Bowen on Pargo instead of Paul or sharpshooter

Peja Stojakovic. Can someone say contract year?

In the final minutes Tony Parker hit a midrange jumper and Manu Ginobili flushed the Hornets’ dreams with clutch free throw shooting down the stretch. Chris Paul definitely deserves a shot to be the starting point guard on the USA Basketball team this summer, however, he will have to wait another year for a chance at a ring. This all leaves me with one last question…..Why is Tim Duncan not in the top 5 in MVP voting every season?

NBA Star/Rapper Look Alikes

Kenyon Martin

Method Man

Gerald Green Juvenile

Baron Davis Kanye West

Rodney Stuckey 50-Cent

LeBron James needs a new Ferry Godmother.

Danny Ferry might even be a worse GM than he was a player. Danny Ferry honestly needs a clue. At the end of the 2004 NBA season the Cavaliers offered Ferry the opportunity to become the NBA's youngest general manager and build a winning team -- with the NBA's would-be king, LeBron James (who happened to be from Akron, Ohio, just outside Cleveland) , and $28 million in salary cap space. He had the opportunity to build around the best prospect since Kobe Bryant and have absolute control of the rest of the roster. Instead of capitalizing on this, he gave Lebron little to nothing to work with, and he will be extremely fortunate if Jay-Z doesn’t snag LeBron during free agency in 2010 and bring him to Brooklyn to star for his soon to be Brooklyn Nets.

Since becoming the GM of the Cavs, Ferry has signed Larry Hughes to a $12,000,000 contract, Zydrunas Illgauskas to a $10,000,000 and Drew Gooden to a $6,500,000 contract, and let promising center DeSegana Diop go to Dallas for nothing in return. He wasted draft picks Shannon Brown and Luke Jackson and then traded his two of his biggest signee’s Gooden and Hughes along with Brown in order to Acquire forwards-centers Ben Wallace and Joe Smith and a 2009 second-round pick from the Chicago Bulls and guard-forward Wally Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the Seattle SuperSonics in a three-team trade.

Lets look back at that trade: The centerpiece: the corpse of Ben Wallace. At this point he is a destitute man’s version of Anderson Varajeo. Wallace has nothing left, except of course 3 YEARS and $16,000,000 on his contract. I kid you not, the former 3 time defensive player of the year averaged 3 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 block in the post season this year. Wait, what did Kwame Brown average for the Lakers in the series versus Phoenix last year you ask? Yup, a slightly better 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 block. OUCH!! Maybe Memphis's Chris Wallace isnt the worst gm in the NBA.

The second major piece of the trade was the shell of Wally Szczerbiak. If his postseason averages of 12 points, with 2 rebounds and 2 assists aren’t bad enough, that’s cause I haven’t yet said that he shot 38% from the field and 33% from downtown. Wait, didn’t they already have Sasha Pavlovic who is younger, a better shooter, passer, and defender? You got me. I guesss Ferry liked his abs.

The last two parts of the trade, Joe Smith and Delonte West, gave the Cavs at least a little bit more bang for the buck, but unfortunately for Ferry these two are clearly not gonna get Lebron over the top. The King scored 45 points in game 7 on the road against Boston, but the rest of the team could only manage 47. I feel your pain Lebron.

And to make matters worse they also have Eric Snow on the books for 2 years at 7 million a year, and Damon Jones for another 2 years at 4 million. I know, they make a combined 10 million a season, and they managed a total of 1 point per game, COMBINED in the postseason. Once again, all you can say is OUCH.

While neither Gooden or Hughes is a star, they at least combined to score 23 points a game last playoffs and give 12 rebounds. With no major relief coming in the form of draft picks (they have this years 19th pick) or cap space, James will be forced to sit and wait as Big Ben’s fro turns grey and Szczerbiak continues to decline. Its not fair what Ferry is doing to Lebron. Lebron has single handedly gotten his team to the NBA Finals and has done the most with the least talent i have ever seen. But I will tell you this much. Teams would be smart to start clearing cap space for the 2010 offseason. Lebron might be too big and too good for the state of Ohio.