The Best Young Duos in the NBA

by Ben Golliver on Mar 23, 2008 6:49 PM PDT in News

Last week during a post-game press conference, Blazers coach Nate McMillan was asked, "Do you think Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge are the best young duo in the NBA right now?" Nate paused for awhile, mulling over the options, and ended up concluding that, yes, he did believe our young tandem was in fact the finest in the league.

Of course, asking Nate this question was akin to asking Bill Clinton's opinion on the best presidential candidate. This is not to imply that Nate's opinion carries any extra bias but he does spend 24/7 with these guys for about 8 months a year and he has built his offense entirely around them. Of course he has a dog in the fight.

As a writer for this site, I clearly have a dog in this one too, but I thought it would make for a healthy discussion. So, on we go to determine...

Which team has the best young duo in the NBA right now?

A few parameters. For our purposes:

"Young" is taken to mean a player that is roughly 25 years or younger (born in 1983 - present).
"Best Duo" is taken to mean the combined value of two players rather than the outstanding brilliance of one player and the passable skill of a tag-a-long.
"Right Now" is taken to mean playing games this season. Sorry, Greg Oden is off limits for this discussion.

Without further ado, I scanned each of the team's rosters at Yahoo! Sports. In my opinion, about 1/3 of the teams didn't have a duo worth mentioning but most teams did. I divided the worthy selections into a number of groups. First up...

The "Unbalanced Duos."

This category features some of the best players in the league, regardless of age, MVP candidates included. However, their best young running mate leaves a lot to be desired.

Cavs: LeBron James and Daniel Gibson. One could argue that LBJ by himself is the best young duo in the NBA. In fact, scanning the rest of the selections, I think most teams would probably trade their top 2 young players for James without thinking too long or too hard. However, we are looking for the best duo, and for once a "Booby" doesn't take home first prize. Terrible pun, my bad.

Hornets: Chris Paul and Julian Wright. Really, this one was Chris Paul and whoever else is under 25 on his team and, unfortunately, Tyson Chandler just missed the cut. The Hornets become the first major victirm of the semantics of this exercise as Paul and Chandler very well might be the best "young" duo if you stretch the working definition by a year.

Magic: Dwight Howard and JJ Redick. Pretty much the same situation as King James' Cavs except the Magic's roster is just about devoid on young talent outside of Superman. Let's keep it moving.

76ers: Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young. I love the new AI but Thaddeus' 7 points and 4 boards on a weak roster in a weak conference don't get the blood pumping.

Nets: Devin Harris and Sean Williams. Harris is one of the top young prospects at point guard (coveted by a number of teams) but his running mates on the Nets are mostly forgettable. Sean Williams has shown some promise but not enough just yet.

Kings: Kevin Martin and Spencer Hawes. These two are on here because Kevin Martin never gets enough recognition and Spencer Hawes is a unique individual. Otherwise, they were not carefully considered.

Our second group is the...

"Not Quite There Yets."

This group includes promising young duos that have the potential to be elite combos in the (near) future, but still require some seasoning.

Sonics: Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. I love Green; I really love Durant but the Sonics' record belies this duo's meaningful impact upon NBA games. With 3 years to go before either turns 25, they will be a mainstay on lists like this for years to come.

Lakers: Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar. Bonus points for these 2 for playing on such a successful team, however a different duo (Kobe and Pau) is responsible for the wins. Bynum seems to be developing a more total game down low; Farmar has the moxey and jumper to be an asset for a long time. Unfortunately, neither may get his proper due until Mr. Bryant moves on to retirement.

Our third group is known as...

"The Knicks."

Knicks: David Lee and Nate Robinson. Nate's huge game against the Blazers was incredible. David Lee is often mentioned as the last remaining asset with trade value on the Knicks roster. However, the Knicks are the Knicks and it's impossible to assess the relative value of talent on this team so they will get their own category.

OK, with all the riff-raff out of the way we are down to the top 10. I've split them into two groups. First, we have the...

"Honorable Mentions."

These duos have already put up some serious production and logged big time minutes in the league this season (and perhaps in seasons past), however their combined contributions don't influence games to the same degree as the top five.

Bucks: Bogut (13.6 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 2.6 apg, 1.8 bpg) and Villanueva (10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg). Personally I think both these guys are soft, but their numbers are pretty good. Last place in the honorable mention category seems about right.
Grizzlies: Rudy Gay (19.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.5 spg) and Mike Conley (8.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 4.3 apg). If not for their team's terrible record (and their franchise's pitiful owner) these two might have been higher on the board. Conley's numbers suffer because he shares time at the point with Lowry. Rudy Gay suffers because they print his last name on the back of his jersey and he plays in Tennessee. If Conley sticks around (doubtful), these guys could be rising.
Twolves: Al Jefferson (21.1 ppg. 11.6 rpg, 1.0 spg, 1.5 bpg) and Rashad McCants (15.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.3 apg). Al Jefferson is a beast, one of the top 2 big men (along with Chris Bosh) listed in the top 10 duos. However, McCants doesn't do much well except shoot the rock and the Timberwolves lose points for losing so many games.
Jazz: Williams (19.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 10.3 apg, 1.1 spg) and Ronnie Brewer (12.0 ppg, 2.9 rpg). Williams is neck-and-neck with Paul for best young point guard prospect and is probably personally responsible for 10 of Brewer's 12 points a game. If Brewer takes a leap in years to come, watch out for these two.
Bulls: Luol Deng (17.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.0 spg) and Ben Gordon (19.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 3.0 apg). Big numbers, big postseason production and big upside, these two just missed the top 5. Had the Bulls put together the campaign everyone thought they would this year, Deng and Gordon might have been a spot or two higher.

Finally, we have it, our last group...

"The Top 5 Young Duos in the NBA."

Warriors: Monta Ellis (19.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.3 spg) and Andres Biedrins (9.9 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg). Their stock went soaring during last year's playoffs and nothing this season has given anyone reason to question these two building blocks. Ellis in particular looks like a future all-star while Biedrens fits perfectly into the Nelly-ball system. It will be interesting to see if these two are able to continue their production should Nelson choose to retire.
Raptors: Chris Bosh (22.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 1.0 bpg) and TJ Ford (11.8 ppg, 5.7 apg, 1.1 spg). Bosh leads the league in Youtube views and can be counted on for consistent production; Ford finds himself in a battle for the point guard spot with Calderon. The Raptors would be wise to stick with the younger Ford, allowing this tandem to grow together (and fulfilling the wishes of 85% of BlazersEdge.com's readers by sending Calderon to Portland).
Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony (25.4 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.1 spg) and Linus Kleiza (11.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg). At first glance, you might think these two are a better fit in the "Unbalanced Duos" group above. However, don't sleep on Linus, there are good reasons everyone wanted him at the trade deadline: he works hard, gets his points, and plays smart. Melo, well, he's Melo.. best individual player in the top 10 of this list and its not close.
Hawks: Josh Smith (17.3 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.6 spg, 2.9 bpg) and Al Horford (9.8 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.0 bpg). Yes, these 2 lose points for playing in the weaker Eastern conference and, yes, they are collectively outscored by Anthony and Kleiza. However, Horford has been a legitimate ROY candidate by averaging right on a double-double and Josh Smith's freakish abilities to dunk from half-court, block shots in transition and win your fantasy league for you earn the young Hawks the number two rating on this list. What's even scarier? Marvin Williams also qualifies as an under-25 stud. Sure, Hawks management will screw this up, but for now the potential is a beautiful thing.
Blazers: Brandon Roy (19.7 ppg, 4.9 rbg. 5.6 apg, 1.1 spg) and LaMarcus Aldridge (17.9 ppg, 7.4 rbg, 1.3 bpg). So after an hour and a half of reading, writing and statistical comparison, we came to the same conclusion that Nate did in about 20 seconds? Wonderful. The virtues of our top two players are well-known and by this point you can probably recite them line and verse. Brandon is a do-it-all All Star with crunch time cojones and a sick crossover. LaMarcus has a pretty jumper, a brand-new jump hook, and, according to his coach, "unlimited potential." Both he and Brandon will only benefit with the addition of Greg Oden next year. After conducting the above exercise, I feel more than comfortable anointing our top two "The Best Young Duo in the NBA."

So, now that that's done, where did I screw up? Who is too high? Who is too low? Weigh in with your opinions in the comments.

--Ben (Benjamin.Golliver@gmail.com)

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Comments

You didn't screw up

Except perhaps to not give LMA enough credit for working to develop his post game. Remember the beginning of the season? LMA in the post was something we thought would develop in a year or two and that Oden would certainly help him along.

He's officially a beast right now. Plus he can run. Plus he can pass out of the double team. He's twice the player he was the first game of this season.

by bubba on Mar 23, 2008 6:57 PM PDT reply actions

Soon...

we'll have the best young TRIO in the NBA, by far.

by jksnake99 on Mar 23, 2008 7:07 PM PDT reply actions

One small mistake

I would put the Hawks at number six, and expand the list to 15. That way, you can leave blank spots for numbers 5 through 2 in order to show how far away R.O.Y. and LMA are from the pack.

Trade Freeland!

by rockingharder on Mar 23, 2008 7:50 PM PDT reply actions

I would have changed the T'Wolves duo

How about Jefferson and Foye instead of McCants. I know McCants scores a bit more but it seems like Foye is more of a featured player there. If you can say that.

by BlazerD on Mar 23, 2008 7:53 PM PDT reply actions

drats

I forgot to include this in my post right below yours.

I would put Gomes and maybe even Telfair and Brewer (for his D) ahead of McCants as well. All those guys are 25-and-under.

Telfair is a year and half younger than Foye, and is better right now. Telfair has quietly started to fulfill the promise he showed in high school (though he still can't shoot).

Anyway, I think every single person on the Wolves aside from Jefferson fits into the 'role player' category, which sort of disqualifies them from being part of a duo.

by matthewcc on Mar 23, 2008 8:08 PM PDT up reply actions

gomes or foye i understand

telfair and brewer no way, at least not right now. especially brewer.

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by Ben Golliver on Mar 23, 2008 11:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Semantics

I think that line should have been a little less hard. Chandler, for example, was born in '82, but he's only 25 and won't be 26 until next season.

Leandro Barbosa (16.3 ppg) and Amare Stoudemire (24.6 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 2.2 bpg) are both 25. Neither will be 26 until next season is under way.

Bucks point guard Mo Williams and (with his 18 points, 6.5 assists per game) won't be 26 until next season, either. You can swap him for Villanueva and you have Williams/Bogut.

That one arbitrary distinction I think was made to put Roy and Aldridge at #1.

Both the Suns and Hornets currently have better 25-and-under duos. But our young guys are are quite a bit younger than their young guys and have maybe more room to grow.

by matthewcc on Mar 23, 2008 8:03 PM PDT reply actions

ahh

i got a little sloppy with the 25 year old cutoff. essentially i subtracted 2008-1983 and went with it.

the idea was that your nba life up to 25 is generally seen in one light, while your post-25 life is viewed as a second stage of your career.

asssembling this list reinforced to me how many amazing talents still haven't hit 25.

also, i liked the round number.

i wasn't intentionally designed to screw over the hornets or suns...

all of that said, how do you rate the top five if you include those two?

I have: 1) Suns, 2) Hornets, 3) Blazers, 4) Hawks, 5) Nuggets?

Do you have something different?

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by Ben Golliver on Mar 23, 2008 11:03 PM PDT up reply actions

same top 4, different order

I have 1) Hornets 2) Suns 3) Blazers 4) Atlanta and 5) Grizzlies

Paul is maybe the 3rd best player in the league already, and maybe its because of that that Chandler seems to have really figured it all out, but he's become a pretty good center. The Suns are very, very close, however. I mean, is difference between Barbosa and Paul greater than the distance between Amare and Chandler? Probably not.

I put the Grizzlies higher because at 21, Gay is already a fantastic player and Conley has shown flashes of being a top 5 point guard in a few years. Conley is also only 20 years old and is a pass-first point guard. I think the transition for score-first combo guards like Mayo and Gordon will be smoother. But point guards are like quarterback: some like Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Peyton Manning, and Dan Marino can just step in and play at a high level early. But some of the very best - Tony Parker, Steve Nash, Steve Young, Brett Favre - needed some time to develop. Conley has similar first-year stats to Parker, and without the benefit of David Robinson, Steve Smith, Bruce Bowen and Tim Duncan.

I think the Blazers should go hard after Conley this offseason, especially if the Grizzlies get a top 2 pick and want to keep Derrick Rose in Memphis. We'll have so many guys who can/need to score that a distributing PG is important.

And I didn't actually think you were fudging to get the Blazers in, it was just a little needling. Its the nature of dealing with sports statistics (is there really a difference between a 21 and 9 power forward and a 20 and 10 pf?) that you have to cut it off somewhere. If you're going to let in someone born November 1982 like I did, why not May 1982 (Tony Parker)? You could keep doing that up until you eventually hit Bruce Bowen.

by matthewcc on Mar 24, 2008 5:53 AM PDT up reply actions

Experience and Age a negative?

Generally, when comparing young talents in the NBA you hear "upside" "Raw" and "potential". The older a player gets, and the more he does or doesn't do takes away from that.

Like Amare Stoudamire, who didn't make the cut but you wanted included. Amare vs. LMA is a pretty easy one if you are just saying right now. LMA is 3 years younger and 4 seasons less experienced. Sure, Amare is going to be more tantalizing this year. Tyson Chandler is a better post player now that LMA is, but when LMA is 25... I think it will be clear that you would rather have LMA over Chandler.

Allowing that age to get to "25" includes all young players who have AND have yet to break out. Tough call, but I still would rather have All-Star Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge over the Suns and Hornets, and everybody else.

by Scotty the Mastermind on Mar 24, 2008 1:43 PM PDT up reply actions

Hopefully this gets Truehoop'd

and we get a non-Blazer homer opinion or two. In my homer opinion though, I can't argue with the Blazers taking the op spot.

The idea of LeBron straight up for Roy/Aldridge is intriguing though. Using Bill Simmons trade value system... I don't think either team would pull the trigger, but Cleavland would immediately say "there's no freakin way we're trading LeBron" while the Blazers would at least say "wait, you mean he's available?" before turning it down. It's scary how good LeBron is.

by Gargen on Mar 23, 2008 8:05 PM PDT reply actions

Greg and Lebron

Ohhhh....I couldn't do it to LmA and Brandon.

by Sabonis4Ever on Mar 23, 2008 9:17 PM PDT up reply actions

Would the Cavs take

Roy and Greg?

Oden '08 Worth the Wait

by JTDuck22 on Mar 23, 2008 9:29 PM PDT up reply actions

Does Rudy count?

What if you had to choose between Oden and Rudy on one team and Aldridge and Roy on the other? Which will it be?

Oh, but you say that you don't have to choose? Can they all be on the court together?

Nature bats last.

by fisheyes on Mar 23, 2008 9:39 PM PDT reply actions

I'm not sure

I'd guarantee the Blazers end up the best of all of those duos. However I have a decent feeling they're going to be among the winningest of all of those duos.

--Dave

by Dave on Mar 23, 2008 10:12 PM PDT reply actions

To be fair to the Sixers...

I think the AI - Thaddeus combo deserves some more attention. Although Young's season averages are rather paltry, he was barely given any playing time at the beginning of the season. Since the All-Star break (and a little before, if you look at his monthly splits), he has been a pretty solid contributor, and has hung up some pretty great games. When he was drafted, folks thought he was a long-term project (think younger Trout: super athlete, super raw), but his game has blossomed a bit earlier than anyone could have reasonably expected. He could be really good with a starting spot next year, and I bet his play would really surprise anyone who bothers to tune in to the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs this year.

That said, the Sixers belong in the top 10, and nowhere close to Roy and Aldridge. To echo other sentiments here, Roy is transcendent, and Aldridge has really turned it up a notch in the past month. As a fan who sports the #12 jersey, I have been super thrilled with LMA recently.

by BRich on Mar 23, 2008 10:41 PM PDT reply actions

point taken

where would you slot the sixers into the top 10 RIGHT NOW?

and, also, where do you see them this time next year?

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by Ben Golliver on Mar 23, 2008 11:05 PM PDT up reply actions

Well...

I guess they bump the Bucks out and slot in right there at number 10. In my estimation, FWIW.

by BRich on Mar 23, 2008 11:50 PM PDT up reply actions

And as for next year...

...for the Sixers, it's hard to say. Young's progress to date is ahead of schedule; either he builds on his solid second half and parlays it into a sophomore campaign similar to Trout's 07-08 (good, sometimes great 6th man), or this year has just shown a few flashes in the pan and he struggles to establish any kind of consistency or role on the team. Given that it's the Sixers we're talking about, I can only think of similarly "promising" under-25 campaigns for players that have yet to really take the next step (Kyle Korver, Willie Green, Samuel Dalembert, Louis Williams).

In other words, I think that they're good enough to be a Top-10 "young tandem" this year, but I am not betting on them leapfrogging anyone next year - especially with some of the teams immediately ahead and behind adding some talent through the draft this summer.

by BRich on Mar 24, 2008 12:00 AM PDT up reply actions

I would put Bynum and Farmer higher

on the list. The Lakers were winning before Pau got there and we've all seen how bad the L*kers are when it's only the Kobe show.

I also agree with matthewcc that Suns and Hornets have better duos.

I would put Chicago's duo higher also. Deng has been out most of the year with injuries.

Nuggets duo is way too high. Linus hasn't proven that he can do anything except shoot from the perimeter.

Orlando, I would team Jameer Nelson with Howard instead of Reddick.

Bobcats: Hey, what about Okafur and Morrison...never mind.

by Blazerholic on Mar 23, 2008 10:53 PM PDT reply actions

i'll take the bait...

if we are talking right now...

Lakers: you've got to take points off for the bynum injury, although he has played very well this season. but both these players, in the absence of Bryant, aren't putting up those kinds of numbers. the Blazers definitely don't have anyone of Bryant's calibre, the Hawks do have Joe Johnson, the Nuggets do have Iverson, but I think both of those tandems are more important to their team than tha Lakers' tandem. Right now...
Deng: Same as Bynum... dinged for injuries...
Nuggets: Linus is a baller but this one was all about Melo. He is one of the few indisputable under-25 franchise players, that's got to count from something, no?
Nelson is 26 years old or he would have been included in JJ's place. another victim of semantics. where would you put Orlando if we stretched it for him? Top 3? I would probably have them in the third slot pushing the Nuggets down 1 and the rest to follow. Maybe the 2nd slot... but that's pushing Nelson's value to me. Howard of course is a monster.

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by Ben Golliver on Mar 23, 2008 11:12 PM PDT up reply actions

Chris Wilcox

Chris Wilcox has higher stats than Jeff Green and is still 25. I think Jeff Green's future looks brighter and he'll make a perfect wingman to Durant, but since we're talking about right now, I would say Durant and Wilcox are Seattle's current young duo.

by bocious on Mar 23, 2008 11:44 PM PDT reply actions

I'm not entirely sure about PHX

Do Amare and Leandro really rank higher than Brandon and LaMonster? I think that one is very close, though obviously our guys are much younger than they are. CP3 and Chandler are good too. To be honest I have a hard picking the best of those three.

Very nice post, Ben. This should be Truehooped, I'd like to get some more input in here.

by BlazerD on Mar 24, 2008 5:29 AM PDT reply actions

Another look, through PER

Looking at the top 50 in PER, the best pairs would be the Raptors (Bosh 9, Ford 31), Blazers (Roy 32, Aldridge 39), and Warriors (Monta 41, Andris 47), in that order. That is with the arbitrary cut-off of the top 50 players, according to PER, but without the arbitrary cut-off of 1983. I am surprised to see that neither Barbosa nor Chandler made the top-50 cutoff.

It's odd, in a way, because I thought PER was the kind of metric that valued guys like Chandler (high FG%, high rebounding rates) very highly and devalued players like Aldridge (shoots under 50% from the field, not an outstanding rebounder). Case in point: Carl Landry makes the top 10. I like looking at PER from time to time for some perspective, but I wish I knew more about what made it tick.

by BRich on Mar 24, 2008 5:16 PM PDT reply actions

It is interesting to look ahead

(agreeing with your analysis) and project the Blazers as having the #1 duo still and perhaps the #2 duo as well with GO and Rudy! Small wonder the NBA is scrambling to get their rings this year.

by lee3022 on Mar 24, 2008 9:30 PM PDT reply actions