The Killer Crossover 4.24.08: Youth Movement

Posted by Todd Spehr on 04.24.2008

The opening half-dozen days of the NBA playoffs taught us many things. Perhaps nothing was louder than the apparent Youth Movement the league is experiencing with Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and a couple of usual suspects, leading the way.

If I had a dollar for every red-faced hoops writer who, before The Greatest Show On Earth – a.k.a. The 2008 NBA Playoffs – actually started, said that Chris Paul's inexperience would be a negative factor in the first-round, then I'd have enough money to have Manu Ginobili "taken care of" prior to Game 3 of the Suns-Spurs series.

By golly, does experience even mean anything anymore?

Here you have a 23-year old PG who has basically taken Steve Nash's game – the probing, the handling, the penetrating, the poise - and remodeled it into a young, athletic, black man's body. That same guy is absolutely incarcerating one of the five greatest point guards (Jason Kidd) that I have ever seen in a two-game exhibition that currently has Paul with 67 points and 27 assists over two games. As for Kidd? Well, let's just say he has less than that.

And believe me, Kidd has had 13 years of hoops compilation to rest on; I'm not going to define him for two games - he just happened to be there when Chris Paul went from "2008 MVP Candidate" to "One of the 15 best to ever play his position" in a matter of 96 minutes.

But here's the thing: Paul is young, he's inexperienced (playoff-wise), he's still practically a kid, and he's playing a position (PG) that is extremely difficult for sub-25-year olds, but he is breathing this rarified air. This is straight out of the LeBron James handbook titled Play Like A Champion While You Still Own A Fake I.D., written sometime during the 2006 playoffs. If it wasn't enough to play the way he did for 82 games this season, Paul has taken a team of rather ordinary proportions (New Orleans) and made them proportional – with the rest of the West's best, that is.

Right now, his two-game tantrum on Kidd, in which he's averaging 33.5 points and 13.5 assists, has him on pace to complete one of the best series' by a PG ever, right up there with Kidd's triple-dipping on the Raptors in '07, Nash's '05 six-game masterpiece on the Mavs, John Stockton's coming-out party in '88 on the Lakers, and Magic's defining moment, as a 20-year old pup, in the '80 Finals with Philly. This could be the series – or postseason on a whole – that brings Paul to that level.

And he's only 22-years old.

And if thinking about Paul playing at this level for the next 12-15 years doesn't have you frothing at the mouth, seeing Dwight Howard's first two games on the Raptors, and multiplying that by 15 years, most certainly would.

Howard is a guy who, with the dimensions of 6'11'', 265 pounds, has endured the questioning of his effort by his coach, a lack of a go-to post-up move, and the rap of basically being considered an after-thought in crunch-time (in favor of Hedo Turkoglu). So how did he respond? By posting back-to-back 20/20 nights, claiming two wins, earning the praise from his hard-to-please coach Stan Van Gundy, and currently holding claim to playoff averages of 27 and 21 on 66% shooting through the opening two games with Toronto.

Just how stupid is that? Well, Howard is the youngest guy to pull the 20/20 and five blocks thing ever in a playoff game, with the previous youngest being Hakeem Olajuwon, who right now is making his arrangements for Hall of Fame induction this summer.

And while it be would nice to continue on raving about those guys, just know the leaders of this FUYGDAT (Freaking Unbelievably Young Guys Doing Amazing Things) brigade – LeBron and Amare Stoudemire – are both working on their own stuff right now. James is averaging 31/7.5/8 (eerily similar to his regular season averages) against the Wiz, while STAT is at 33 a night on Tim Duncan and San Antonio through their two games. By the way, those two have a combined age of 47.

So while Nashy, TD and Shaq are relying on playoff experience, savvy, know-how, and all the other so-called intangibles you can't possibly obtain before the age of 30, just realize that the real story of these playoffs might be the guys who are acquiring all that, in their youth, and putting it under the postseason spotlight. Are you ready for it?

You can read Todd Spehr's NBA column every Wednesday at 411mania.com. To read more of his stuff, check out his recently launched blog "Runnin' The Point," which has daily updates for the NBA playoffs, analyzing every PG who takes the floor.