In CP3′s case, and for DWill too, they often run the offense through West or Boozer. LA can run their offense through Gasol or Kobe. Boston can run their offense through KG or Peirce (Ray Allen is used more as a guy who scores off other players setting up the play). The Suns run their offense though no one in particular.

But when I watch Dallas play, they don’t run their offense through Dirk. Not when Kidd is on the floor anyway. They mainly just give Dirk isolation plays. The same is true for the Nuggets. They don’t run their offense through ‘Mello when Chauncey is on the floor, except for isolation. For those two teams you’d say that Dirk and ‘Mello are easily the single best players on those teams.

So I guess it depends on the style of play, as to who it is that runs the team.

I find it fascinating to see how the offense operates when it is expected to run through a point guard. When AI was in Denver and the offense ran through him, it was definitely a score through AI mentality. Now that Chauncey runs the offense, the whole team improves, yet Chauncey can score in bunches. Poor Detroit is winning without AI playing. The Spurs are another example. They run their offense through their guards Parker and Ginobli. They do run a lot of their offense through Duncan too, of course. But Parker and Ginobli are scoring guards, like AI, but the Spurs win.

I guess the common theme is that team who can run their offense through more than one player (Gasol/Kobe, KG/Peirce, Duncan/Parker-Ginobli) win championships, and it’s not the most common for the point guard to be a scoring point guard on championship teams.

As for the Thunder, I see us set Kevin up for isolation more than I see us run the offense through him. We run the offense through Jeff or Krstic just as much as anyone, running them through pick and rolls, or pick and pops. You see Green get an isolation from time to time, but not as often as Durant.

I think if RW ever develops an outside shot that other teams fear, we’ll see him run the show. You can run picks and screens for Kevin much more effectively if the defense has to come out of it’s sag to guard the 3. If RW can dictate what the defense can do, he can choose who the offense is run through, rather than waiting for an isolation, or a pick and roll.

Durant is the single best player on the team. His mere presence on the court changes the way teams defend the Thunder. Add in that he still tears up the competition while facing the stiffest defense and that he has come a long way in making his teammates better as well, and it’s not hard to see why Westbrook doesn’t get that title.

Also, we can’t just pretend to overlook the fact that Rose was picked 1st overall and plays for a team with zero stars. He’s going to be called a lot of things, whether deserving or not.

We heard that a lot during Chris Paul’s rookie season, about how he and DWill in Utah were both working to establish their leadership style and eventually earn the trust of their teammates and take ownership of the team. You can see CP3 and DWill acting as the floor generals for their team, and how anything that happens on the offensive end starts with them.

You hear people say the same thing about Rose. How the team is built around his talents, and how he leads that team, how the Bulls are “his team” now.

But you never hear it with RW. I’ve always assumed it’s because Durant is the one everyone talks about when they say the Thunder is “his team”. It makes sense that a team would defer to it’s point guard to run the show, like Rose, CP3, DWill and the like, but it seems people don’t view RW as running the show.

Of course, Mayo isn’t a point guard, and he gets none of the “his team” talk either.

So is it that people don’t see RW as a point guard, but more of a shooting guard like Mayo, or is it that people don’t see RW as “owning” the team because of Kevin Durant?

I don’t have a problem with this. ;)