Bulls Are Latest Team to Struggle to Find the One

Before John Paxson, the Chicago Bulls' vice president of basketball operations, does what many around the league expect, and selects Memphis point guard and Chicago native Derrick Rose as the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft on Thursday, Michael Beasley would like to offer four words of advice that might make him reconsider.

"Look at the playoffs," Beasley said recently in a phone interview.

Beasley's point is that while point guards Chris Paul and Deron Williams emerged as stars this postseason, the teams with great forwards (Detroit's Rasheed Wallace, Boston's Kevin Garnett, San Antonio's Tim Duncan and the Lakers' Pau Gasol) -- and not great point guards -- advanced to the conference finals, with Garnett eventually winning the NBA title.

Beasley, a District native who tore up the Big 12 in his lone season with Kansas State, said he would one day like to be mentioned among that class of forwards. But he doesn't care if the career path begins in Chicago or in Miami, where the Heat hold the No. 2 overall selection.

"Whether I'm one or two, I wouldn't be mad either way," he said.

For the second year in a row, there is an intense debate over which freshman phenom should be the top pick, with one of the principal players involved hailing from the Washington era. Last summer, the Portland Trail Blazers had to choose between Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, in a debate that came down to the Blazers picking a potential franchise-changing center (Oden) over an explosive scoring forward (Durant). This time around, the Bulls have to decide between a potential franchise-changing point guard (Rose) and an explosive scoring forward (Beasley).

"I think it's a difficult choice," said Brian Hagen, New Orleans Hornets' assistant to the general manager, in a telephone interview. "With Rose, you're going to get a point guard that can push it and create tempo for your team and get other players involved. With Beasley, you are going to get a guy who has proven in one year of college that he is a dominant low post scorer who can also step out and make shots away from the basket. And he rebounds at a high rate."

Paxson hasn't hinted which way he is leaning, and worked out both prospects last week. Portland General Manager Kevin Pritchard said he could relate to Paxson, having made a difficult choice last season for the No. 1 pick. "You try to keep an open mind, try to have fun with it and don't overanalyze," he said. "It was very close, but it did come down to, with a center, it's very difficult to find those players. It's also very difficult to find scorers that do what Durant did and does. But Greg seemed to be a better fit for what we did."

General managers have historically chosen size for the No. 1 pick. This scenario has played out several times before, with the team holding the No. 1 pick taking the power forward over the point guard -- in 1990, with Derrick Coleman over Gary Payton; in 1991, with Larry Johnson over Kenny Anderson; in 1994, with Glenn Robinson over Jason Kidd; and in 1999, with Elton Brand over Steve Francis. In the NBA lottery era, Allen Iverson is the only point guard -- or guard for that matter -- ever selected with the top overall choice.

Point guards have been one of the top two picks just seven times since 1990.

The position has grown more in importance this decade, with Kidd leading the New Jersey Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003, Steve Nash winning back-to-back most valuable player awards in 2005 and 2006 and the recent rise of the Hornets' Paul and Utah's Williams, who both completed their third seasons in the league. Paul finished second in the league's most valuable player voting this season; Williams directed his team to the conference finals last season.

"I think you could say their development has made GMs look that way," Toronto Raptors Director of Player Personnel Jim Kelly said. "But also you can look at the scarcity of good point guards. I can't say there's a lot of them that come out of each draft. It seems that we get more and more combo guards that come out of each draft. If you get a player like Rose who is a pure point guard and has size, I think that just enhances his value even more."

Rose, who led Memphis to the NCAA championship game in April, recently told reporters in Chicago that Beasley is "hands down" the better player. But Hagen knows how much Paul's arrival changed the fortunes of the Hornets' franchise when he arrived as the fourth overall pick in 2005. In Paul's first season with the Hornets, they improved from 18 to 38 wins and were in the playoff hunt until the final month of the regular season. "I think a lot of it depends on the guy himself, maybe more than just strictly talent. It's leadership ability," Hagen said. "Chris came in and it was his team and people understood it. He took control and led the team from the get-go."

Pritchard said the NBA has become less about positions with so many players possessing wide-ranging skill sets, but added, "I still think if you have a great center or a great point guard, you have a chance to win a lot of games."

But Kelly warned about getting too wrapped up in position and avoiding talent. "It's nice to fill your need, but sometimes you skip over players when you try to fill your need, rather than looking for the best available player," Kelly said. "I think you always try to take the most talented player, and when the most talented player is at the position you need, one and one adds up to 10, instead of two."