Where is Aaron Brooks?

I agree that Rondo, Roy and Rose have been great in the playoffs and are three up and coming players but Beasley and Lee with no mention of Aaron Brooks?

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9493700/Five-faces-of-the-future-for-the-NBA

Five faces of the future for the NBA
by Kevin Hench

Despite the speed bump the Lakers hit in Utah Thursday night, there remains little doubt that the two best basketball players in the world will keep their date with destiny in the NBA Finals this June.

The inevitability of LeBron James vs. Kobe Bryant may have sapped the first round of some of its drama, but it hasn't stopped a handful of young stars from providing a tantalizing glimpse of a future NBA where the roadmap to the Finals is not etched in stone.

Five young players have emerged in these playoffs to remind us there is a league that exists beyond the two megastars.

Rajon Rondo, 23, is proving that just because a title defense without Kevin Garnett might be improbable doesn't mean it can't be a thrill-a-minute, end-to-end joy ride.

Brandon Roy, 24, and Derrick Rose, 20, are the best players on their young teams and could be ramping up for a rematch of the 1992 NBA Finals as early as 2011.

Michael Beasley, 20, and Courtney Lee, 23, have served notice in their two-game playoff careers that they may be just the running mates their teams' superstars need to contend for a title.


Rajon Rondo
Like Malcolm McDowell with his eyes propped open in "A Clockwork Orange," Celtic fans have been forced to envision a world without KG. Thanks to the one-of-a-kind Rondo, it hasn't been as bad as they might have imagined.

With the heart and soul of the team sidelined with a knee injury, Rondo has been doing his best Oscar Robertson impression, averaging a near triple-double in leading the Celtics to a 2-1 series advantage after losing the opener to the Bulls.

Rondo is averaging 22.7 points per game, 10.7 rebounds and 9.7 assists. He is shooting an even 50 percent from the floor, has buried several long jumpers with the shot clock expiring and has bumped his free-throw percentage up to .750 from .642 in the regular season. And in the last two games he has defended Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose into 9-for-25 shooting and nine turnovers.

The Celtics are plus-47 when Rondo is on the court in the series. A capable-but-supporting player during Boston's championship run last season, Rondo has emerged as a star in these playoffs.


Brandon Roy
The jury may still be very much out on injury-prone 2007 No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden, but any questions about whether the Blazers will be a factor in the Western Conference playoffs in coming seasons were answered on Tuesday when Roy went for 42 in his second career playoff game.

By playing college ball at Washington and three NBA seasons in small-market Portland the silky smooth 6-6 shooting guard has pulled off something more rare than a quadruple double: becoming an anonymous All-Star.

As blasphemous as it may seem, let's compare Roy's first three seasons to those of another 6-foot-6 shooting guard, guy by the name of Michael Jordan. Roy's adjusted field goal percentage, accounting for 3-pointers, after three seasons is 49.8. Jordan's was 49.6. (Kobe Bryant's was 47.8 after three seasons.)

In his first three seasons M.J. had a 1.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover. Roy has a 2.7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio after three seasons, an astounding mark for a two guard.

But Tuesday's breakout performance was not about taking care of the ball and distributing it to teammates. It was about shredding the Rockets with a 15-for-27 shooting performance.

Roy is 24. It won't happen this year, but it's only a matter of time before he carries his fellow young Blazers to the Finals.

Derrick Rose
While Brandon Roy holds a couple of statistical advantages over Jordan after three seasons, the Blazers star does not have his every twitch compared to the Greatest Player of All Time.

That unfair hell is reserved for Rose, the Bulls' latest savior. Like Jordan, Rose took the Bulls from the lottery to the playoffs in his Rookie-of-the-Year season. Unlike Jordan, Rose won his first playoff game. (Jordan lost his first two playoff games and his first three playoff series, going 1-9 over his first three postseasons.)

Rose did more, of course, than just win his first playoff game. In a 105-103 OT win in Boston he tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA record by scoring 36 points in his playoff debut. He was 12-of-19 from the floor and 12-of-12 from the line (a stat that must have made former Memphis coach John Calipari weep). Rose also added 11 assists. Jordan had 23 points and 10 assists in his first playoff game.

Rose has come back to earth in the Bulls' subsequent pair of losses to the Celtics, but even in defeat he has had flashes of power and grace that make it easy to imagine him one day pumping his fist atop a scorer's table with confetti raining down.


Michael Beasley
While Rose was immediately anointed The Man in Chicago with every possession beginning in his hugely capable hands, Beasley knew he'd be stepping into a supporting role when he was taken second overall by Dwyane Wade's Heat.

The smooth, 6-9 lefty was brought along deliberately in Miami, finishing seventh on the team in minutes per game (24.8). Beasley was finally turned loose in April, playing 31 minutes a night over the final eight games of the regular season. All he did with a little more run was average 20.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

Though the Heat found themselves on the wrong end of a blowout loss to the Hawks in Beasley's playoff debut, the kid did go for a double-double with 10 and 10 and two steals and two blocks. When Miami evened the series with a 108-93 Game 2 victory Beasley had 12 points and 7 rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench.

D-Wade led the Heat (and the league) with 30.2 points per game this season. Beasley was second on the team with 13.9 points per game. As the teammates' scoring gap closes over the next few seasons the Heat will close in on a return to the Finals.


Courtney Lee
If the Magic reach the Promised Land in the next few years Dwight Howard will have carried them there. But even Superman would appreciate being able to shift a little of the burden to other less-broad shoulders.

Enter Courtney Lee. Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis were Howard's main double-team thwarters during the season, but in the playoffs Lee has stepped into the void created by their woeful shooting. Turkoglu is 5-for-18 from the floor in the first two games against Philly. Lewis is 9-for-25. That Scud-like 14-for-43 works out to 32.6 percent.

Lee, a rookie out of Western Kentucky selected with the 22nd pick, has made 18 of 34 shots in his first two playoff games, a 53 percent clip. He scored 18 points in Orlando's shameful series-opening loss to the Sixers and then dropped a career-high 24 on 10-of-17 shooting as the Magic drew even.

It's only two games — and a split at that — but Howard may have discovered a teammate whose shooting percentage actually goes up the more the shots matter. The Magic have tried to get away with surrounding Howard with shooters and playing Lewis (and his 5.7 rpg average) at power forward. But if Lee proves a consistent scoring option at the 2, the Magic can put some non-scoring beef up front with Superman, which will beef up their chances of one day reaching the Finals.

Make no mistake, none of these guys will play for a championship this year. But LeBron and Kobe won't have the party to themselves much longer.

 

That's like saying Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Allen Iverson, and Steve Nash are limited because of their size.

Speed and talent can make up for a lot of other things.

 

Not Paul and Iverson and Parker is only 2" taller and Nash 3" taller.

Aaron Brooks 6'-0"
Tony Parker 6'-2"
Chris Paul 6'-0"
Allen Iverson 6'-0"
Steve Nash 6'-3"

All heights from NBA.com

 

Paul and Nash definately but Brooks does as good a job passing as Parker and Iverson.