There's a reason that Lebron James is so special. Saying that he's "good" is downplaying his true significance. Saying that he's "important" is is like saying that the iPod was important to music listening. Lebron James is what I call a League Changer. Meaning, he's the type of athlete who can leave his team and instead of simply changing his new team, the move changes the balance of power in the league. Athletes like Deion Sanders, Alex Rodriguez, and Charles Barkley have all changed teams and the way we view their league at different points during the last twenty years. James, much like Rodriguez and Sanders is considered the very best talent in his sport at the time he may be looking to change teams, and his ability to fill a basketball stat-sheet is uncanny for a twenty-five year old and was unnatural for an eighteen year-old. He is a triple-double type player, one who can score at will, will facilitate an offense to create shots for others, and has a stellar defensive and rebounding game. There aren't many other players like him, and a new type of player may be here to replace him.
Meet Greg Monroe. I know what you're saying, "there's no way that Greg Monroe is going to be as good as Lebron James, and he's got a different type of game." This I'm well aware of, but I do know that Lebron James is the last in a long line of experiments, and Greg Monroe may mark the beginning of a new one.
Coaches have for for so long tried to create the unorthodox player: taller players who can shoot and handle the ball, shorter players with ball-handling skills who can block shots and rebound. For twenty or so years, teams have been out do give us the anti-NBA player, or a player who doesn't have to excel at one job to be a star or to help his team win. So we were given players like Toni Kukoc, Dirk Nowitzki, Lamar Odom, Stephen Jackson, Rashard Lewis, Tracy Mcgrady, and many others like them. By the time the NBA was blessed with Lebron James, many felt that we'd seen enough of triple-double type players. Then we saw that Lebron James had a superior skill set to any of these players, and we realized that the experiment was finally going to work. Lebron James was going to be the first tall player to head an offense well since Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Lebron James was a better jumper than Vince Carter. Lebron James had a jump-shooting height comparable to Michael Jordan's. Lebron James is going to compile triple-doubles like Oscar Robertson.
All of it was true, and slowly, the experiment began to die. Teams were beginning to draft different sorts of players. It was obvious that so many years of trying to infuse guard play into big men's games ruined the classic center. This made it the perfect time for Greg Monroe to be a top collegiate player. I can't say that Greg Monroe was deeply relevant at Georgetown or in collegiate basketball, and I can say that the 2009-10 Hoyas seemed terrified of their expectations the entire year. What stood out to me though was that Greg Monroe showed signs of basketball skills that the professional game hasn't seen.
He's 6' 11" and left-handed. His passing ability is borderline outrageous. He has the ability to play with his back to the basket or facing it. Think Arvydas Sabonis with more one-on-one game or Tim Duncan with Lebron James' passing ability. Think of a 6' 11" Chris Webber. If you think back, even Duncan was a very different player in college than in the NBA, and I can imagine that NBA coaches are salivating at the idea to really utilize Monroe's talents. Greg Monroe, is a potential quadruple-double player. he can become a perfect mix of points, rebounds, assists and blocks. He can throw in some steals if he's got the other teams center out of his own comfort zone. Greg Monroe may not be the NBA's best player in a few years, but he may be the type of player NBA general managers are looking for at that time.
