Little big men

Recently read a post on TrueHoop that looked at all the centers who've been knocked out of the playoffs already — Shaq, Yao, Dwight Howard, et al. — and asks why draft experts continue to say Oden over Durant. I think I've already said my piece about Durant — I'd take the versatile kid with all the drive over the defensive specialist who wishes he could be an accountant — so leave that aside. TrueHoop does note all the exceptions to the "speed kills" theory: Duncan, 'Sheed, Carlos Boozer (although obviously either Yao or Boozer had to move on, so it's not a perfect sample, of course.)

Anyways, my first thought was, "What about the point guards?" Maybe it's not that the centers are hurting their teams as much as great point guards lessening their importance.

Consider round one, match up by match up:

Dallas-GS
Baron Davis. Nuff said. (OK, maybe not. It's worth mentioning that Jason Terry played terribly except for game 2. His series assist-to-TO ratio was close to 1:1. Ouch.)
Phoenix-LA
Steve Nash embarrassed the Lakers PG circus.
SA-Denver
Tony Parker wasn't dominating, but he runs the offense very well, takes smart jumpers in the flow of sets, and knows when he needs make something happen at the rim (tear drop!). By contrast, Iverson, who was effectively Denver's distributor, killed his team with poor shot selection.
Utah-Houston
Deron Williams played great in game seven. Rafer's biggest shot was a banked in 3.

Detroit-Orlando
Jameer Nelson could learn a lot from Chuancey. In fact, I wish he would, since he's on my keeper-league fantasy team.
Cleveland-Washington
Probably the one exception of the first round, and Washington was a special case.
Toronto-NJ
I loved the way Calderon/Ford played this series, but Kidd doesn't leave that crucial lob pass to Bosh just short.
Chicago-Miami
I think I read on TrueHoop that a PG is already Miami's announced top priority. Kirk Hinrich is underappreciated, too.

Sure enough, a great PG is a better indicator of first round success than a dominant post-up center is of failure. No exceptions needed for the Duncans and 'Sheeds of the league.

In terms of the draft, maybe players like Mike Conley and Acie Law should be valued a little higher then? Not sure what their ceilings are, but at least if teams valued PGs more instead of size and scoring, someone like the Hawks wouldn't have passed on Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Brandon Roy (for effin' Shelden Williams, no less).