Heisler’s NBA Power Rankings After Week One

Jordan Hill, an active, physical guy, would start.

Metta World Peace is another sumo wrestler out of water since big, slow units don’t need 6-7, 260-pound small forwards.

Unfortunately, Devin Ebanks hasn’t shown he can hold up, exhausting the choices – unless they go to three guards with Jodie Meeks.

Meeks is a career 40 percent 3-point shooter–something else the first unit doesn’t do much of, aside from Nash. Kobe is strong enough to guard threes, few of whom are fast enough to guard him.

In other words, I’d give it a look, if only during games.

Elsewhere, didn’t you used to be the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Until very recently this was a harmonious, poised young team with three stars who could get their own shot, making all capable of being No. 1 options in crunch time.

Then GM Sam Presti traded James Harden over a relatively small number of dollars.

Presti and owner Clay Bennett, both former Spurs, model everything on San Antonio, where players are expected to put the team first.

On the other hand, I don’t remember Gregg Popovich running off Manu Ginobili.

Harden’s breakout in Houston must have shocked even Presti, who drafted him.

On the other hand, Presti should have anticipated the local reaction. The team that never had a real issue now has one that will dog them for years, hearing, “Did the trade hurt you?”

In their loss to the Hawks—at home, without Josh Smith—the Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry noted, “Tonight much like the other two nights in the 2012-13 seasons, there was a ton of barking…. Thabo Sefolosha and Russell Westbrook had to be separated… [Kevin] Durant chewed out Serge Ibaka for failing to grab a rebound. And of course there was the usual head-shaking between Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins whenever the paint went left unprotected.”

So much for their innocence, at last. Welcome to the real NBA, guys.