Brandon Roy is good, but let's settle down.

Ian Thomsen of SI makes a strange case for Brandon Roy to receive more love.

Of the league's young wing players, the 6-6 Roy is among the least impressive athletically.

[I'm not really sure if this is actually true, and Thomsen certainly provides no evidence to prove the statement's accuracy. If nothing else, at 6'-6" and 211 lbs, he has good size for a wing player.]

Roy is the most valuable piece of the league's most promising young team not because of his athletic instincts, but because he has spent his short career taking the time to think things through.

[With the assumption being that more athletically-gifted players don't think things through? If so, I'm not sure that's accurate either.]

"He's the complete package.... He's like Walt Frazier: He's just a guard. He can shoot, he can drive, he defends, he's got size, he's got strength, he's got quickness." [Said Wizards coach Ed Tapscott]

[NBA coaches seem to think Roy is an OK athlete. And the Frazier comp seems to fit.]

Like Kobe and Wade, he is crucial to the Blazers' ultimate ambitions.

[I'm almost positive that Kobe and Wade are NOT crucial to the BLAZER'S ultimate ambitions.]

I don't understand the problem with saying that Roy isn't as good as LBJ/Wade/Kobe/Paul, but that he is still a REALLY good player. It's not a knock on Roy. Why force him into that discussion based on things like his "wisdom" of the game? Consider the 2008 lines:

B. Roy: 21.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 5.3 apg, 46.5 fg%, 83.5 ft%, 1.05 stl
L. James: 27.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 6.3 apg, 49.1 fg%, 78.7 ft%, 2.11 stl
D. Wade: 28.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 7.7 apg, 49.1 fg%, 76.3 ft%, 2.42 stl
K. Bryant: 25.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 4.1 apg, 47.7 fg%, 85.6 ft%, 1.65 stl
C. Paul: 20.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 11.8 apg, 51.6 fg%, 86.8 ft%, 2.81 stl

Roy is 16th in the league in PER (and he is actually 5-months older than LeBron and 10-months older than Paul). So Portland fans should be happy that they have a REALLY good player and stop complaining that people don't consider him to be on par with the game's elite players (primarily because, you know, he isn't).