Position breakdown -Small Forward

Ok so yes the first player that comes to mind when I think about small forwards is LeBron James, who is the MVP of the National Basketball Association, but I am not saying that it is the most important position in the NBA. Before LeBron and Carmelo Anthony came into the league I felt like the small forward position was usually not an important piece to most teams. Most small forwards are defensive players such as Ron Artest (former Chicago Bull), Josh Smith,  Gerald Wallace, Andrei Kirilenko. There are a couple upsides to small forwards and that is that they are very versatile players because they can act like a guard being a great dribbler and can also be fantastic rebouders do to their height (usually around 6ft-7inches). The Chicago Bulls currently have Luol Deng set as their small forward. Although he is not a skilled defender he has very long arms making his defensive presence felt on the court. Deng has a great 20 foot jump shot that is very hard to defend. This off season the Bulls have a major shot at upgrading at the small forward position by getting LeBron but if that was to happen I see the Bulls trading away Deng just because he has a huge 10 million dollar contract and doesn't deserve to be coming of the bench. Looking back at past NBA champions the small forward was usually never the best player on the team so maybe the key to winning is having your teams small forward take a smaller role on the offensive end and be more a defensive presence like Ron Artest of the NBA champion Lakers this year. He basically had a horrible year when it came to shooting but he would always take the responsibility of guarding  the opposing teams best player. So overall I would say that having a All-Star small forward doesn't mean you have a great team but it can definitely take an already good team to an NBA championship level.