My latest thoughts about Flynn, Knight and the PG conundrum.
http://www.wearingfilm.com/picketfen...r-nba-stories/
So I don't have to repeat it in various places here. A taste:
http://www.wearingfilm.com/picketfen...r-nba-stories/
So I don't have to repeat it in various places here. A taste:
That’s why the upcoming draft is such a concern with me. The player that seems to be the most probable Raptor, come June 23rd, seems to be Brandon Knight. Now, I have nothing against Brandon Knight. I think he’s a very good player and, from what I gather, is a very intelligent young man. My problem, however, is that he doesn’t seem to actually be a point guard. None of his strengths (size, scoring ability) are those that you’d look for in a point guard and his weaknesses (questionable decision making, turnover prone, not a great passer) are kind of red flags for a point guard, don’t you think?
The argument I’ve heard supporting drafting him is that he can learn the point guard position. Lots of players have come into the league with questionable PG skills and flourished, haven’t they? Well, no. Not really.
In the last ten years, 19 PGs with universally questionable PG skills have been drafted in the first round: Eric Bledsoe, Avery Bradley, Jonny Flynn, Jrue Holiday, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Jerryd Bayless, George Hill, Rodney Stuckey, Aaron Brooks, Shannon Brown, Nate Robinson, Luther Head, Ben Gordon, Devin Harris, Delonte West, Kirk Hinrich, Marcus Banks and Juan Dixon.
And that’s not including scoring PGs, who showed the ability to run an offense in college, but whose best attribute was probably scoring, like John Wall or Derrick Rose. It also doesn’t include those that were really SGs, but their teams decided to try and convert them to PG, like Tyreke Evans, Randy Foye and Joe Forte.
Now, there are a lot of talented players on that list. But there are also a lot of players who either have been shipped around from team to team because teams end up longing for a real PG to run their offense, or simply become bench players who can provide instant offense off the bench. And only one of those players have been able to lead his team past the first round of the playoffs as a starting PG. Russell Westbrook. And, as I mentioned, Westbrook’s lack of true PG skills is coming back to haunt him.
The argument I’ve heard supporting drafting him is that he can learn the point guard position. Lots of players have come into the league with questionable PG skills and flourished, haven’t they? Well, no. Not really.
In the last ten years, 19 PGs with universally questionable PG skills have been drafted in the first round: Eric Bledsoe, Avery Bradley, Jonny Flynn, Jrue Holiday, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Jerryd Bayless, George Hill, Rodney Stuckey, Aaron Brooks, Shannon Brown, Nate Robinson, Luther Head, Ben Gordon, Devin Harris, Delonte West, Kirk Hinrich, Marcus Banks and Juan Dixon.
And that’s not including scoring PGs, who showed the ability to run an offense in college, but whose best attribute was probably scoring, like John Wall or Derrick Rose. It also doesn’t include those that were really SGs, but their teams decided to try and convert them to PG, like Tyreke Evans, Randy Foye and Joe Forte.
Now, there are a lot of talented players on that list. But there are also a lot of players who either have been shipped around from team to team because teams end up longing for a real PG to run their offense, or simply become bench players who can provide instant offense off the bench. And only one of those players have been able to lead his team past the first round of the playoffs as a starting PG. Russell Westbrook. And, as I mentioned, Westbrook’s lack of true PG skills is coming back to haunt him.
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