In the lead up to the draft, talk centered on college combo guards moving to the point in the NBA. Will your combo guard make the transition? I answer the question here, where I write about the "Personality of a Point Guard."
Also, on the topic, I have to comment on Brandon Jennings. I knew someone would go straight from high school to Europe eventually. Makes too much financial sense. However, I find it hard to believe that a top European club would sign Jennings. Few top clubs like American rookies from college programs; they typically want a player with NBA or European experience. So, I imagine that Jennings is looking at the bottom tier teams in the top leagues (Spain, Greece, Russia and Italy) or a second-tier league like France, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Turkey, etc.
If Jennings and his representatives are smart, they should be contacting Angelico Biella in Italy, which has developed a reputation as a club that develops players who leave for bigger contracts after a year or two.
Friday, July 04, 2008
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8 comments:
I agree to an extent with the combo guard article. I feel that you have left out one key to being a point guard...vision. I agree that ball handling is a skill, and that you have to have the right make-up, but having the ability to see things unfold before it happens is a talent that cannot be taught. Stockton, Kidd, all the great PG's had the ability to make the game look easy because they knew what was going to happen before it did. This is the reason that Vlade and Webber were great at the high post. This is how a player gets a high assist to turnover ratio. It is the ability to make the "right" pass.
If they know what is going to happen before it happens, is that vision or anticipation? Is it more of a tactical awareness than a physical skill?
Research indicates that elite athletes do not have superior vision than average athletes. Elite athletes have superior awareness, not vision. That is a skill that can be taught.
The difference in "vision" is not with eye sight, but with the ability to process information, and, I would argue, the way we process that information.
What do you think of both Diaw and Barbossa on the Warriors?
Worth going after them for the W's? Both are high salaried and long term contracts.
And would Phoenix demand a lot for them? They've said those 2 are on the trading block.
I think Barbosa and ellis offer a lot of the same things. They'd be crazy fast, but small and lacking in true point guard play. I think Diaw is a great fit as a point-forward type who can allow Ellis to be a scorer while Diaw plays the role of the facilitator. I have already suggested a Jackson for Diaw trade, though GSW would have to get something back in return, too. Jackson would be the perfect player for the Suns' needs. Maybe Raja Bell and Diaw for Jackson and a bad contract, if the Warriors have any to get rid of (Harrington?). Then, GSW uses its money to sign Maggette or Ben Gordon as its SG. The only problem is GSW has invested its last two 1st round picks in PFs, so I don't imagine they want to acquire another one even if he is a better fit with their new personnel.
And now this:
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-6/121550600296440.xml&coll=2
Stephen Curry is trying to learn to become a point guard, because his size dictates that that is what he has to be in the NBA.
The article does mention that he was a point guard in high school. It makes you wonder if he has the PG personality, or just played the position.
That will be an interesting case study. I know I am a point guard personality, but I had a summer league coach one time who told me, after I passed up an open three to pass to a stiff under the basket who blew a lay-up, that he would take me out if I ever passed up another open shot. So, I changed my game a little during that league to look for my offense more because that's what the coach asked of me.
Similarly, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, Chris Paul and others have a facilitator mentality, even though they obviously have the ability to score and do score a lot of points.
Curry is interesting. He certainly appears to have the mindset of a scorer. Maybe he'll learn to suppress it to play the point to play in the NBA. Or, maybe he just needs to be drafted by a team that'll let him play the 2, like the Warriors do with Ellis. Or, maybe he needs a team that does well with combo type guards as their lead guard, like the Pistons with Billups and Stuckey.
Looking at the Pistons, it appears more motion-oriented teams that use lots of screens off the ball to free players work best with combo PGs. Or, teams like the old Kings who have a facilitator in the post. Actually Detroit would be a good place for Curry because he could play the 2 next to Stuckey, because of Stuckey (or Billups) size and some PG next to Rip Hamilton and he'd have the chance to run off screens to get open shots.
call it awareness or call it court vision, I find it difficult to believe that this is a taught ability. If this were something that is taught, why don't we have more great pg's or passers? This maybe something that can be enhanced by an offense or a coach, but I believe this is a talent that cannot be taught to any player. Using the example of a QB in football, you could have the best coaching known to man, perfect footwork, a great arm, and knowledge of every defense known to man, but it still takes the ability to make the correct decision every time. If this were something that could be taught, why is there a shortage of quality QB 1's in the league. There is something that separates players like Nash, Paul and Kidd from a Rhondo or Udrich. Once again, just a personal opinion.
I agree. It's their personality.
Why aren't there more great quarterbacks or point guards? Well, one must find someone with the right personality who also has the right physical gifts. There are many very good college quarterbacks, but they simply do not have the arm strength to play at the next level because the speed of the game requires arm strength and arm strength can make bad decisions look good, while lack of arm strength makes good decisions look bad.
As for point guards, as I argue in my books, tactical awareness is not taught or developed in young players. When players simply run set plays all day, they fail to develop an awareness because they learn to go from A to B, but nobody tells them why.
And, there are good point guards, but NBA GMs deem them to small or they don't shoot well enough or whatever. Guys like Tyus Edney are great pros in Europe, but never made it in the NBA.
Also, the system emphasizes size, strength and scoring. So, the players who progress to the next level are usually the bigger, stronger scorers.
In high school, on my JV team, the Head Coach put a kid at PG who was not a PG. We went to junior high school together and his dad played me at point and played him at power forward. To further support my point, he was a fullback in soccer. But, he was bigger, stronger and faster than me and was more aggressive going to the basket, so the coach favored his skill set to mine, even though I was much more of a point guard, a better passer with a better understanding of the game.
I imagine my situation is not unique. I trained a player last year who dealt with the same thing on his JV team - the coach played a PG who put his head down and drove into traffic and had a negative assist to turnover ratio over the kid I trained who never committed a turnover and shot 50+%, but rarely shot the ball.
So, if the players with the PG personality are eliminated early in the development process because coaches favor the bigger, stronger, faster more aggressive kids, and I argue that personalities don't change much, that kind of explains the lack of elite PGs, as those with the personality get cut as each level grows more competitive because, as I argue, coaches do not understand the idea of personality and believe they can create a PG.
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