You are not following the links I provided. Anthony Carter was worse than Sergio this year... And again... Jack is not as bad as some present him. He is a rotation player. Not a star - but if Chris Duhon is a player in this league - so is Jack. Here is a quick list of player that are between 5-11 to 6-4, played at least 15 MPG and had a lower PER than Jack did this year: http://www.basketball-reference.com...&c3val=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&order_by=pts .. Again - keep some perspective people. He was drafted in the 20s - he is not a star nor will he ever be (likely) - but he is an NBA player...
He did throw the ball off of his heel to LeBron once. The single worst turnover I have seen a Blazer make, ever.
We need a PG that can play off the ball, shoot from outside, share ball-handling duties with Roy, and play defense. Not the traditional PG in any sense but I think one that would be effective in our system. Bayless can do a lot of those things, plus he can create for himself. Being able to draw in a defense with dribble penetration and then make the interior pass to one of our big man or a open shooter, can't be that hard of a concept for Bayless to learn. Scoring PG's are becoming extremely common and would be a perfect compliment to Roy. The traditional "passing" PG's have never get really far. Sergio is just so terrible defensively. He still looks lost out there after 3 years. His shot is inconsistent and he can turn the ball over sporadically. In his defense, so has Bayless', but I'm willing to forgive his rookie season as his minutes were constantly yanked and he never got a consistent run to prove himself. Someone that we could go after that fits those needs stated above is Hinrich. I know a lot of people dislike him here, but he brings a lot of what we need at the PG position. He's like an improved version of Steve Blake.
He's the elephant in the room. If he were paid reasonably, I wouldn't mind. But he's paid $10M per! Pros: good-to-excellent defender good shooter (or used to be) tough Cons: not a great distributor not a great penetrator somewhat injury-prone can he feed the post/run pick and roll? If Ben Gordon really has got a promise from the Pistons, I think the Bulls will want to hold on to Hinrich. And I won't be too sorry.
I agree. Hinrich will be a better idea than Andre Miller, imho - since he can shoot and he can defend - so he can play next to Roy on both offense and defense even when Roy handles playmaking duties.
Almost - his salary for the rest of his contract will be - $9,500,000 $9,000,000 $8,000,000 So - it is actually a little less than $9m per.
Why? Why can't Roy spend most of his time playing off the ball? As we saw when he was paired up with Chris Paul, it works sort of well. It certainly didn't hamper Allen Iverson in his MVP season (there - you made me do it!) Roy'n'Paul, 2008 All-Star game
Hinrich, throughout his career - was a much better player than Blake. It is true that Blake had a great season (for him) that on paper was a tiny little bit better than Kirk had last year - but Kirk was playing backup and was wounded for a longish time this year (he only played 51 games this year). Just to give you a quick summary of their career to this date - http://www.basketball-reference.com...m=1&p1=blakest01&y1=2009&p2=hinriki01&y2=2009 If you look at it - you see that Blake is just a little bit better on offense but a big downgrade on defense. Personally - I think that if the team really thinks JB will be a good PG in the future - as the web sites seem to tell us - Hinrich will be a nice upgrade for Blake until this happens... If the team is not sure of that - I would rather go for a Sessions kind of guy with Blake...
Because Roy is an initiator. He's in the same mold as players like McGrady or even Lebron to some extent. The majority of the offense get's run through them. Roy is ineffective without the ball in his hands and he's never been a great catch and shoot type player. Hinrich plays much better defense than Blake. Hinrich actually fights through screens and defends the pick and roll pretty well. He's big enough to guard other teams SG's sometimes. The Bulls used him a lot to primarily defend D-wade in the 2007 playoffs and he did great. He shoots better percentages across the board than Blake(albeit not much better). He's also a PG adept at playing off the ball. I would definitely want him. We're not going to have any cap room for years to come so I'm not too worried about his contract. It's actually not that bad as it decreases every year.
You make him sound so one-dimensional. But all of these things could be said of Iverson, and, as I keep repeating, his best season was when he was moved off the ball. And it's not as if Eric Snow was a Steve Blake style spot-up shooter - he could barely shoot at all. And watch the video - Roy does fine. Yes, Roy is more comfortable with the ball in his hands. But that doesn't mean he's a better player then, or that the team is better off. I know Roy is our best player, but he's not our ONLY fucking player, and it's not like the offense SHOULD be run through him - he hasn't shown that he can create offense for other people, and most especially for our bigs. If the offense is permanently run through Roy I can see Oden reduced to role-player status. Roy is NOT LeBron James. He's not even Tracy McGrady at his uninjured best. And even McGrady can't create that well for others. No argument here. He would be an upgrade on Blake. But he's expensive, the Bulls might want to keep him (especially if Gordon goes) and he's no more of a creator than Blake. Not recently. !? Then in what sense is he a PG? We are, in 2010, if we don't get Hinrich.
chemistry, experience, coaching... all are important factors in winning hoops, but nothing trumps talent. A team of guys who instinctively know how to make plays and/or have the raw size/athleticism to do things others can't are tough to beat. Portland could conceivably could be a dynasty with Blake at the starting PG and playing as he did this past year... they would just need some of the other positions to improve dramatically. Greg turning into the absolute beast that most (including I) projected would probably do the trick. Nic and Bayless seem to have some ceiling left too... and whats KP going to pull out of his hat next? Maybe a new PG? STOMP
You're right it worked great in an all-star game where zero defense was being played and no real offense was being run. Next you'll say Martell was going to have a break out year based on the way he abused the Kings in last year's exhibition game.
And your evidence that it wouldn't work is what exactly? Are you saying that better defense would have stopped Roy playing off the ball? Because...?
My point is that just because something works well in an exhibition game is no evidence that it would work well in a real game situation ... furthermore Chris Paul is a transcendent talent; I don't think it matters who he plays with, he finds a way to make it work. To further clarify, the burden of proof isn't on me. I know that Brandon plays well on the ball, you're the one making the assertion that he should/could move to playing more off the ball. IMO using the all-star game does not provide enough evidence that he'd be good playing the Reggie Miller/Ray Allen/Rip Hamilton style of shooting guard role.
If a team has multiple players with the ability to handle the ball, drive, pass, and shoot, how is that anything but a plus? Keep the ball moving, set some picks, make some cuts... good stuff will happen. And if doesn't you can still give it to Brandon on a top of the key iso if the 24 second clock is winding down. STOMP
You're absolutely right, you need more than one or two players who can do this, but where it breaks down a little is when you try to mix players together that only thrive with a high usage rate or if you were to add a point guard with little or no ability to catch and shoot and at least play off the ball some. Kidd can catch and shoot, Mo Williams can catch and shoot, Kirk Hinrich can catch and shoot (though he's somewhat streaky) as can Bibby, Mario Chalmers, Fisher and even Billups. If you want to get the most out of both Brandon's talents and whomever plays alongside him in the backcourt they need this ability along with an ability to run the pick and roll and/or drive -- this is why I still think Bayless can be a good "guard" for the Blazers ... if/when he rediscovers his shot that was good in college.
