I wanted to see which point guards, by the numbers, would be an improvement on Blake. Thanks to basketball reference, this is almost possible. They have a feature which allows you to search through all players that meet or exceed certain criteria. The only real problem is that you can only filter on "guard" not "Point Guard". I decided to make my filter any player with a PER >= 14 and Assists/game >= 5.1 (Blake was at 5). The assists should remove high scoring guards who don't pass much (Ben Gordan and such). Here is the result. The list isn't as long as I thought it might be. However, I would say that anyone on this list should be someone Portland targets. Hinrich is there. Oddly enough, Baron Davis is on there. So is TJ Ford. Obviously, some of these players have other factors that make them unattractive but it is a starting point. What other/different criteria could we use to determine what would make an upgrade? On another note, Roy is third on the list behind Wade and CP3. Not too shabby.
Nice job, I wish there was a way to add a DWS/MP criteria or at least something like DWS/G - but they only give you DWS as a whole - which is nice but does not really show us defensive efficiency.
Yeah, that is a bit weird. I also wish I could filter on percentage of shots that end up in the player being fouled. I could just go with a low free throws per game threshold.
Couple things jump out at me... Gilbert Arenas can shoot an average 3/11 every day, but a 20-1 A/TO ratio helps you have a PER of 19. Lots of poor 3pt shooters on that list. Kidd led in rebounding, and was behind Calderon only in my quick A/TO calc. In addition, Kidd was the lowest FTA/g on that particular list (though I think he has double Blake's FTA), but over half of his shots were 3's. And he made 40% of them. While playing 36 mpg.
Consider what a huge effect Nate's tightleash snailball has on limiting assists for a PG and realize whomever comes here at PG will see his numbers dip considerably.
MARIS, I'm not picking on you, but I've read so many people say this and I finally have to address it. Playing slow means you are more likely to turn the ball over, not the other way around. If you are dribbling and passing the ball a lot for 22 seconds, you have so many opportunities to turn the ball over. Denver for example has a large percentage of 1 pass possessions, giving them less chances to turn the ball over. Phoenix or Golden State are you attempting a shot before the defense gets set, making it less likely to turn the ball over. The only thing about Nate's offense in Portland that makes our PG's turnover numbers low is that we pass it around so much, and at the end of the shot clock, we give it to guys like Roy, Rudy, and Outlaw, not Blake or Sergio.
Also, Nate implores his players to push the ball but Roy refuses to and Blake can't. I wonder how we'd do with TJ Ford as PG?
Rose played PG for Chicago. I'm not sure exactly where Hinrich played, but it wasn't PG in most of his mintues on the floor. He had a 13.1 PER for 2007-08, and a 13.9 PER for 2008-09. Blake had a 12.0 in 2007-08 and a 14.5 in 2008-09.
Hinrich was the third guard in a 3 guard rotation, so he played some of both. If you think Blake is better then Hinrich then I don't know what to say. Other then, you are wrong. Very, very wrong.
