Hinrich Looks for Positives, Sounds Confused

Link: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Now that Hinrich is beginning his fifth NBA season, it's worth wondering if his point-guard skills will improve. Hinrich's career high of 6.8 assists came during his rookie season.</p>
<p class="News">"I've said it many times, Kirk is an in-between guard anyway," Skiles said. "He's not the prototypical point guard. But we always look at that as a strength for him.</p>
<p class="News">"When he's on, he's playing great defense. He's making his shots. He's pushing the ball up. He's passing it to Lu (Deng) and Ben (Gordon) and they're making their moves, and he's doing a good enough job running the team and all that. I think missing shots has had an effect on him just as it's had an effect on all our guys."</p>
<p class="News">People often assume that Hinrich is a natural point guard, but during four years at Kansas he played the point full time only as a sophomore. During his junior and senior years, when the Jayhawks made visits to the Final Four, Aaron Miles was the point guard while Hinrich was a distant second on the team in assists.</p>
<p class="News">Hinrich isn't sure if he even wants to be in control of the offense, since the Bulls have a number of players who can handle the ball.</p>
<p class="News">"I don't want to be a point guard who pounds the ball and tries to control the whole game," Hinrich said. "We've got guys who kind of like to freelance a lot and do their own thing. So it's kind of a fine line you have to walk, knowing when to control a game and when to let our guys make plays."</p>
<p class="News">There are a couple of strong examples of combo guards who slowly grew into a point-guard role. Phoenix's Steve Nash, whom Hinrich will face tonight, averaged 7.3 assists in his fifth season as a pro and eventually increased that to 11.6. Detroit's Chauncey Billups averaged 5.5 assists in his fifth season, then peaked a few years later at 8.6.</div></p>
<p class="News">There are so many things that bother me about the lines I bolded that I don't know where to start. I'm no rocket scientist or anything, but it really sounds like he's saying he feels like to be in control, a PG needs to be holding the ball the whole time. And if he's not, everyone's just doing their own thing?</p>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane)</div><div class='quotemain'>I see the bolded quote as something of an insult to the other players. I am not sure the other players want to freelance as much as touch the ball on every or every other possession - there's a thing called "trusting your teammates." Granted, the Pick/Roll and Pick/Pop are a big part of the offense, and Kirk should explore his opportunities with that play, but if it breaks down, the other players are pretty well-rounded players who can pass as well as freelance.</div></p>

I read it that way too. I'm starting to get the sense there are some "personality issues" behind the scenes with the Bulls. I don't like the juxtaposition of Kirk's comments about teammates "freelancing" and "doing their own thing" coming from the struggling team captain, and I feel a little strange, like I said yesterday, when I see Gordon, who got voted down as a captain, publically stating his willingness to take one for the team. It's not a particularly good looking combination.</p>

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We always knew that Kirk was not a pure Point. Kirk has to dominate the ball regardless. We have had it like that for the last 3 or 4 years.</p>