Crittenton, Lowry, Conley, Mayo... All 4 can play PG. Conley has been a huge disappointment, Mayo has been amazing. Should they get rid of them all except for Mayo and grab a decent 2? Or keep one of them starting at PG with Mayo at the 2?
I would hold onto to Conley and let him work off the bench, while developing Mayo at the 2. Mayo has the most potential to become a very good SG over a PG and I still think its too early to give up on Conley. Young PGs usualy need around 3 years to mature and this is only year 2.
Let Mayo play the 2 so that he doesn't waste too much energy bringing the ball up. Having a decent PG next to Mayo will be a good thing. It's always good to have more than 1 player that can handle the ball.
It's too young to give up on Conley. PGs are a lot like QBs...they typically take a few years before they finally start hitting their stride. You have to realize that the PG is by far the hardest position to learn in basketball, so for a young PG to struggle, it's typical. Not everyone is going to put up the numbers Chris Paul has early in his career, as he and Deron Williams are really exceptions to the rule. Steve Nash is a very good example of this. He really didn't hit his stride til his 5th year. He had a couple of ok seasons before that, but he really got it going in year five. I also view Mayo as more of a 2 than a point. He's a solid passer and has solid vision, but I don't think it's good enough to keep him at the PG for an extended period of time...kind of like Brandon Roy. Plus, he's way too explosive offensively to put him at the point. With his offensive talents, you want him to be the one scoring the ball instead of setting others up. As for the rest...I think they'll trade Crittenton. He doesn't seem to have a defined role on this team and there isn't a whole lot of minutes to go around at either guard position. I think they likely will hold on to Lowry though, because he's seemed to be a solid PG from what I've seen, and he's also got solid defensive skills that could be useful down the line.
Another name to put out there who didn't have "great" success early on is John Stockton. I realize he was solid for his first few years, but his breakout year wasn't really 'til year four. Before that, he had seasons of 5/5, 8/7 and 8/8. These certainly aren't bad by any standards, but they aren't what one might consider great either. Do I think Conley will become Stockton? It's unlikely, but I'm just saying, it's far too early to give up on him. He's 21 years old and still learning, so you have to take the good with the bad.
Putting Mayo at point will cause the same problem as putting iverson at point, or even marbury. Though mayo seems to have a different attitude to his game than these other two, he is similar in that he is a huge offensive threat, and having someone like that to feed the ball to, is much better than letting someone like that run the team. iverson is the same, and his teams havent had much success in the past, yes they made pretty far in the playoffs a couple times, but other than that nothing, not a winner, great player not a winner, anyway, ofcourse iverson could get a decent amount of assists in one game, but thats not all that a point gaurd is about, he is like a caption, or a director on the court, thats a huge huge responsibility, and trying to handle all of that along with being your teams best offensive threat is something only a few have accomplished, big O, Jordan and Kobe, maybe more but its late and im tired. anyway, lets look at the success of the lakers as i know more about them than any other teams. fisher at point, great leader, great team mate, good passer, not great, okay scorer, can run a team, and that is hi sole purpose, notice the immense imporvement of the lakers when he came back after utah and golden state, maybe not huge in the win/loss stats but in team chemistry, team awareness, the sound collection of all teammates, all on the same level, not a coincidence. it takes a floor leader at point, that is his sole purpase, leave the scoring to the center and the SG. okay rant over.
