He's in purgatory with a shitload of other interchangeable SGs. Outside of Kobe, Wade, and Harden, there really aren't any good SGs in the league. You could have Matthews ranked anywhere from 4-20 and you wouldn't really be wrong. The SG is the weakest position in the NBA atm.
Yeah that’s how I see the future of the league the next 5 years, lots of PG’s playing the SG position. Many teams with PG’s on the bench that play both guard spots for extended minutes. There are so many productive PG’s you see guys like Darren Collison signing for $1million and Mo Williams without any team showing interest. There used to be an accepted belief in the NBA that C and PG were the two hardest positions to fill; well C still is but PG might now be the easiest.
There were 11 SGs who scored 15+ PPG last season. A bunch more 10+. Paul George, OJ Mayo, JR Smith are better, IMO. Jamal Crawford, too.
Yes, I think he is. He may not be able to create his own shot like some but he will always continue to improve. His effort and attitude are invaluable to this team.
His intangible contribution to this team >= his tangible contribution. He's the epitome of a "glue guy." Tough, professional, good locker room guy, clutch shooter, hard-nosed defender, and on a very reasonable salary. Plus, he gets a ton of bonus points for his reaction to Pat Stacks on the streets of Portland...
I've been telling my friends since last year, you can make a case for Wes being 10-15 easily. All the talk of upgrading sg has been stupid. Kobe, wade, harden and iggy are really the only clear cut upgrades imo.
I agree with the posters who say he is underrated.... He has been turning into a deadly shooter... might not be the best ball handler or finisher but he spreads the floor and plays great D... Hes also a hustle player who does the little things.
Something about him reminds me so much of Jerome Kersey. Kersey had better handles, but Matthews had better range. Both were very important "glue guys" to the team.
If he did it was not by much. I never thought Jerome had very good handles. Jerome could jump a lot higher, but as i recall he had small hands and would have issues holding on to the ball. Both are/were warriors though. Jerome scored better inside and Wes better outside.
Mercy has crazy small hands. I'm only a little over 6'0" and my hands are bigger than his (I was drunk one Sunday afternoon at the Gemini in LO and asked him to compare hand sizes, but that's another story). The only other Blazer I can think of that had shockingly small hands like that was Dirty 30.
As I pointed out in the Batum thread, Matthews might not be as good a defender as some people think http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/teams/POR.html
