Harkless was allways and still is our real X-Factor, if he plays like in the 2nd half of last Season, this is a different Team. If he plays like in the 1st half of last Season, this is a mediocre boring team
Going back it was the norm for 2's to be bigger, usually 6'4- 6'7 and many coaches wanted bigger guards for the very reason you point out. IT & Dumars I think were one of the smaller guard tandem to win it all.
They were I actually went back once in a similar discussion on O-Live and normally 2’s are 6’4-6’6ish.
Harkless has guarded 4 position. I seen him guard Mitchell from the end of the season last year and gave Mitchell a lot of trouble.
Yep, Baldwin, because of his wingspan and standing reach is a much better 3rd guard to pair with Dame and C.J. than Shabazz was. When Bazz came in for Dame or C.J., our backcourt went from undersized by NBA standards to undersized by high school standards. Same as it did when we had Tim Frazier/Brian Roberts. Now, both Dame and C.J. can play off the ball when paired with Baldwin and he can also guard the opponents best guard at the other end. And, he's long enough that a 3-guard lineup featuring all three won't be grotesquely undersized when other teams elect to go small. Yeah, I know everyone is saying POR didn't do anything in the off season, but I think people are sleeping on how much of an improvement Baldwin and Curry will be over Shabazz and Pat. The only time Dame has been paired with a decent size back-up PG was Eric Maynor for 27 games during Dame's rookie year. That allowed Dame to play off the ball and his shooting percentages shot way up: Pre All Star: FG% = .418 3FG% = 350 TS% = .535 Post All Star: FG% = .449 3FG% = 401 TS% = .566 Keep in mind two things: 1) That was Dame's rookie year and he has improved every year he's been in the league. 2) Maynor wasn't nearly the defender Baldwin is. Yeah, it would have been cool to land a stud starting SF, but we didn't. The good news is, we should see much less drop off when either Dame or C.J. goes to the bench. That has been this team's Achilles's heel (sorry Wes) for as long as Dame and C.J. have been starters. I just hated seeing the C.J. + four guys who can't score 2nd unit blow lead after lead. That should be much less of an issue with Curry and Baldwin in the mix (and possibly Trent Jr., as well). BNM
