Positive thoughts about Blazers' draft day actions

I'm still not sold on the cliche' he's a shoot first, guard. I haven't seen any stat or pattern in his game to show this. It appears he had to shoot in Charlotte, simply based on the talent around him. To what facts are we basing this "shoot first," besides a few two bit bloggers? In fact, I've seen several reports from published "experts" and scouts describing him as pass first.

His draft bio:

"Felton is a rare breed these days. He is a true pass first point guard looking to get his teammates involved before looking for his own offense. He has incredible court vision and sees things develop long before they are there. On the break he is deadly. He can make difficult passes look easy and is not scared to make those passes, even in traffic. After beating his man off the dribble he does a great job of drawing defenders then dumping the ball off to open teammates in the paint. Despite all his passing skills, Felton is not a showboat and does not make unnecessary, flashy passes. He gets the right person the ball, in rhythm, at the right time."

From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Raymond-Felton-5/#ixzz1QCXZF8UA
http://www.draftexpress.com

Here is just another example of Felton being described as "pass first"...

Contrary to Westbrook, Felton is a pass-first player who's a situational scorer. Out from under Larry Brown's heavy hand, Felton is thriving in Mike D'Antoni's more free-wheeling, permissive offense. His assists are up to 9.0 from his lifetime average of 6.4, and he's now scoring 18.4 points per game as opposed to last season's average of only 12.1.

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/23/russell-westbrook-raymond-felton-most-improved/

 

Positives:

- Defenses can't sag off Felton like they did Miller all season

- Got a solid backup PG with a jumpshot in Nolan

- Still kept Batum who can be used with Camby at the trade deadline for an impact player (assuming there's a season)