The Point Guard Question

[theNBAnerd]

I'm honestly torn, and I love Lillard. Even more so now that I know Nerd doesn't .

aww, how sweet.

for the record, i don't hate lilliard. it's just not always clear how somebody's production in a league like the big sky conference is going to tranlsate to the NBA. sometimes guys from rinky-dink conferences turn out ok (steve nash, courtney lee, etc.) and sometimes they don't (morris almond). so even though lilliard might have a higher ceiling, marshall might be the safer bet to carry his skills into the NBA.

 

[MoTappin]

Furthermore, it should be easier to add shooters to a team with an elite passing PG than it would be to find an elite passing PG ..

This.

 

[BYE]

To me, it seems that an NBA PG needs certain skills, and some are more important than others. Thinking of the best PG’s in history, this is how I would rate the importance of certain skills. Most of the greats had most of these equally well, but some like Steve Nash are not great defenders. A few PG’s don’t shoot the three ball perfectly (Rondo, Tony Parker, Isaiah Thomas). I don’t watch college ball, but from stats and reviews I’ve read, it seems like Marshall has more of the most important features that I see as necessary in a great PG.

1. handle/control
2. passing
3. getting into the paint/quickness
4. vision
5. intelligence
6. defensive specialist
7. fire
8. toughness
9. mid-range jumpers
10. three point shooting
11. durable body (without sacrificing speed)
12. jumping ability (mainly for finishing)

 

[Bodhi]

Didn't work for Jimmer that way. He was always the focus of defenses and he had some pretty good teammates.

Jimmer had a much better year, against better competition, and is struggling in the NBA now.

I haven't seen enough of Lillard to have a real opinion though. We'll just have to see how he turns out.

While I agree with this, it also has a lot to do with the team that drafts you as much as anything. Sacto is about as bad'a sitch as Jimmer could have been put in, IMO.

I'm not saying Lillard is a guaranteed beast in the league, because I've seen enough "sure things" bust and enough "eh's" turn into good to great players to know at the end of the day, no one really knows. Right?

 

[Bodhi]

so even though lilliard might have a higher ceiling, marshall might be the safer bet to carry his skills into the NBA.

I actually agree with this. Drafting has never been an exact science and probably never will be.

 

[Dr. Jones]

I had some concerns regarding Paul George for the same reason. It's a valid concern, but obviously not an end-all. My bigger concern is typically about the kid was usually not offered by a bigger school, which means they've either blossomed late or are just a product of bad competition. Hard to tell .. but it is USUALLY the latter.

 

[The Midnight]

I've probably flip-flopped the most on this board on this topic. I went from Marshall-all-the-way to "may be" Lillard due to his shooting which would spread the floor for us. Phil Johnson said the other day in an interview with Locke that when Jazz shoots the 3pt well, we seem to always win due to the system that we use. So the idea of having a 3pt shooter to go with Burks & Hayward as ball handler/slasher is just awesome.

But then I started to think about how slowly Favors and Kanter are coming along. Imagine pairing Favors & Kanter with an elite passer and we could really fast track their development as insider scorers/finisher. Moreover the idea of having an elite passer running a team is just awesome as well (as an example see what Rubio was able to do with the T'Wolves team). So again I'm thinking about Marshall's fit with the development of our bigs.

As of now I'm probably leaning towards Marshall and what he could do with our bigs. Hayward is going to be OK. Burks is always going to find his way in getting an "And-One" or go to the FT line.

But I'm a bit worried about Favors & Kanter and I can really see Marshall taking Favors to the next level with his passing and making Kanter a lot better, very very quickly.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I want one or the other. I'm probably more in the Marshall camp, but I wouldn't be upset with Lillard.