Let's Kill Two Birds with one stone:
- Thread starter David Stern
- Start date
This would last 5 games max before every single team starts to pressure AK before half court and either one of two things would happen: Turnover (A), Jazz don't get into their normal offense and Jerry gets livid (B). Either option equals loss on most nights. I'd wager that Hayward would be a better option for an experiment like this.
Kyoto
Well-Known Member
The Jazz are really hindered on bringing in any talent to backup Deron. If there is a really good quality point guard out there, I doubt he would sign to a team that will have him play 12 minutes at the most a night. So, the Jazz are really stuck with either past their prime pgs, newbie pgs, or experimenting with something like this. I think that AK is a top notch passer, second only to Deron on the team, but yeah... he would probably lose the ball if pressured.
They have to address it through draft. They did that with Maynor last year. They'll have to do it again. If the Hornets can have a starter-calibre PG backing up Paul, we could do better for Deron
Kyoto
Well-Known Member
Ty Lawson and... the guy from New Orleans... whatever, were lucky to be available in a stacked PG draft. I think the Jazz's realistic option is to get a backup veteran PG.
Gyp Rosetti
Banned
If we could let AK walk and sign Battier or a similarly solid defender at the 3 for around the MLE next year, we'd have a lot more flexibility to go after a Shannon Brown, etc.
candrew
Well-Known Member
Won't work.
AK's a great passer and OK dribbling the ball in the open court in the transition offense; but in the set offense the opposing team would high double every time he walks the ball up the court.
Jazz actually experimented with AK at the point for a couple of games early in the 2008-09 season and he'd get pressed as soon as he got to half court.
AK's a great passer and OK dribbling the ball in the open court in the transition offense; but in the set offense the opposing team would high double every time he walks the ball up the court.
Jazz actually experimented with AK at the point for a couple of games early in the 2008-09 season and he'd get pressed as soon as he got to half court.
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
Or the Jazz could get a quality combo guard. You can play him 12 mins at the point and 15-20 mins at SG. Then you have a 2-man rotation at SF instead of rotating the SG/SF.
But in the Jazz offense, the 2/3 are interchangeable. So a small off-guard isn't much use cutting to the hoop. So yeah, pretty much stuck with finding someone to only paly 12 mins behind Deron. And what further complicates matters is that the offense takes a year to learn for a PG. So count on anyone coming in to be minimally effective their first season. Or for half the PG's in the league to not have the basketball IQ to be able to run Sloan's offense and just look to drive and shoot.
I would like the Jazz to try Haywood as our backup PG. The kid played PG in high school and if you watched Butler he brought the ball up many times and initiated the offense. What I saw of him in summer league makes me believe he could handle the job for 10-12 minutes a night.
I was telling my father in law the exact same thing last night. He clearly has the handle for it and it might net him a few extra minutes. I would rather play and undersized Ronnie Price at SG where he belongs and and over sized Haywood at PG on offense and the they switch on defense. Sure it might not work, but honestly it cannot be much worse than our current backup PG situation.
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
What I saw in summer league was a guy that couldn't handle the rock when he drove to the hoop. Hawyard at PG? Puhleeze. Gordon's ball-handling will improve. And he might even wind up as a SG. He could even be a Point forward and initiate the offense from a half-court set. But he will never be an NBA PG. If he even tried that, opponents would just press and double team him in the backcourt.