by Mike Ducey

The Youth Movement

There’s a new crop of point guards who have come into the league over the last couple of seasons who all show signs of turning into quality NBA players. Chicago’s Kirk Hinrich, Indiana’s Jamaal Tinsley, Seattle’s Luke Ridnour and New Orleans’ Dan Dickau have all shown the potential to develop into reliable floor generals.

And that’s just where it starts. An even younger crop of point guards is just waiting for the opportunity to bust out. The LA Clippers Shaun Livingston is a 19 year-old 6’7” classic style point guard, a combination of size and point guard skills that is not seen very often. People rave about his court vision and passing ability. At his height he can see over defenses, a distinct advantage for a quality passer. He has a lot to prove but his skillset is undeniable.

The Clippers would be wise to build their future around phenom Shaun Livingston and his hair

Portland’s Sebastian Telfair is another 19 year-old with a good future ahead of him. Telfair has similar upside to Livingston although in a much smaller 6’ frame. The kid just seems to know where everybody is on the court at all times and makes difficult passes look easy.

It’s hard to imagine how good each of these players could potentially be after a few years of experience. Afterall, they have 5-6 seasons under their respective belts they’ll still just be entering their primes.

One of my personal favorite PGs is Memphis’ Earl Watson. Watson has been stuck behind Jason Williams in the pecking order but when he gets on the floor it’s apparent that his basketball IQ is superior to that of Williams’. Somebody needs to give that kid a chance to play 30 minutes a night. Watson is a free agent this offseason and hopes to find a home where he can be the starting point guard. Somebody will be very happy that they gave him the chance to do so.

And that’s not to knock J-Will. Williams has regressed some as of late, but over the previous two seasons his game had been successfully reigned in to the point that the notoriously wild guard was near the top of the league in assist-to-turnover ratio. While it is good to see J-Will learn from his experiences he is best in a platoon situation, sharing the load with another quality point guard.

My game is real, but I am not!

Thinking Outside the Box

This set of players is a group of non-traditional point guards. For the most part these guys have taken on specific roles to augment the talent that their teams have at other positions.

In Houston Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming get most of the touches on offense. Early in the season the Rockets realized that they had a black hole at the point guard spot and made a number of moves in an attempt to address that weakness. Independently none of the players that Houston brought in are talented enough to run the team, but the strengths of these players complement each other very well. Mike James is the most traditional-style point guard on the roster, but he is most effective as a role player. Bob Sura is a key player for the Rockets because although he is not really a true point guard (or shooting guard, for that matter) he does all the little things that need to be done. It is very important for a team that is built around 2 all-stars to have players like Sura aboard to do the dirty work. Some games Sura will score 20 points. Other games Sura won’t score at all but will wind up with double-digit assists. And sometimes you look at a Houston box score and see that Sura led the team in rebounds that night. Sura fills in gaps wherever those gaps may be on any given night. He may not do anything exceptionally well but he does a little bit of everything well enough. David Wesley and Jon Barry also play important roles in the backcourt, serving as the deep threats. When defenses key in on Yao and T-Mac these guys can go off.

Chauncy Billups winds up in this section because he is a tough guard to classify. At times Chauncey shows good passing skills and at other times he is more of a scorer. Chauncey has a deceptively quick first step and loves to attack the basket. Detroit, as mentioned earlier, is a defensive-minded team and Chauncey brings toughness to the backcourt. If Billups was asked to be a primary scorer or conversely to shoot the ball less his weaknesses would be more apparent, but he is a perfect fit in his role with the Pistons, and seems to get better with experience.

The Miami Heat’s Damon Jones takes 3 pointers. That’s what he does, and he does it well. On some rosters this approach would lead to a lot of bench warming but he’s a great fit for the Heat. For one thing, phenom Dwyane Wade is the primary ball-handler and passer on this team, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Secondly, the offense runs through Shaq in the paint, and having a deep threat like Damon Jones waiting for the kick-out pass is vital to the team’s success. Jones has embraced his role as a jump shooter and has fit in very nicely with his teammates.

Jeff McInnis plays a similar role in Cleveland, as a jump shooting threat on a team that has a player at a different position responsible for the ball-handling and decision-making. You may have heard of him, a young hotshot named LeBron James. James is an unquestioned future superstar in the NBA. He is an uncanny passer, particularly for a small forward. McInnis thrived earlier this season playing aside James but slumped toward the end of the season. Cleveland could use a stronger backcourt to help out LBJ, and odds are that this weakness will be addressed over the offseason. If McInnis stays on the roster he’ll likely come off the bench, the role that he is most suited for given his ability to spell either a point guard or shooting guard.

Atlanta’s Tyronn Lue, the Lakers’ Chucky Atkins, Utah’s Keith McLeod and Milwaukee’s Maurice Williams are other players who have been pressed into starting roles because there are no better options on their respective teams. Each has had big games here and there but none are likely to be start at the point guard slot for their teams long term.

Wildcards

Lastly, there are two very intriguing young point guards in the league who have shown flashes of brilliance but are far too inconsistent at this point in their careers. Toronto’s Rafer “Skip to my Loo” Alston and New Orleans’ Speedy Claxton are two players whose development I will closely be watching. Alston is very talented but frequently tries to do too much. He is a former street baller and plays on sheer instinct a lot of the time. Instincts such as his cannot be taught by coaches, but he has the tendency (again, the “t” word) to rely on those instincts too much. Alston has had clashes with his coach this season, another big red flag for a young player. If Alston can learn to trust his teammates and his coaches, he could flourish in the NBA. But right now that “if” looms pretty large.

Claxton is another very quick player (no, “Speedy” is not his birth name) who can beat almost anybody off the dribble. But Claxton tends to play a little bit out of control, and he is unlikely to beat out sound decision-maker Dan Dickau for the starting position next season. It would be great to see what Speedy could do if given the reigns to a young talented team, but he may be destined to be a backup. Claxton does have a high ceiling talent-wise, perhaps that talent could still lead to future success.

The NBA lost a big chunk of its fan base after Michael Jordan retired. While young players such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony are bringing back some of that lost swagger it’s the overall quality of the NBA that must improve if it is to win back fans. With more and more talented players running teams from the point guard position the league is primed for a comeback, and if half of these younger players reach their potential the NBA will be in good hands for a long time.