It would be a bit of an understatement to say a lot was expected out of Indiana Pacers point guard Darren Collison heading into this season, and there are some who would say he's fallen significantly short of those expectations.
While it hasn't been a particularly easy year for Collison or his new team, to call a 22-year-old point guard playing for a new team as a full-time starter for the first time in his two-year career a failure would be entirely unfair.
No, his numbers haven't been what they were as a stand-in for Chris Paul last year in New Orleans, but Collison's GM, David Morway, doesn't look at it that way.
"He's done everything we've asked him to do," Morway said. "In our system the point guards push the ball ahead, and we activate a lot of the offense through our bigs at the elbows. Naturally, Darren's assist numbers could be down for that reason, but he's still running the offense the way we want him to, and he's still in a learning a curve."
With head coach Jim O'Brien out in Indiana, the system stifling Collison's offensive numbers is also well on its way out, as well. That learning curve, however, doesn't disappear quite so quickly, as Collison himself explained.
"I've had to learn my personnel and my team, and that's definitely a process," Collison said. "But I feel like I'm getting comfortable with teammates, and Coach is putting the ball in my hands. I like the pressure, though. It's something you have to experience as a basketball player if you want to make it in this league. Everybody has to come through something."
Read more NBA news and insight: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?sto ... z1Cgle0nlm
