Pacers fan here looking for thoughts on Jeff Teague...

[Monsterpile]

A couple thoughts on Teague.

1. His strength coming in was his ability to be an assist in pick and roll. Guess what? Towns sucks most of the time setting screens and often doesn’t go to the right spot. I was hoping Teague could help him out there. It hasn’t happened yet. So one of his biggest strengths isn’t utilized.

2. Teague leads the team in PACE. It’s not a perfect stat but so think the idea he is dribbles the ball and never pushes it is a bit unfair to him when other guys are causally jogging up the court. This has been happening for years even WITH Rubio as the PG. some of these players just don’t seem to want to get up the floor even with various coaches yelling at them to do so. Rubio dribbled the ball a ton also. Their dribbles come in different areas but part of that is because their different strengths and weaknesses. Teague knowing he can beat a guy off the dribble and Rubio being able to get to where he wants and keep his dribble partly because he is defended differently.

3. Teague is playing at a career low usuage rate as a starter even lower than he did last year with the Pacers. That makes it tough when you are used to being the guy that initiates a lot. Look up the usuage rates for the top starters all of them are lower than they have had in the past. I think Thibs is looking for a team that is pretty diverse and it’s gonna take time to sort that out. OKC is really struggling To find their way also. This is part of his indecision that we see that is frustrating.

4. Teague is more quite guy and I think it takes him a bit of time before he feels comfortable being a leader. That’s actually not all that different from Rubio who is clearly more of a vocal guy but last year he didn’t say much early espcially since he was struggling. A couple games ago when Tyus was in I saw Teague standing up on the bench encouraging the guys and yelling instructions. I think we will see more of his vet game as time goes on.

It’s already been mentioned but Teague is basically having to live up to some weird standard of Rubio. I was always a big Rubio guy but I still think we sold high on him trading him for cap space and a first round pick. I think Teague is a better fit for this team than Rubio because he can play a more complimentary role and he did just that in Indiana. Look up his stats last season with multiple ball handlers he played with on the Pacers. I also don’t think the gap between Rubio and Teague defensively is as large as many people seem to believe.

[shrink]

I literally roll my eyes (sorry, no childish emoticons), when I see someone truly believe their argument, "the team did badly, so therefore my personal scapegoat is entirely responsible!"

[LibertyPrime]

All in all, Teague > Rubio. But that's not the question the OP was asking (although it is the question this board has been asking since the moment the Teague signing was made public, and maybe even before that).

I like Teague; if he could get a little more integrated in the defensive scheme he could be THE missing piece that makes us a contender.

[King Malta]

A couple thoughts on Teague.

1. His strength coming in was his ability to be an assist in pick and roll. Guess what? Towns sucks most of the time setting screens and often doesn’t go to the right spot. I was hoping Teague could help him out there. It hasn’t happened yet. So one of his biggest strengths isn’t utilized.

2. Teague leads the team in PACE. It’s not a perfect stat but so think the idea he is dribbles the ball and never pushes it is a bit unfair to him when other guys are causally jogging up the court. This has been happening for years even WITH Rubio as the PG. some of these players just don’t seem to want to get up the floor even with various coaches yelling at them to do so. Rubio dribbled the ball a ton also. Their dribbles come in different areas but part of that is because their different strengths and weaknesses. Teague knowing he can beat a guy off the dribble and Rubio being able to get to where he wants and keep his dribble partly because he is defended differently.

3. Teague is playing at a career low usuage rate as a starter even lower than he did last year with the Pacers. That makes it tough when you are used to being the guy that initiates a lot. Look up the usuage rates for the top starters all of them are lower than they have had in the past. I think Thibs is looking for a team that is pretty diverse and it’s gonna take time to sort that out. OKC is really struggling To find their way also. This is part of his indecision that we see that is frustrating.

4. Teague is more quite guy and I think it takes him a bit of time before he feels comfortable being a leader. That’s actually not all that different from Rubio who is clearly more of a vocal guy but last year he didn’t say much early espcially since he was struggling. A couple games ago when Tyus was in I saw Teague standing up on the bench encouraging the guys and yelling instructions. I think we will see more of his vet game as time goes on.

It’s already been mentioned but Teague is basically having to live up to some weird standard of Rubio. I was always a big Rubio guy but I still think we sold high on him trading him for cap space and a first round pick. I think Teague is a better fit for this team than Rubio because he can play a more complimentary role and he did just that in Indiana. Look up his stats last season with multiple ball handlers he played with on the Pacers. I also don’t think the gap between Rubio and Teague defensively is as large as many people seem to believe.

Not to cherry pick one point, but we signed him with that in mind though to be fair. He was meant to be the kind of guy who could help stretch the floor a little and be able to have a positive impact on our offense without requiring too much of the ball.

With Jimmy, Wiggy and KAT in the team his usagw was guaranteed to plummet.

[packforfreedom]

I just took a look at the win/loss stats from our key players and while all of them have pretty similar stats in wins and losses. Teague is the only one who plays significally better in wins than in losses.