Dionte Christmas Vs Wayne Ellington

[PowerElite]

I think that Dionte Christmas has a shot at being one of the most prolific 3 point shooters in the NBA during his career. He can run off of screens at full speed then stop on a dime and shoot the ball with great range. Very few NBA shooting guards have that skill today. That adds so much balance to a team to have a long range shooter/scorer that's not just a spot up shooter or requires to handle the basketball. Guys that can run off screens at full speed and make shots consistently in an effortless motion are very difficult to stop. Allen Iverson under Larry Brown, Richard Hamilton, and Reggie Miller are names that come to mind who accomplished a great deal in the NBA when their teams set screens for them to get open while they ran off of the ball. Dionte could be a bust, but I think that chances are good that he'll produce like one of these players: Hubert Davis, Anthony Parker, Anthony Morrow, Michael Redd.

[bballboy44]

No, neither are lottery picks. I would easily take Wayne over Dionte, but Wayne is a late first pick, and Christmas is an early-mid second round pick. Both are great scorers, have a similar style of play, same height, but Wayne has several attributes that Dionte does not:

1. Athleticism - Nowadays, how many SG's are not athletic? It's the difference of being able to run up and down the court, out hustle your opponent. If you are tired, your opponent must be dead tired. Dionte is not athletic while Wayne is.

2. Ball handling skills - Wayne is able to cross quickly between his legs, go to the hoop with it, whatever. It is not often when you see him lose the ball. It is great to have an extra guard on floor that you can trust to handle the ball. Wayne, you can trust, Dionte, not so much. Per 40 minutes, Wayne averages 2.1 turnovers per game, while Dionte is averaging 3.3 turnovers per game (usually losing it when trying to do too much with the basketball).

3. Proven to be great off the ball - Dionte could be good at this, but who knows? Dionte has always led his team, while Wayne has always been a big contributor, but never the main man. Odds are that neither of these guys will be studs in the NBA, and will need to play more off the ball. Wayne has proven to teams that he knocks down a huge percentage of shots with the defender several feet off of him. If you are a team that needs a SG that can score, who would you prefer? The guy who has played off the ball for three years, or a guy who is not used to that.

But don't get me wrong, both are really good players. Dionte reminds me exactly of a Michael Redd type player, I'd love to see him succeed, and Wayne, maybe Jamal Crawford a bit, but he is a great perimeter player.

[Gruel]

Christmas worked out for the Raptors and supposidly wasn't very impressive. He's definately not the 6'5-6'6 he's listed at- 6'4 is more likely.