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Raymond Felton thinks too highly of himself. I've always liked the confidence but I think he's just in denial now. I get the idea that he thinks he's on Chris Pauls level or something by reading his quotes. I guess he got that way by winning a title at Carolina. Since we drafted DJ he keeps referring to himself as "the starting pg" in every single interview. I guess he's in for a rude awakening when DJ becomes the starting point after 5 games. I don't think he's going to take backing up a rookie too well and he may have to be traded.

Here's some recent quotes from Sir Raymond:

"He's harder on because I'm the starting point guard. I can take it".

"I'm the guy who makes the other guys go. If I'm not getting it done how is DJ supposed to learn."


Someone needs to tell Ray he sucks at running a team and that Larry will give him his token 5 starts and then start DJ. Trade Ray for David Lee and Nate Robinson.

Read my post just below about "Is this feasible?" We are thinking alike. Brilliant minds......

I think it's great that he is taking ownership of making the team "go".

It's make or break time for him. He knows that. I like that he is not backing down from the challenge.

I noticed this when they were doing the review of each guys summer. Ray is way too quick to point out that he's the starter and DJ is the backup rookie. While I suppose that can be viewed as confidence, I view it as insecurity. Confident people don't need to remind they are the starter, they assume people realize it. Insecure people are the ones that are always spouting off about how they are superior.

I hope I am wrong about this. If I'm not, he can't be the leader of a team.

I think we need to see how DJ plays defense against first-string PG's before we even think about starting him. DJ was chewed up pretty badly in the 4th quarter at LA by an average PG. Do you really want DJ defending the Parkers and Pauls and Williams and etc. of the NBA for half the night or more?

He's a rookie and might become a decent defender, I don't know. But right now he's proven nothing defensively. It is not an upgrade if he gets the team 3 more points per game (compared to Felton) but gives up 5 (from weak defense).

Again, I don't know how good a defender DJ is. Nobody really does. But he is not tall, and he has a slender build, which makes it tough. It's really difficult for guys his size to defend the Billups-type PG. The best "small" relatively slender defender I can think of is AI, who of course has "elite of the elite" speed, agility, and stamina. And AI is "just" a little above average as a defender. AI does not hurt you defensively, most of the time. But think about what it takes to make that true: absolutely insane physical skills. Is DJ capable of that?

I dunno. Let's see what happens.

Good point fluff. Let's not forget how Derrick Rose (a potential non-starter in the NBA this season)chewed up and spit out DJ in the tourney.

There seems to be only one path to being an "almost average" defender when you are short and slight. I call it the "Chris Paul / BKnight" method. It requires steals, a lot of steals. You essentially play the passing lanes as much as possible, and pray that the steals you garner make up for your weak man-to-man defense. It's very difficult to make this work, simply because steals are relatively rare even if you are good at getting them. Chris Paul is not a good defender, but he's adequate, and his effect on the offense far, far, far outweighs any defensive liabilities. With BKnight it's another story. He got a lot of steals, but there was a price to be paid. I was never sold on him as even an average defender, and on the offensive end he was... well, nowhere near Paul's ability, clearly.

So here is hoping DJ becomes a pick-pocket god without giving up too many easy drives.

cash, PLEASE PROVIDE LINKS WHEN YOU QUOTE AN ARTICLE.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/292/story/271603.html

i respect felton for being a professional. he always says the right things.

CarolinaCash wrote:Raymond Felton thinks too highly of himself. I've always liked the confidence but I think he's just in denial now. I get the idea that he thinks he's on Chris Pauls level or something by reading his quotes. I guess he got that way by winning a title at Carolina. Since we drafted DJ he keeps referring to himself as "the starting pg" in every single interview. I guess he's in for a rude awakening when DJ becomes the starting point after 5 games. I don't think he's going to take backing up a rookie too well and he may have to be traded.

Here's some recent quotes from Sir Raymond:

"He's harder on because I'm the starting point guard. I can take it".

"I'm the guy who makes the other guys go. If I'm not getting it done how is DJ supposed to learn."


Someone needs to tell Ray he sucks at running a team and that Larry will give him his token 5 starts and then start DJ. Trade Ray for David Lee and Nate Robinson.

You're right, it's proven DJ is the superior PG to lead us to the promise land. Afterall, we're undefeated in the regular season since he's been here.

While I don't disagree with the people being hard on Felton, I'm with Rich that there's REALLY no reason to think anything of DJ at this point. He's going to be a liability on defense this season, and maybe forever. He MIGHT become a very good point guard and shooter, but maybe he has a lot of trouble getting his shot off and he completely busts. I'm DEFINITELY not ready to give Nate Robinson the keys to the offense either.

I would love nothing more than for DJ to become a great PG. This team needs great players to win a championship, and right now we don't have any. But how about we actually see what our players will do before we go ahead and say one sucks and one is going to be great?

Rich4114 wrote:I would love nothing more than for DJ to become a great PG. This team needs great players to win a championship, and right now we don't have any. But how about we actually see what our players will do before we go ahead and say one sucks and one is going to be great?

But, but...just having Larry Brown's arse grace our bench should show which players are going to be great shouldn't it? It's not like there's anything to learn...heck I thought what made LB's teams great was his fantastic aura!

For the record I think DJ is gonna be pretty good. Not Chris Paul good, but a solid PG who can start in the League. DJ will struggle defensively, but over time I think LB can teach him how to overcome his deficiencies where it won't matter so much.

I think for THIS YEAR we're going to have a solid PG tandem; when one struggles we have another that can come in and take over. It will be a learning season for both, but at the end of the day I think they'll each be more valuable to the franchise...either with us or as trade bait.

Brilliant minds......

Felton said EXACTLY the right things.

two "smallish" pgs that were good defenders and didnt just rely on steals...

lindey hunter - 6'2" 195
darrell armstrong - 6'1" 180

but both are still an inch or two and a few lbs bigger than dj.

funny felton story.. i drafted in a fantasy league today that had unusual settings for scoring:
minutes, fg%, ft%, pts, rbds, ast, blk, stl, ast/to, pf (where pf is bad, not good)

i ran the numbers for last season and felton was the 32nd best fantasy guy in the league under that scoring system. he was still around in the 8th round. w00t!