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A team that drafts a point guard high has to believe they will turn into an elite player. If their ceiling is only a good starter, there’s no reason to bother with all the development necessary to get them there. The key is to not spend picks/time on players who will hinder their teammates’ development...There are only a handful of point guards in the NBA who are true difference-makers, and it’s one of the hardest positions to predict since so much of the development necessary is mental.


A lottery team drafts Collin Sexton or Trae Young and they could be waiting for years for them to pay off, if they ever do.


Few point guards enter the NBA ready for the responsibility of running an offense. The position is incredibly demanding, both mentally and physically. Not only are they facing some of the best athletes in the world on a nightly basis, but they also have to make hundreds of split-second decisions over the course of a game. Even the best players need years of trial and error, especially in an era when most leave school early.

It takes All-NBA point guards an average of five seasons in the league to make the team.

Getting to that point is a long process that can impede the development of the rest of their team.


Winning in the NBA with a young point guard is almost impossible unless your point guard has the size of a center. Only one (Markelle Fultz) of the five taken in the lottery of last year’s draft was on a winning team, and he barely played this season...The more likely outcome is what happened with Sacramento and Dallas, both of whom turned their offense over to a 19-year-old point guard (De’Aaron Fox and Dennis Smith Jr., respectively) to predictably disastrous results. The Kings’ net rating was 5.9 points higher without Fox, while the Mavs’ was 10.1 points higher without Smith. It was a trial by fire for both, as they could no longer rely on the overwhelming edge in speed they had at lower levels of the game.

Point guards take a long time to blossom. It’s hard to project them when they are in their mid-20s, much less when they are teenagers.

The Year of the Game-Changing Point Guard Prospect

The changing nature of the NBA’s point guard from pure passers to turbo scorers has created the position’s golden era. Someone as little as Isaiah Thomas or as large as Giannis Antetokounmpo can be a playmaker in this era.

There are 12 active point guards in the league who have been named to an All-NBA team, and on average, it took five seasons for them to get there for the first time. The average age was 24; only Paul, Irving, Westbrook, and Derrick Rose made it at a younger age.

Point guards are often in utero for years. It isn’t a process that can be rushed, because point guard isn’t an easy position to master. Learning point guard is like learning an instrument: There’s a steep learning curve on the way to an advanced level. Some rules must be followed, but others must be bent and broken — improvisation mastered only after years of experience. For the premier prospects of the draft to reach higher ground, they’ll need to prove they have the modern building blocks of the position within themselves.

Wall, Lowry, and other All-Star point guards I’ve talked to all say adjusting to the speed and physicality of the game are the biggest hurdles for a young guard. Kemba Walker says it’s learning how to play with pace. "Walker said at All-Star Weekend. “Knowing how to slow down, knowing when to speed up. It’s really about pace. That’s the word, really.”

Jamaaliver wrote:Wanted to get this on wax before Young Trae's first game in a Hawks uni...

Patience is key. PGs take time to develop. His age, size and lack of experience dictate as much. Also...the rigors of the position in general:

A team that drafts a point guard high has to believe they will turn into an elite player. If their ceiling is only a good starter, there’s no reason to bother with all the development necessary to get them there. The key is to not spend picks/time on players who will hinder their teammates’ development...There are only a handful of point guards in the NBA who are true difference-makers, and it’s one of the hardest positions to predict since so much of the development necessary is mental.


A lottery team drafts Collin Sexton or Trae Young and they could be waiting for years for them to pay off, if they ever do.


Few point guards enter the NBA ready for the responsibility of running an offense. The position is incredibly demanding, both mentally and physically. Not only are they facing some of the best athletes in the world on a nightly basis, but they also have to make hundreds of split-second decisions over the course of a game. Even the best players need years of trial and error, especially in an era when most leave school early.

It takes All-NBA point guards an average of five seasons in the league to make the team.

Getting to that point is a long process that can impede the development of the rest of their team.


Winning in the NBA with a young point guard is almost impossible unless your point guard has the size of a center. Only one (Markelle Fultz) of the five taken in the lottery of last year’s draft was on a winning team, and he barely played this season...The more likely outcome is what happened with Sacramento and Dallas, both of whom turned their offense over to a 19-year-old point guard (De’Aaron Fox and Dennis Smith Jr., respectively) to predictably disastrous results. The Kings’ net rating was 5.9 points higher without Fox, while the Mavs’ was 10.1 points higher without Smith. It was a trial by fire for both, as they could no longer rely on the overwhelming edge in speed they had at lower levels of the game.

Point guards take a long time to blossom. It’s hard to project them when they are in their mid-20s, much less when they are teenagers.

The Ringer

kg01 wrote:Not calling for gleague time for this one?

Jamaaliver wrote:

kg01 wrote:Not calling for gleague time for this one?

1. I'd be very okay with giving him a redshirt year to better prepare for the rigors of the NBA.

2. I acknowledge that with a prospect of this magnitude and of this high profile, it'd be difficult to relegate him to Erie.


I am hopeful he comes off the bench for limited minutes for the first few months. Handing him the keys after the All Star break seems like a reasonable target for him to take over the role.

The kid was a polarizing collegiate player putting up historic production -- even amongst Hawks fans.

I imagine this'll largely be the case again this season.

Is he ready for that?

Are we?

Cause there's gonna be a lot of trolls hanging on our board telling us we were fools for passing on Luka when TY struggles.

We just gotta be patient.

kg01 wrote:F them. They can EABOD for all I care.

So fkng what.

Trae Young opens Summer League with pair of air balls

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Field goals were hard to come by for Trae Young early in his Summer League debut.

The fifth overall pick of the 2018 NBA draft was revered for his outside marksmanship while at Oklahoma, but against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday, the Atlanta Hawks rookie was ice cold.

Young finished the first half missing all nine of his attempts, including 0-of-6 from 3-point range. His first two misses from behind the arc didn't even hit the rim.

Suffice it to say, it's not exactly the most inspiring of performances.

Bricks50 wrote:Bust, i put money on it


Bye

Trae Young isn’t making shots, but he’s making good plays



It can be difficult to evaluate NBA summer-league games because they are like real NBA games only superficially. But shooting is shooting, and Trae Young has shot poorly from the field in his first two games.

Some of the reaction to Young’s subpar shooting was predictably over-the-top.

My view is that Young’s poor shooting is no real cause for concern, and it carries much less weight than his playmaking, which has been very good in the context of summer-league play.

Don’t be fooled by Young’s modest six assists over 56 minutes. He would have a lot more assists if he were on the court with a full lineup of bona fide NBA players. A coach for another team at summer league who analyzed Young’s debut on video counted at least six high-level plays he made as a passer in that game.

It’s a good sign for Young that he adjusted to defensive pressure and still made passes that resulted in high-percentage chances for his teammates.

“Definitely, from the last game you can see the growth, the feel of the game, making the right plays and finishing at the rim,” Hawks guard Tyler Dorsey said after the second game. “I think as a team we just couldn’t make any shots.”

Jamaaliver wrote:

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