OT: Article about Point Guards

[lilfishi22]

http://emuss.blogspot.com/2008/08/where ... -gone.html

It's more of a blog than an article but its still an interesting read.

The main point of the blog is about the decline in numbers of pass-first PG's especially in college level, which would eventually affect the NBA. While this isn't anything alarming or new, it certainly does make you think about the evolution of the game going into the future. There will always be a handful of pass-first guys in our league, but it does hurt to think that selfishness is the key to getting into the NBA with college players scoring more just to get noticed. The popularizing of the scoring point-guard by A.I to today's kids is a little alarming and it does take away the importance of what the point guard role is.

Steve Nash is a prime example of the difference pass-first point guards vs. scoring point guard are in getting noticed. Out of the colleges he had applied for he was rejected by them all except for Santa Clara. You could argue that being from Canada he would have even more unknown, but if he was a scoring point guard I think he would have been picked up by one of the more popular colleges.

Being a point guard myself, I have always been fascinated with the idea of being able to dismantle your opponents single handedly without taking a single shot. This is one of the reasons why I love to watch Nash play. It also made me a fan of the Phoenix Suns when we were running the SSOL offense. The fast break run by Nash was nothing short of breathtaking.

I am glad to see that we still have the CP3's and the D-Will's who are leaders of their respective team, and lead not by scoring but by doing what a point guard is suppose to do, run the team. With that in mind, I hope to see more point guard leaders with a pass first mentality to carry the legacy of Pistol Pete, John Stockton, Magic Johnson etc etc.

This is also the first thread I started, so if I did anything wrong let me know Tastic.

[Great]

I don't mind PG's who score.

Nash does both. Isiah (Nash's idol) did both.

Guys like Marbury, Arenas, Iverson, etc don't use the scoring as weapon that gets everyone else involved. Passing is waht they do when they can't score.

I think like really good quarterback really good PG's are rare.

[nba_addict]

PG's who cant score dont have space in the NBA. PG's who cant create and pass dont have space in the NBA. It has to be both.

[lilfishi22]

My view of pass-first PG is that they rather pass but can score when they must. A.I and Arenas are volume scorers, and while they still do pass, they carry the team by scoring. Nash and CP3 carry the team by getting their teams involved. What the article is saying is that point guards in college don't want to play the passing point guard but the scoring PG just to get noticed. I feel it's a shame to see that instead of developing true PG skills, kids these days just develop their scoring, and by the time they get to NBA, you get scoring PG who can't run a team or they are forced to play an undersized 2-guard.

I don't mind PG who score either, but there should be a balance between scoring PG and pass first PG. The point guards I want to see more is not point PGs who rely solely on passing and can't shoot if their life depended on it. I admit it's rare to see a specimen like Nash who put up A.I scoring if he wanted to, but chooses to pass-first. But the trend is the problem here. Pass-first point guards are not as popular these days at college level because the prospect needs to get noticed to get in the NBA.