Boris Diaw

[rsavaj]

You guys have had a good chunk of games to evaluate him. He remains one of my favorite players, but I'm just wondering what Bobcats fans thnk of him?

[BigSlam]

I'm a big fan.

I think he's only scratching the surface too. If he could learn to be a little more aggressive and look for his own shot more, the team would greatly benefit IMO. He's unselfish to a point of fault.

So long as we have a dominating rebounder at the 5 and Crash, who is one of the best rebounding SF's in the game, on either side of him, I love Boris at the 4.

[Dexmor]

I actually like him but I don't think he should be our 4.
I don't mind him at the 4 but if they trade Wallace and Bell for a good sg who is a star they can go with Brown and Diaw like Hedo and Lewis both combo forwards.

[fatlever]

just wait til battery gets a hold of this thread. lol.

wednesday night left a really bad taste in my mouth about boris. i thought he was pretty damn good last season, but wednesday he was awful.

i just wish he had a little more passion and commitment for the game.

i dont know how much his conditioning has to do with the ankle and how much has to do with poor offseason work ethic. boris has been known to be lazy in the offseason so it hard to say it was only the ankle.

[Bassman]

We were warned by Phoenix folks who have seen the good Boris/bad Boris show (...and we've lived with good Jake/bad Jake for too long). Diaw is well liked by most everyone, but he's not the best option for the power forward we need. This team lacks rebounding, needs a true post up player who you can go to in the crunch, and Diaw just doesn't help us enough there. I think Boris is best used as a 6th man on a quality team. His passing is excellent (more a point forward than anything), has some scoring ability, and plays OK perimeter defense. He's versatle.

As stated before, I would love to trade Diaw and something for a quality big PF like Boozer. Don't see it happening unless some team with a surplus decides Boris is that magic last piece of the puzzle to get them a championship. He could BE that for some team, just not ours. Hopefully his play improves and we can parlay that idea into a big 4 building block for our team.

[spectre_]

I'm a big fan.

I think he's only scratching the surface too. If he could learn to be a little more aggressive and look for his own shot more, the team would greatly benefit IMO. He's unselfish to a point of fault.

So long as we have a dominating rebounder at the 5 and Crash, who is one of the best rebounding SF's in the game, on either side of him, I love Boris at the 4.

Ditto to this.

Congrats on getting mod rsavaj!

[ALL HAIL]

Can Diaw run the point?

Please don't respond saying he can't guard PGs. When I ask can he play point guard, I am asking can he play PG on offense. On defense he would still play PF or SF.

If Diaw was fully capable of running the point 80% of the time with Jax picking up the other 20% ... Iverson should be signed pronto.

If Diaw can't handle those duties ... a trade of Felton is forthcoming.

[Walt Cronkite]

I don't think he's best suited playing at the point for this team. We need him operating out of the high and low posts (preferably the right, since he can't go left). If there was a true post player on the roster then my answer would be different, but even then 80% of the time is pushing it. I could see Jackson operating from the point the majority of the time in either situation.

Diaw has great vision for a player of his size and he's a crafty passer, but he can't handle any real guard positions because his offhand dribble is so weak.

[ALL HAIL]

Thanks for the response dude!

I like Jax a lot but question whether he could handle the brunt of the ball handling duties either.

Judging by your response, signing Iverson would more than likelly be a bad move.

There are upgrades to Felton and DJ out there ... Jarret Jack off the top of my head is one.

[thruthefire]

LOL at Jarret Jack being an upgrade.

[chabber]

Come on thru. They are at least comparable. No need to bag on the guy.

I pretty much agree with what Slam wrote on Boris except for the fact that I don't expect him to change much. I wish we'd run the offense through him more to get it out of Felton's hands. To me that is part coaching and part PG play instead of Boris not being aggressive. I especially want the ball in his hands more in the 4th as Felton has come off the bench back into several games and lost it for us all on his own when the offense was running semi-smoothly before he got in.

[amcoolio]

Jarrett Jack is, without a doubt, worse than Felton and DJ and on a MLE contract. I tried to tell Toronto fans that Jack was a mistake, now they have Jack and Banks making lots of money with similar production.

[chabber]

I know he is on a MLE deal and overpaid but I don't think there is such a gap between them that it was worth laughing in someone from another boards face about it who's been pretty nice in this thread.

[fatlever]

contracts aside, i would rather have jack at this point.

with jax and boris, we dont really need a true pg who needs the ball. we just need a guard who can handle the ball, get it over halfcourt, beat the press at times and get into the lane. the dj of last year would work great.

[ALL HAIL]

I wish we'd run the offense through him more to get it out of Felton's hands ... I especially want the ball in his hands more in the 4th

But could he (Diaw) handle running the offense for the whole game? That's the real question. I don't trust Jax enough to be my full time general ... but there is something in Diaw that suggests he might be able to handle it. Although Cronkite provided insight into his lack of an off hand.

[chabber]

In the high post or low post, yes, I believe he'd be fine. He creates more opportunities for other players than our PG's do at this point.

[MilZo]

In 05-06, at the end of the season, D'Antoni rested Nash for a game and since there was no real backup point guard, Boris got the start at point guard and played about 43 minutes. I've never been able to see this game, but his line is pretty impressive: triple double, including 16 assists (5 turnovers).

The boxscore:
http://www.nba.com/games/20060414/PHXGSW/boxscore.html

The recap:
http://www.nba.com/games/20060414/PHXGSW/recap.html
("Boris Diaw picked up the slack in Nash's absence, recording his third triple-double of the season with 11 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 16 assists. He handed out 10 assists in the first half, helping the Suns to a 55-47 lead.

"He's (Diaw) our best set-up guy," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We play a lot through him. He had 16 assists and that's really good. He's pretty versatile. He knows how to play basketball, there's no doubt about it.")


I've followed Boris for his whole NBA career outside of his Atlanta years and that's the only time he was the true point guard in this time. As far as his point guard defense is concerned, he does a good job on most of them. He was the one tasked with defending Tony Parker when Grant Hill got injured in the last 3 games of the 07-08 series vs the Spurs (he started in his place at small forward and had great games at both ends of the floor). Imo he tries to go over the screen a little too often when he defends PGs on the pick & roll, but he often does a good job at recovering and ends up contesting their shots well enough thanks to his length.