mojo13 wrote:Mirotic12 wrote:In recent games, AEK started playing with 2 and sometimes 3 point guard lineups, putting multiple ball handlers on the floor while XRM is in the game. And since they did that, he has played much better. If Canada sees him as a two guard, he can be a nice addition for them. But it's much like it is with Phil Scrubb...these guys are not point guards, they are clearly two guards, and Canada should not use them as point guards.
I am with you on Phil Scrubb - I havent liked what I have seen from him for Canada as a PG (he seemed way better at SG). XRM I am not so sure yet as he seemed decent in the G-League last year on the few times I watched him. But you are seeing him regularly at a higher level....
Oliver Hanlan seems another that we need to throw into this mix as a better SG than PG.
We may really need XRM as a PG though - because I am not sure what else is available to Canada for the WC qualifiers besides Kaza Keane, who is growing on me, but not that impressive. It's likely we run with multiple PG/SGs in a line up anyways, to ease the pressure off each other.
Would a Scrubb/XRM starting back court be enough? Since we have very few true SFs too, we'd likely have another guard out there for long stretches too.
Probably against bad teams at those World Cup qualifiers, but I wouldn't try it against any decent team.
slothrop8 wrote:XRM isn't going to play the point for us when he have better participation in other windows - but if he makes himself available for the upcoming qualifiers - he'll be perfectly solid at the point for Canada. He played most PG at FSU, he played PG in the GLeague, he played mostly PG in his cup of coffee in the NBA. He's more of scoring point or really a combo guard rather than a classic distributor/floor general point guard - but he'll be perfectly fine for us if he shows up to play in the windows where we're in tough to get good players to come. As you suggest Mojo - we'll likely have multiple ball handlers on the floor - 2 or 3 combo guard/wing types on at once - that'll be fine. Would I prefer prime Steve Nash? Of course - but XRM would be a nice addition to the squad if he comes.
I wouldn't gamble on XRM playing point guard if I was Canada - not with qualification on the line. Whenever he plays point guard for AEK, their offense is awful. They have 4 guys running offense - XRM, Malcolm Griffin, Giannoulis Larentzakis, and Vassilis Xanthopoulos. The offense looks by far the worst when XRM runs it.
He has some individual qualities, such as: he's very aggressive on offense, he's a good ball handler, he's pretty quick with the ball, he has a pretty good first step and can get dribble penetration, he can do some play making, and he can hit the 3....
He also has some very bad points though, such as: his shot selection is very poor, his decision making is very poor, he has a tendency to be a chucker, he can't properly run screen roll, he can't control the game pace, tempo, rhythm, the offense is totally static and usually comes to a stop with him as point guard, he has a tendency to dribble too much and hold onto the ball too much, and he tries to finish around the rim way too much, considering he's not athletic enough to finish the large majority of the times, yet he keeps trying it, and usually gets blocked.
All in all, you could maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses a lot more if you used him as a shooting guard, while using him as a point guard will just bring out all his weaknesses. Against some of those awful teams at Americas World Cup qualifiers you might get away with it, but I doubt it against any semi competent or decent competition. In Greek League and Basketball Champions League his weaknesses as a point guard are glaring. Granted, that's way higher competition level than playing most of those qualifiers teams though.
I still don't think I would risk it if I was Canada...a somewhat decent team like Brazil or Argentina or something could probably expose his deficiency's as a point guard.
