Hal14 wrote:BostonCouchGM wrote:Hal14 wrote:Ok well that makes my point even more. Price was quick...and played in an era where the pace and spacing was a notch slower (and less spacing) than today which is why he was able to be an effective starting PG. But Pritchard is slower than Price which is rough since Pritchard plays in an era with faster pace and more spacing which is why he will have a much tougher time to make it as a starting PG than Price had....since Pritchard is slower than Price and Pritchard plays in a faster era so that lack of quickness will really hurt Pritchard..
Not to mention it's a PG dominated league in 2021. The bar has been raised. The bar to be a starting PG, an effective PG, an elite PG is much higher in 2021 than it was in 1991 when Price played. 1991 you had Magic, Stockton, Price, KJ, Hardaway, Isiah and that's it. That's only 6 really good PGs. Ok, Porter makes 7. Payton wasn't good yet, by the time he got good, Isiah was washed up and Magic was retired. The 20th best PG in 2021 is better than the 8th best PG in 1991.
it's okay. Lots of doubters. But he has ELITE BBIQ. Jason Kidd and Lebron BBIQ. He's also got moxie and confidence. None of that would matter if he wasn't an elite shooter and passer but he is. He's also extremely savvy. Anyone who watched him college saw this. Anyone who watched him scrimmage with the other first rounders could see it too. I didn't put him top 5 on my Big Board for laughs. He's the white Kyrie. He's plenty quick too. Kyrie, Lillard, Steph, Harden and Trae manage to dominate without being above the rim athletes so I'm not quite sure why Pritchard is being penalized for it. I think he's a better defender than any of the other top PGs in the league despite not being a high end athlete because of his smarts. It's like Bird. He was a well above average defender because of BBIQ, quick hands, anticipation and effort. If you let him be high usage like all the other top PGs are, he'd put up similar numbers. That isn't going to happen here because of the Jays. But even if that means he's the best #3 in the league as a result, Danny, historically a terrible drafter, knocked it out of the park. Pritchard is 100% a starting PG in this league. Likely top 10 tbh.
Like I've said, doubters won't be forced to admit this until Brad grows some balls and inserts him into the starting lineup. So doubters will be right until that time. But eventually Brad won't be able to deny him. It's just a matter of time.
edit: He's also taller than all-stars Trae, Lowry, Conley, Kemba, and Paul and none of those guys except Conley are above the rim type players but it hasn't held them back much at all.
I'm not sure if you're serious with this post or if you're trolling.
I've seen people refer to you as a troll on here before, so I thought about just ignoring your post.
But somehow your post actually got 2 and-1's so I'll respond.
1) You are severely overrating the importance of basketball IQ and moxie/confidence. These guys are NBA players. For the most part, unless they're one of those guys who's just a freak athlete but is dumber than a bag of hammers, they have solid BBIQ. And again, they're NBA players, most of them have a ton of confidence. Young players in year 1 and year 2, sometimes lack confidence until they really get comfortable out there. That's not the case for Pritchard, which is why he plays with more confidence than Nesmith for example. But in the long run, over time Nesmith is likely to pass him, once he gets comfortable out there and gets his confidence up, since he is bigger, quicker, more athletic and better defender than Pritchard.
2) "He's the white Kyrie" are you kidding me? That's one of the dumbest things I've seen written on this board. Still can't believe this post got 2 and-1's, lol. Kyrie is 10x quicker, more explosive and more athletic than Pritchard. Kyrie is 10x better at ball handling and much better at driving into the lane to create offense off the bounce. Like, it's not even close. Not to mention much better defensively. You lose all credibility with dumb statements like this.
3) Pritchard is not an elite passer. Have you honestly seen elite passing ability from him this season? He's made some nice lob passes to Time Lord but other than that, all I have seen is a undersized PG who struggles to handle the ball, get it across half court and set up offense vs defensive pressure, but a kid who is tough, scrappy, is fearless, good shooter and at times can create offense (mostly just for himself, not as good at creating for others) off the dribble. He hustles and fights but is undersized, slow, not very athletic and is a liability on defense.
He seems to have pretty good basketball IQ but definitely not seeing elite BBIQ, and you comparing his BBIQ to LeBron James is laughable. LeBron is considered to have among the best BBIQ of all time. And I am definitely not seeing elite passing ability from Pritchard. I'd say he's an average passer.
4) You're wrong, Pritchard is not taller than Trae Young or Mike Conley. All 3 of them are 6'1". Pritchard 6'1, Young 6'1, Conley 6'1, Paul 6'0, Kemba 6'0 and Lowry 6'0" are all below average height-wise for an NBA PG. Average height for an NBA PG today is just under 6'3.
Let's look beyond just height. Since obviously there is a handful of undersized PG's who have been really good. Hell, while we're at it, let's also include Rondo 6'1 and Collin Sexton 6'1.
All of these guys are undersized PG's. They are not equal if we look at other areas though...areas where an NBA starting point guard needs to be good in at least some of these.
Quickness
Athleticism
Defense
Ball handling
Passing
Now, let's take Pritchard, Kemba, Conley, Paul, Young, Rondo and Lowry. Let's give them 1 point for each category where they are above average:
Kemba = 3 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling)
Rondo = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing)
Paul = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing)
Young = 4 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing)
Lowry = 4 points (quickness, defense, ball handling, passing)
Conley = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing)
Sexton= 3 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling)
Pritchard = 0 points
It should be noted that the 2 categories Kemba did not receive a point (defense and passing), he is better than Pritchard at both of those.
So clearly all of these guys are WAY better than Pritchard, it's not even close.
If we run this same exercise but we also add more point guards into the mix and include guys who are not undersized (so we include Lillard, Curry, Doncic, Irving, Lamelo Ball, Lonzo Ball, De'Aaron Fox, etc.) and we add "height" as a category and you get 1 point for that category if you are 6'2" or taller so each player can now get up to 6 points, Pritchard looks even worse:
Doncic = 4 points (quickness, ball handling, passing, height)
Lillard = 4 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing, height)
Westbrook = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing, height)
Irving = 6 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing, height)
Harden = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing, height)
Lonzo Ball = 6 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing, height)
Lamelo Ball = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing, height)
Sexton = 3 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling)
Morant = 4 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, height)
Young = 4 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing)
Paul = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing)
Kemba = 3 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling)
Curry = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing, height)
Lowry = 4 points (quickness, defense, ball handling, passing)
Conley = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing)
Holiday = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, height)
Brogdon = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing, height)
Fox = 4 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, height)
Rondo = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing)
Simmons = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, passing, height)
Jamal Murray = 6 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, passing, height)
Dejounte Murray = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, defense, ball handling, height)
Rubio = 5 points (quickness, defense, ball handling, passing, height)
D Russell = 5 points (quickness, athleticism, ball handling, passing, height)
Pritchard = 0 points
As you can see, most of these guys got between 4 to 6 points, only two of them got 3 points. Then you have Pritchard with 0.
This is how Pritchard stacks up to the top 24 PGs in the league. Yes, Pritchard is a good shooter but pretty much all of these guys are. That is table stakes at this point for being a PG in the modern NBA. You need to be able to shoot. But it's having these other attributes (quickness, athleticism, height, passing, ball handling, defense) that puts you in the conversation for being a top 20 PG in the league. Based on this exercise you need at least 3 of those attributes to even be considered among the top 24 PGs in the league..
Oh, and athleticism is not just playing above the rim. There's more to it than that. Here's an example of Kyrie's insane athleticism:
Curry's athleticism:
Young's athleticism:
Harden's athleticism:
Again, I like Pritchard. I'm just not sure he can be a good starting PG in the league, especially for a team with hopes of contending for a title. More than likely, I see him being a solid backup PG who comes in off the bench and gives the team some good energy, toughness and shooting.
Really? I mean, really? Pritchard doesn't get credit for his ball handling, shooting, including to the 3, and driving to dish or score don't count for modern PGs? He's been overwhelmingly playing off the ball as a rook, and somehow he can't pass? BBIQ doesn't count for PGs? And just what elements of D, other than Pritchard being a rook learning NBA competition, that you haven't already given multiple counts to with athleticism, quickness, and height, do you see him lacking in? Who are you, The Yamster's agent?