What Kind Of Point Guard Do the Suns Need?

[George O'Brien]

The Suns have a tradition of having excellant point guards. Playing with a novice like Barbosa was not always a plus, but he can probably play the position if he is given the chance. The real question is whether he would be the kind of point guard the Suns need.

There is more than just distributors and shooters. Some PG's are very good at running the break like Kidd and Nash. Some guys are better as shooters like Bibby and Billips. Some guys create by driving to the basket like Marbury. Some guys use their defense to create turnovers like Payton used to do (which is by Barbosa gets compared to him). And so it goes.

I felt that Marbury's style of drive and kick out was totally unsuited for the Suns personnel. He would slow down the offense trying to set up a breakdown drive to the basket. If he couldn't break his man down, he'd shoot. Eisley's problem was that he tried to play the same way.

Usually, point guards that are described as "create" are ones that run the break a lot. Jason Kidd is not as creative in the half court set.

What do the Suns need? Are they going to have to get different players or change their style?

 

[Chaplin]

Do we need yet another George O'Brien thread?

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Do we need yet another George O'Brien thread?

ouch

 

[scotsman13]

the 3 most important skills we need out of a point guard are:

1. the ability to get the ball into the post to amare.

2. the ability to hit the 3 pointer if they drop off of him to try to double amare.

3. play defense strong enough that it slow the other team down before they ever get into the half court set.


barbosa fits 2 of these abilities right now without any problems. now given a little time i personally think that he will fit the last one by the end of these year.

 

[slinslin]

A good one.

And do we need yet another totally uncalled for and not necessary Chaplin one-liner?

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

the 3 most important skills we need out of a point guard are:

1. the ability to get the ball into the post to amare.

2. the ability to hit the 3 pointer if they drop off of him to try to double amare.

3. play defense strong enough that it slow the other team down before they ever get into the half court set.


barbosa fits 2 of these abilities right now without any problems. now given a little time i personally think that he will fit the last one by the end of these year.

JJ fits all 3 of them right now. As the team currently stands, I prefer it when JJ intiates the offense instead of Barbosa. Leandro looks to score and slash just like Marbury did. JJ has the height advantage that should allow him to hit Amare every time down.

Not to mention it has been proven that JJ needs to be consistantly involved in the offense in order to be productive. By letting him get a guaranteed touch every possesion, I think he wil be able to stay more in rythm

 

[scotsman13]

right now the barbosa brings the ball up court and then hand it to jj. about the only time that he gets free reign is when he gets a steal and he is the only one on close to the basket. running the offense through jj isnt bad but i think we need to start leting barbosa run it sometimes to so that he can grow as a point guard.


i pesonally dont think that we will draft a point guard in the draft and would think that it was saying that we were trading whoever we picked if we did.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

right now the barbosa brings the ball up court and then hand it to jj. about the only time that he gets free reign is when he gets a steal and he is the only one on close to the basket. running the offense through jj isnt bad but i think we need to start leting barbosa run it sometimes to so that he can grow as a point guard.


i pesonally dont think that we will draft a point guard in the draft and would think that it was saying that we were trading whoever we picked if we did.

But why must he grow as a point guard? He hasn't shown me and overwhelming PG qualities besides his height. He is a combo guard, and is only a combo guard because he can't guard most 2gs (as is the reason for the term combo guard now).

However, it doesn't matter to our team since we have an oversized PG available. Let JJ intiate the offense almost everytime down the floor. I am not sayin we should cut Barbosa out, but let him play where he excells right now. He can lead the break as you said because of his speed, and he can drift out to the 3 point line during double teams.

You can't give Barbosa free reign because as it stands, he is a turnover machine. If you let him dominate the ball, he will more times either loose it, or cause someone else to. You saw how bad the offense got with Marbury, why would we want a younger version doing the same thing??


I agree we will not draft a PG with this teams current makeup. There is already a big enough backlog anyways. However, we could easily trade either Barbosa or Vujanic as part of a McGrady deal, and if we are very very lucky, get rid of Eisley somehow. If any of those happens, you have to take a long look at who is left on the board.

 

[slinslin]

Lets say Barbosa , Vujanic and Gordon were in the draft and available at our pick.

I would take Gordon any day of the week and twice on sundays. Just because we have a couple of decent or maybe even good prospects doesn't mean we should pass up on a better prospect.

And Milos Vujanic could be used as a shooter off of the bench like Casey Jacobsen. We might not even bring him over or keep his rights especially if he has big salary demands.

I don't think Vujanic can do anything that Gordon can't do as well or better and Gordon is much younger and has proven himself in college.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Well Slin, you are just bringing back whether the suns should draft based on need, or take the bpa.

Realistically, this team has a need for a better starter at 2 positions. We have guys at both positions, that could possibly fill those roles with enough playing time. It really comes down to who is left on the board. Personally, I would take Biedrins or Marty (no way im going to look up his full name right now) over Gordon at this point, however, I would definitely take Gordon over any of the other big man projects this year.

We also have to take into consideration there is a good chance we could try and move the pick if it is the #7. If we actually expect to push hard in the FA market this summer, that extra 2 million in cash could become very important to us (not to mention any other salary we could move along with it).

 

[Chris_Sanders]

The only way Vujanic will be coming is if he gets a chance to play. Drafting a PG would defeat that.

Personally, I think our weakness is still rebounding and shot blocking. I would rather give Vujanic and Barbosa a chance to fail before I go addressing a spot that isn't even our top priority right now.

 

[Mainstreet]

Chris_Sanders The only way Vujanic will be coming is if he gets a chance to play. Drafting a PG would defeat that.

I agree unless the Suns feel Vujaric is just not the type of PG they want or they just like Gordon a great deal better. Barbosa is definitely a keeper as a PG, SG or a combo guard. He just needs more time to develop.

I'm hoping the Suns select a physical C/PF type player in the draft providing he has the talent to develop into a good NBA center.

Immediate help up front needs to be addressed through free agency or trade. This appears to be a good year to select among several big men. I can only trust the Suns can find one that has game and can develop quickly.

 

[Joe Mama]

I believe the Phoenix Suns will take the best player available with a preference for a big man. In other words if it's a tough decision they will go with the frontcourt player. To be honest, what I've read about this Marty does not excite me all that much. It's just so difficult to talk about these big guys because we haven't seen them. I do like what we've heard about Biedrinis, but my guess is that he'll be gone before #7.

Don't you all wish we could at least watch just a few of these workouts? I know I do.

Joe Mama

 

[sly fly]

I believe the Phoenix Suns will take the best player available with a preference for a big man. In other words if it's a tough decision they will go with the frontcourt player. To be honest, what I've read about this Marty does not excite me all that much. It's just so difficult to talk about these big guys because we haven't seen them. I do like what we've heard about Biedrinis, but my guess is that he'll be gone before #7.

Don't you all wish we could at least watch just a few of these workouts? I know I do.

Joe Mama

If you're the Suns, you take the best player available. Period.

All we heard last year was how Darko Milicic was "THE SECOND COMING". The pre-draft media blitz put this guy on a pedestal second to none.

Detroit bought it hook, line, and sinker.

After reading some of these outlandish scouting "reports" on some of these guys THIS YEAR, how can anybody put any credence into them?

Sure, there's going to be one or two who surprise. But, this Euro craze thing is getting out of control.

DISCLAIMER: I caught Darko in action a few games this year (mostly mop-up duty). I still think he's going to be phenomenal. The kid has the tools. But, the stories I read about him before the draft seemed to think he was ready to contribute right away.

 

[George O'Brien]

I'm hoping the bad press Darko got will scare people off of Biedrins since Biedrins gets compared to Darko due to his athleticism (stylistically they are very different).

The only point guard I'd be interested in would be Brent Barry through free agency. I saw an article about possible interest by the Sixers recently. I've undoubtedly missed a few, but I think BB has been mentioned by the papers connected with half the teams in the NBA.

BB has the strangest stat line in the NBA:

Brent Barry
Seattle SuperSonics
Position: G
Height: 6-6 Weight: 203
College: Oregon State '95
Player file | Team stats

2003-04 Statistics
PPG 10.8
RPG 3.5
APG 5.8
SPG 1.44
BPG .27
FG% .504
FT% .827
3P% .452
MPG 30.6

There is no other guard that is even close to him in shooting percentage and his three point percentage is through the roof. Yet he has been used mostly as a distributor type PG and he has more assists per game than Mike Bibby or Gary Payton. This season he had more steals per game than Payton.

One of the reasons Brent was so valuable ,inspite of limited scoring, was that his shooting skill prevented teams from doubling Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. At the same time, he scored as much as Reggie Miller in similar minutes without an offense geared to getting him open like the Pacers have.

I don't know if Brent is going to leave Seattle, but if he does, he is likely to be second only to Kobe in terms of popularity this summer.

 

[Dylan]

I think one of the main reasons for this Euro craze is that there are
sure a lot of big ones. Most teams need centers , and there isn't
enough to go around, that are good. So here comes a list of
big guys that are young, and really tall. Teams hope they can
get their center problem solved. Without the Euros, there would be
a lot fewer big men in a draft.
Before they all started getting in the draft,there were so few big men available that unless you drafted early, there just wasn't anything at all.
If you drafter later, like the Suns did for so
many years (when they were winning year after year) , there just
wasn't anything. One of the reasons we haven't never had any centers.
And when we did get in the lottery, we were so desperate for size, '
we picked Gilliam and Bedford... just to get a big man.
Now you can be later in draft, and still get a shot..

When Nowitzki worked, everything just exploded. Before that,
the flood was just a trickle. And it made all these kids in Europe
think they were ready to get to the NBA....

 

[Dylan]

And to also add, there doesn't seem to be the same rush for the
guards, they aren't spread out in the first half of the round like the
bigs. Of course, bigs always go earlier, but teams are gonna fall for
a big man with no experience then a small guy. The small guys don't
seem as eager to get here either, as they don't have the heighth
advantage of big Euros, and as a matter of fact, have a speed problem
with American guards. Interesting how the best point guard in Europe
isn't here cause he doesn't want to sit the bench..