In an interview with Bleacher Report featured columnist Peter Emerick, NCAA and NBA champion point guard for the Miami Heat, Mario Chalmers, has declared himself to be " in the front end of the top 10 [point guards in the NBA]".
The comment was made in response to Rajon Rondo claiming to be the best PG in the game. This is obviously a posturing statement made by Chalmers, but it did spark a short but interesting conversation with a friend of mine:
Matt: I would take a 40 year old, drunken [Jason] Kidd before Chalmers. Ray [Allen] would be a better PG (maybe that's how he expects to get more playing time).
Curt: I expect him to take Chalmers' starting spot.
Matt: I was partly joking, since Ray is such a run-around-in-circles-off-five-screens-then-catch-and-shoot player, would you (if you had [Eric] Spoeltra's job) have him bring up the ball? Or would you forget the traditional system and have LeBron (LBJ) be the handler since he's such an explosive driver and arguably the best passer? Personally, this would be my initial move:
Point player: LBJ
Wings: Ray and [Dwyane] Wade
Post players: [Chris] Bosh and [Udonis] Haslem (?)
Curt: I've always said that LBJ should be the point.However, Ray Allen is a great PG. It prevents him from getting the one-pass shot, but all you have to do is run a play like you'd run for any other shooting PG (Derron Williams, Mo Williams, Delonte West, Jason Kidd) and he'd have an open shot. Furthermore, the notion that Ray isn't as good off the dribble as Jason Terry, while true, is misleading. Ray Allen, off the dribble, is one of the smoothest drivers I've ever seen, and his touch at the rim is so effective that, I'm going to get killed for this, I usually prefer him to drive over Paul Pierce.I see very little reason to have the same guy bring the ball down unless it's a diva like D-Will or if it's a real PG like Steve Nash or Rajon Rondo.
I'm probably way off the mark here. Sound off in the comments and let me know why I'm wrong.
I won't argue against Ray being a solid driver. But as fit as the guy is, his ankles have a history of problems, and I would like him not risking coming down and rolling them, etc. Pierce being bulky and arguably one of the best at drawing a foul is the reason I always like him driving--the strength helping him to finish at the basket and he isn't a terrible free throw shooter. His knees now being a concern...have to leave it to the young guys.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the Heat: if Ray starts, that seems like an awful lot of jump shots. But then, I don't know how that differs from Chalmers. What you gain with Ray is efficiency and range, but Chalmers seems slightly more pass-first based on average assists. I found a cool player-comparison site:
http://tinyurl.com/96jusbz
But this sort of confirms that LeBron would be the better point, Ray on the wing.
And getting back even further to Chalmers claiming he's a top 10 PG: Generally you are a passer (my definition of PG) or scorer (most people's metric) and he fails at both. His only argument is on defense where his steals average is very solid for PGs, and his S/PF is even better (unfortunately I can't find that stat for Ray). I guess which is needing the most help, offense or defense?
Sorry, I think my response is longer than your article.