Staff Blog
76ers Starting Options
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| Sadly, this guy is no longer an option |
| allen-iverson.org |
In a recent post, PhillyBurb’s Tom Moore asks the questions that if it turns out that AI2
and Thad Young can’t play the 2 and the 3 (plausible – AI2 can’t shoot and TY
was far more effective as an undersized four last year) who should the
Sixers start at the two?
He lists four options – Lou Will, Willie Green, Kareem Rush,
and Royal Ivey – but three of them are wrong. We’ll look at all four ATJ
Williams, first Moore’s justification:
Lou Williams did quite well at providing fourth-quarter offense last year.
He is usually able to get to the basket and create easy buckets. But Williams
is lean and 6-foot-1, which makes pairing him with 6-2 point guard Andre Miller
for extensive stretches difficult at the defensive end because they’re so
small.
He’s right that Williams is an effective forth quarter scorer, but that doesn’t necessarily translate throughout an entire game: instant
offense is what Lou Will’s game is geared around. When he played high school ball he was a four
time (!) all-state player in Georgia.
Now while all-state Georgia
isn’t exactly New York, California,
or Indiana
all-state, it is still definitely all-state, and four times is just insane. He
was named their “Mr. Basketball” both his junior and senior years, which is
LeBron/Wanny Wags high school shit. He averaged 26.5, 5.5, and 5.5 as a
freshmen.
This is important because it means that he has been absolutely murdering people
his entire career, he has never not had the mindset to absolutely dominate. That’s
a great mindset to have, but physically he’s not ready to do
that for 35 mins on the NBA level. Williams
is best suited as the first guard off the bench.
Green. From Moore:
Although Willie Green, who was the primary starter at shooting guard over
the past two seasons, is more productive as a starter, he is also relatively
small (6-3) and streaky with his shot.
My take here is an obvious one: Willie Green is awful. I could point to
stats for days, but when push comes to shove there is no facet of Willie Green’s
game that is better than AI2s – Iguodala might be an ‘8′ as a SF and a ‘6′ at
SG, but that 6 is still a huge step up from Willie’s negative 11. Knamean?
Ivey, from Moore
Royal Ivey is a combo guard who is a physical defender with good size (6-4,
215), though he is typically more of a role player.
Not an option and Moore
knows it. Ivey is a great 5th
guard – he plays smart, effective defense and can run a game for spot minutes. He’s not your starting off guard.
That leaves us, of course, with my boy Kareem Rush. From Moore:
Kareem Rush is left-handed and can shoot the 3-ball, but is not known for
his defense. A Western Conference scout who worked games that Rush played for
the Pacers last year said Rush “has a very quick release and a quick first step
going to his left. He doesn’t like contact and tends to float on the perimeter
a little bit.”
Kareem Rush can score, he is more effective with a
post presence like Brand and players like Miller and Iguodala who see the floor
well and swing the ball, and will spread the floor for everybody. On top of that
he’s actually an underrated defensive player.
If AI2 can handle playing everyday minutes at off guard (i.e. develop a jump shot) this is a moot
point. I hope it is.
If it’s not, I
say Rush is the best second option.
Use the comments section to let me know if I’m wrong.
First, let me get this off my chest, Wanny Wags?
My first reaction was shit, there was/is a fabulous high school baller who is totally off my radar, AND is named Wanny Wags? I had another pull of Joe and then decided “nah” – which was a relief
Then I thought I’d save everybody time and go to Google (Google knows everything, in that sense Google is like an annoying but valuable friend).
A search on “WAG” brings back 13,600,000 possibilities. Now I got play par 3 golf later today so I didn’t have time for all of them, but this one from WikiP had promise: WAGs (or Wags) is an acronym used particularly (but by no means exclusively) by the British tabloid press to describe the Wives And Girlfriends of the England national football team.
Now I happen to know that the Sport Complex likes to pound an occasional early morning pint during the “other football” matches at the Dark Horse – so I thought I might be onto something, he does hang with the wannabe British tabloid press after all … but Wives & Girlfriends? still a reach
So I decided to pull out the big gun; Googled “wanny wags” basketball – got 1 return: “The Sports Complex :: Blog Archive :: 76ers Starting Options …”
so there you go
Now, to the issue at hand; another swig of kaffe; so you’re telling me we don’t have a starting 2????
Damn! guess we better play d, pound the boards and run the floor.
Speaking of which, can Elton run the floor with this team?
DeJaun Wagner, c’mon now