ILH OPO

in which you can only pick one

if you could have only one restricted FA who was not extended for the next 4 years, which would it be?

Gordon Hayward
Eric Bledsoe
Greg Monroe
Evan Turner
Avery Bradley

Monroe

i think i would bet on hayward becoming a borderline all-star on the wing... feel like monroe has essentially peaked

it's def one of those two. i think questions abt hayward's defense limit his value somewhat. monroe not amazing at defense either but i think i'd go with him.

I like Hayward a lot too, but decent wings are more common than high IQ big men. It's apples v oranges with those two.

i think hayward is a pretty awesome defender actually, tho is ceiling is probably gallinari/redick level borderline all-star. monroe is already there

i was an early adopter with bledsoe but i sort of thought he became overrated in nba nerd circles this summer -- he's playing incredible now obv but i'm still skeptical that a guy with his size and lack of shooting can be a potent offensive player over an entire season. brilliant defensive player though and fun to watch, so i'm rooting for him

turner i have no idea, he looked so bad last year but apparently he's lost some weight and looks really good so far. haven't caught the sixers yet really so no updated opinion of him

bradley is one of my favorite players to watch but i'm not convinced point guard defense is all that impactful and he'll always be a limited offensive player. easily the last pick here

bradley might be my pick if we knew for sure his arms weren't going to pop off lego-style at some point in his career, and i was running a team that was already a contender and needed a third guard to come in and blanket a guy like chris paul for 20 minutes. that stretch where the c's defense went from middling to historically destructive just because he came back from injury was amazing

not sure he will ever really be enough of a 1 to be a credible backup point in a three-guard rotation the way say jason terry was in his prime, and he doesn't have enough outside shooting ability either, so that probably does leave him last

hayward would be my pick if i were convinced he at some point will look older than 19

i'd probably grab monroe because even if he's peaked i could say we've got a well-above-average center and can work outward from there. do we have to max him out in this scenario?

opo pg 25 years old and under

kyrie > westbrook > rose > curry >> wall > bledsoe > lillard > lin >>>> the rest

hmmm of that list i'm really tempted to take curry

i factored in age, ceiling, and perhaps most importantly injury history

yeah his injury history is concerning

given kyrie's age he might be the best pick but i'm not convinced he'll ever be an all around better player than westbrook, rose or curry

lillard looks much improved this year and def belongs a tier or two above Lin, would prob take him over wall and def over Bledsoe right now, maybe even rose all things considered.

lol w Rose and Kyrie in there then (re injury history)

ah there's so many good PGs

lillard's definitely been killing it but i think i'd take wall over him

wall's making two three pointers a game now!

those top 4 are in their own tier and all have concerning injury histories, but i picked kyrie mainly because of his age

agree with clay that there should be another > between lillard and lin

curry

currys injury history is kinda overblown imho, he missed a bunch of games one season

eh there seems to be some structural problems with his ankles

lillard > wall imo but just barely

not sure wall has the motor/drive to win that lillard has

wall's making two three pointers a game now!

dame is making 4 on 45% shooting!

kyrie > curry > westbrook > rose >> lillard > wall >>> bledsoe >>>> lin

thats a lot of good point guards under 25 huh

this answer would be a lot easier if there was a clear way to quantify defense

all of them are kinda (formerly knows as) hybrid PG's too

mcw prob belongs in this conversation already

its interesting none of them are really good defenders even tho a few of them like westbrook really have no excuse for not being monsterous

Bledsoe is a good defender

true

all of them are kinda (formerly knows as) hybrid PG's too

― Me & Mahomies (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Tuesday, November 12, 2013 1:36 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah thats p crazy that its true of all of them

well bledsoe is an awesome defender and lin and russ are probably barely-plus defenders, but yeah the dudes like russ/rose/lillard should all be monster defenders given their size and athleticism

jrue and tyreke I guess on the lower end of things too, jeez there's like 20 of these guys

i guess isaiah thomas too

tyreke is "the rest"

tyreke is not good

could prob leave lin off the list

isiaiah is cool, probably with Lin

yeah xp

i think lin is p underrated, also he's having a pretty nice start this year. but yeah he's on the lower end

lin's having a really, really good season but he'll regress some & is probably not really in the group we're discussing

pretty sure re: the hybrid pg convo, if say wade were 6-8 years younger he'd have been drafted as a big burly point guard, maybe the coaching culture has changed some

his shooting has really improved over the last year or so, he's shooting somewhere in the mid-40s from 3 this year (and iirc shot well in the second half last year too). which is something he has to do to play with this rockets team

re wade yeah it's possible... positions are def more fungible now

wade's game was always pretty 2 guard though, just a total slasher/post-up type

also lin is already 25

didnt wade play a bunch of point at one point

yeah but it didn't feel real the way it might now

there's teams like the Pacers now who don't even really have a PG and still manage.

rip the best position in basketball

kyrie > westbrook > rose > curry >> wall > bledsoe > lillard > lin >>>> the rest

so is this lillard now? I don't want to overreact to that shot but I mean he's in the conversation at the too after this year.

also this whole question could be reassessed after this year maybe?

i would still probably take russy over lillard

and curry too, probably

i think i'd go

1. curry
2. russy
3. lillard
4. wall
5. kyrie
6. rose

there's teams like the Pacers now who don't even really have a PG and still manage.

also lol at this in retrospect. November was heady times huh

I'd probably put Bledsoe ahead of Rose just because dude is such a major question mark at this point. IT2 just below that. Otherwise probably agree in principle.

those top 5 are pretty much a rorschach test though

agree with jordan's list except russ > curry

curry's shooting and playmaking are so insanely elite that i think it pushes him over the top even though of all these guys his defense probably will always be the worst

as far as dame vs russ i think it's worth nothing that dame is a 43% career FG shooter in a pretty wide open offense and i shudder to think what that number would look like in okc's "oh fuck there's 9 second on the shot clock and we still can't get durant the ball" offense

still a PG who can make 40% of his threes on 7 threes per game is incredibly compelling

my big dream for the offseason is dame working on becoming a semi competent defender

Russ on the blazers would be seriously terrifying

curry is a better defender than illard

curry is the only one of this group that i think just doesn't have the body to be a good defender, also he's the entire engine of the offense so he can't go 100% on the other side

i'm not sure if dame is strong enough to be good but he could probably get to "decent". i think a lot of it is just getting stronger especially in his lower body