On Tyreke Evan's Chaste Chalice: A Follow-up

Good piece. I think that we can get past the need to blame the issue of the Kings on not having a pure point guard. That may help some of us get past passing on Rubio.

Maybe it isn’t so much whether or not you have a pure point guard if the system you are using doesn’t absolutely demand that talent. Obviously GP thinks that the Princeton offense is one such system. He seems to shun pure point guards and only go after combo guards.

Other analysis?
Perhaps there is way to measure the type of offensive, categorically, and see how the purity of the point guards relates to wins across the different categories. We could type offense and then factor in, logistic regression here, purity of PGs… Have done a log reg in forever.

Does transition games, such as the Suns, benefit from pure PGs. Anecdotally, one would have to say yes given Nash… Do half-court games favor Combo guards? Parker and the Spurs? Interesting…

Your advanced stats analyses are always both fascinating and fun.

Personally, I think that a couple of months from now we’re all going to look back on all the ink being dedicated to “Is Tyreke Evans a Point Guard” and wonder what the hell all the fuss was about. I won’t bother going into all of the “this successful team has this guy in this position and that guy in that position, compared to that other team…”; the point is teams can be successful in a number of different ways, and it’s the job of the coaching staff and management to maximize and utilize the talent that they have to score more points than their opponent.

I’m pretty confident that Westphal, Coachie, and Petrie have enough Offensive acumen between them to allow Tyreke and Kevin to both do their thing on the court, however the positions end up shaking-out.

from both you and Hollinger. I’ve said it before, but this is the kind of meat and potatoes that keeps me coming back to Sactown for my Kings news. Love the Bee, but you can imagine getting this kind of analysis there? Maybe it’s just that the average fan doesn’t care for this kind of breakdown, but I love it. Keep up the great reporting. Recd.

and time will definately tell one way or the other.

Starting to look like Sergio for now though.

Steve Nash, John Stockton, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Lenny Wilkins, Bob Cousy, isaiah Thomas, Jason Kidd = the greatest PGs of basketball. Can we compare Tyreke Evans to these guys – NO (that was a resounding negative). These guys had point guard in their DNA (gene mapping reveals it is located on the #1 allele and closely associated with the BB IQ gene, dexterity gene and visual acuity genes). That is their nature.

What of nuture – can an NBA point guard be built? Can Larry Brown (a strong PG teacher and former 1-Guard) or Don Nelson (the progenitor of the point forward) construct a capable, serviceable point guard? One could argue that Tony Parker, Devin Harris and the most often used example, Russell Westbrook are all examples of “system generated” success. Gilbert Arenas, is a point guard of sorts (when not injured) and Larry Brown’s use of Allen Iverson (getting him to pass the d*** ball) are other examples of making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, basketball speaking. If Tyreke is not quite a point guard – can Paul Westphal show some Optimus Prime and transform hiim to look like one?

One other point as the spark to this discussion is statistics, formulas and numbers – the use of concrete to describe the abstract – sometimes the figures can create or dismiss success. Mayor Kevin, and rookie Sun Nash were statistical failures when they started in The Association. Systems and score keepers pothole or pave the path to acceptability. If Tyreke averages oh, let’s say, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals in 28 minutes per game this rookie season – will that sate the appetite of those who determine who is or is not a point guard? Or are we all going to use our eyes and brains to say – “I can see it” or “square peg in a round hole” – and is one year enough to make that call?

Questions abound, answers are few.

I have to appreciate Hollinger’s willingness to engage with us StR folks, I think it is great, and it has certainly raised my opinion of him. It’s way cool that he engaged us in a dialogue and provided us some extra insight that, without any basketball to watch, is much appreciated!

I do enjoy the systems out there (e.g. PER) that put value on player performance, however I still believe that when we are looking at human behavior there are many more factors to take into account. Simple setting events like moving to a new town, playing with new teammates, or living with a neighbor whose dogs keep you awake at night can all lead to muddled predictions and skewed results, despite past performance.

That being said, I believe we have a lot to look forward to. Regardless of position, Evans looks to be an impressive player. Let’s just hope that knee heals quickly!