Would Stephen Curry complement Brandon Roy?

[Nikolokolus]

When was the last time Pritchard drafted on "raw physical tools"? I bet we'd have Tyrus Thomas on our team right now if that was his strategy. You might be able to make a case with Oden, but that's a special circumstance and centers are different than dime a dozen athletic scorers.

Never. Because he drafts on both raw physical tools and talent as considerations. Aldridge had both, Brandon had both, and Bayless had both.

You clearly never watched Bayless play for UofA at all last year, and I'll admit I've probably only seen Curry play 5 times between last year and this year, but what I saw did not look like a very good NBA prospect -- if he was quicker laterally or taller or stronger I'd say he would have a decent shot. I suspect he'll find a role as a spot up shooter on some team, but will probably never be a starter.

 

[Nikolokolus]

heh, nice fake correlation to what I said there, it might fool an idiot, you should go into politics

My point was that if you think Greg gets into foul trouble now, just imagine a scheme which centers on our guard's gambling for steals all the time with the hope that our bigs will step into the lane and cut off dribble penetration.

 

[MrJayremmie]

I'm thinking Curry will end up similar to a Daniel Gibson type.

 

[B-Roy]

Do you think kirk hinshit will put us over the top? Or are you more in favor of a 14 man rotation?

What's wrong with believing that our current players can put us over the top?

Why will two years of Nash win us a championship?

What has Curry done to show that he's a better prospect than Bayless?

You're a joke. You just latch on to a couple players and won't let go. I'm glad KP is the GM and not you.

 

[shamelessblazer]

you're right in that I got too involved and overly aggressive with the discussion. I guess I just find hypothetical discussions the most interesting thing on message boards because general observations about the team as is I talk about while watching the game...I could work on my tact, but I don't think it's too much to ask to talk about a player fitting or not hypothetically. I just get annoyed with people who've never seen a guy play and know nothing about his skill set look at a stat sheet and make judgement calls.

OK, this is ridiculous. You can say the same thing about either one. Give Bayless a complimentary role where he concentrates on D to help the team and his defense will improve. Give Curry 30 a game and more of a scoring load and his "defense" will take a hit as well.

That's simply the point I'm making, players who play little's defense is overrated (because they want to amke a statement), this is why a lot of young guys "play good D" then develop offense and have "no D" (Iguodala, Deng, DHarris}, guys gotta find a balance but when players become scorers too much energy goes into that and specifically their D and off-ball movement suffers a lot (BRoy is guilty of this too).

We only have 1 slasher on the whole team w/o Bayless. Curry isn't going to slash... he is good in college...

1. He doesn't play very good competition
2. The gameplan is about giving him the ball and letting him put up a high volume of outside shots

he simply would not be great on our team.

I guess I simply disagree and that's all there is to it, which is fine. I just feel like next year Rudy will be a much more effective slasher and as Aldridge and Oden learn to play off a guy driving and get space/guys learning to lob it up to them all our guys will be better drivers. I also think this is an area Webster can help us with and Batum can develop.

As far as Curry just being a volume scorer I just don't agree. This year he's had to play point and create more for himself but if a guy is hot or open he consistently does try to get them the ball and last year (as a SG) he ran around picks like crazy, never holding it more than a second before firing. Sometimes he did take guys off the dribble but most of the time he just got set and fired. His shot selection is pretty good overall but I think sometimes he has to take bail-out shots when his team is outmatched in athleticism at every position it's hard to find guys to feed, this skews his stats and makes him seem more selfish IMO.

People said Rudy was a high volume scorer in Europe at times too (before his efficiency shot up last year) but he's shown that he can blend here effectively.

And finally, we can't just fill our team with soft, good guys. Every team needs competitive guys with a swagger. Just because someone has confidence and is cocky doesn't mean we should get rid of them. We need that, we need his fire. KP really didn't want off the court problems, he has said various times Bayless' attitude is EXACTLY what we need. So I think it would qualify as a KP guy as well.

I'm not saying Bayless' on-court personality is a huge problem (though with his ultra competitiveness I think if someone beats him he would make dumb mistakes to get back at them, it's his off court arrogance and demeanor I'm more concerned about. I'm not sure Roy or Curry qualify as soft guys just because they're not bodybuilders, I saw Roy get up in David West's face, Pryzbilla doesn't take Shit, and Oden will come around as he gets more comfortable. They are young.

I think Nic Batum was drafted because he had the potential and all the tools to be a great perimeter defender, but was really raw.

Batum was a stat filling young well-rounded machine (who was not a scorer) playing professionally two years ago. He was a projected top 5-10 pick for a while there on draftexpress and was noted for his very high IQ and ability to blend in as a complimentary piece who lets the game "come to him". I followed the dude for years. His team in France was very cheap and let all their scorers go to have the lowest salary in his league last year and expected him to be the scorer (against a bunch of 28 year olds) on a bad team. Nic struggled a lot because his scoring wasn't all there, but he was never just a raw high potential guy, he always showed a lot of flashes of knowing how to use his athleticism in a very coordinated way. Nic slipped because of a bad situation and we got the benefit of that, but we knew we didn't need another scorer right now, more guys that blend are nice and help us get the most out of Roy, Aldridge, and Oden (eventually).

 

[shamelessblazer]

Hammer, nail, WHAM! on the head.

Booby had Aldridge to feed as well as another good swingman (right?) at a top collegiate program with great athletes next to him. Instead he chucked all game long never getting double teamed because of the other good options on the floor.

 

[ehizzy3]

why would you want curry over bayless? bayless is easily the better prospect

 

[shamelessblazer]

See, here's what I am saying. From what I have seen of Curry, and I've watched him. I am a fan. However, I think at the NBA level he will be somewhere between Daniel Gibson and Rudy Fernandez, a good rotation player, a deadeye shooter that helps a playoff team that has a ball dominating SF or SG, but probably not a starter.

Curry can shoot well, he can put the ball on the floor, and he has some Tony Parker-esque finishes. His release is quick and he is intelligent. Now, where he has difficulty is in creating his own shot against bigger defenders, beating his man off the dribble, penetration, and his ability to defend opposing PGs.

Curry is very good at using a little space to get his shot off. Problem is, in the NBA, the space he gets will be even smaller. He could be an All Star, but I doubt it. I just don't think he has the tools to be more than a good rotational player.

I agree with all of this for the most part, I'm just looking at it from a complimentary and playing style ideas (and meshing with Roy). I do think Bayless will be the "better" player, but I do think Curry will be a deadly shooter because of his very quick release, and I feel that his tear drop (and he'll never get doubled because he can turn that tear-drop into a lob to Oden or Aldridge) will make him more effective than most shooting specialists. However if a team picks him to be their "scorer" I think it'll be a bad situation, that's why I'd love him here, and we could provide that scorer (in Bayless) I guess.

I guess the real question is does the way Curry would benefit our other scorers (better passing and floor spacing) outweight the gap in scoring talent and defense between him and Bayless? Maybe, maybe not.

 

[shamelessblazer]

Bayless and Curry are worlds apart when it comes to playing off the ball, getting open, and knowing where to be on the floor. If you can't see that, you must have never watched him play. And teams are sagging off bayless like crazy, you watching the charlotte game right now?

 

[shamelessblazer]

False dichotomy.

Opinion.

Bayless in college wasn't far behind Curry in shooting in a tougher conference. apples to apples.

Bayless had a much better supporting cast and Bayless' team didn't do anything in the tournament, unlike Curry who was incredible in the tourney with lots of pressure.

 

[shamelessblazer]

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Bob Knight says Curry's best asset is his magnificent passing, imagine if he had Rudy cutting or was hitting a rolling Oden on some of those plays.

 

[Natebishop3]

The Blazers need another rookie point guard like we need another forum troll.

 

[Nikolokolus]

The Blazers need another rookie point guard like we need another forum troll.

I sometimes think the Blazers have sucked for so long that some people have literally fallen in love with the lottery and the perpetual motion of repeatedly drafting players with the hope that they are going to come in and somehow instantly be that missing piece we desperately need.

The team we have needs a few years of playing together with a few tweaks here and there -- tweaks that consist of adding the right veteran.


To hell with the perpetual youth movement.

 

[Natebishop3]

I sometimes think the Blazers have sucked for so long that some people have literally fallen in love with the lottery and the perpetual motion of repeatedly drafting players with the hope that they are going to come in and somehow instantly be that missing piece we desperately need.

The team we have needs a few years of playing together with a few tweaks here and there -- tweaks that consist of adding the right veteran.


To hell with the perpetual youth movement.

Agreed sir.