I’d agree that while Monta at PG is still very much a question mark it’s a bit premature to write the whole idea off. Unless the right deal comes along, chances are we will be looking at a Monta/Jackson backcourt next season. I think that’s the best we can do outside of lucking into Rubio.

I wouldn’t be completely surprised if Monta can turn himself into one of those 5-6 ast per 36min type PG’s. He still has a lot of learning to do before he can do that without seeing his turnovers skyrocket, but it could happen.

To me the most disappointing part about this season was that we didn’t get to see Monta at PG for the whole year. By now we would have had a pretty good idea whether or not Monta could play PG.

i’ve been on the “we just need a good player to play with monta and jack in the backcourt, regardless of position, but probably at the 2 or 3” bandwagon for a while now, so you’re preaching to the choir here. if we find that magical big point guard who loves guarding shooting guards, awesome, i’m in. when we inevitably don’t luck into such a player, another wing defender who isn’t afraid of rebounding with a decent scoring touch would make me very very happy. a player like that is much easier to find. no need to run out searching for a mythical point guard when a respectable sg/sf would be able to help us out quite a bit.

a point guard won’t be necessary but if we want to win a championship,we’re gonna need a real point guard.
Who knows,Monta might be all we need.

Is that we’re manned correctly when it comes to players who get rebounds, it’s just how we use them. Nelson loves to use small ball and that’s the primary reason why our rebounding rate is so low. To take it in perspective look at these stats:

Buike: 2375 Total Minutes (32.1 Minutes/Game), 370 Total Rebounds (5.0 Rebounds/Game)
S-Jax : 2339 TM (39.6 M/G), 303 TR (5.1 R/G)
Crawford: 2087 TM (38.6 M/G), 240 TR (3.3 R/G)
Watson: 1883 TM (24.5 M/G), 192 TR (2.5 R/G)
C-Mag: 1588 TM (31.1 M/G), 282 TR (5.5 R/G)
A-Mo: 1515 TM (22.6 M/G), 199 TR (3.0 R/G)
Ellis: 892 TM (35.7 M/G), 108 TR (3.7 R/G)
Belinelli: 882 TM (21.0 M/G), 71 TR (1.7 R/G)

Biedrins: 1863 TM (30.0 M/G), 693 TR (11.2 R/G)
Turiaf: 1696 TM (21.5 M/G), 360 TR (4.6 R/G)
Randolph: 1129 TM (17.9 M/G), 363 TR (5.8 R/G)
Wright: 688 TM (17.6 M/G), 157 TR (4.0 R/G)

Now let’s look at Rebounds/36 Minutes (Top 10 Only (Minimum 17 M/G)):

AB: 13.4
AR: 11.6
BW: 8.2
RT: 7.6
CM: 6.4
KA: 5.6
AM: 4.7
SJ: 4.7
ME: 4.4

Our 4’s and 5’s have only played roughly ~5400 minutes combined while Buike, S-Jax, and Crawford alone played ~6800. The average NBA team takes in about 41 rebounds a game, If Randolph and Biedrins played 36 MPG they’d have 25 already, which is 60% of the work load already.

Once Nelson stops playing small ball, plays his bigs more often, and once our team gets healthy I think rebounding would be alot better than what we saw this past season.

Even if we draft a big, will Nelson play him? I highly doubt it, here’s the Minutes/G Nelson has played the rookies since the 04 Draft:

18 AR (5.8 R/G)
10 BW (3.3 R/G)
7 Marco
7 POB (1.5 R/G)
15 Ike Diogu (3.1 R/G)
18 Monta Ellis
13 AB (8.2 R/G)

Unless we win Griffin then I don’t think we’ll have that “impact” rebounder this season. If we draft Thabeet he’ll be a backup, DeJuan Blair would be a reach at our current spot at #7 and he most likely does not fit a Nelson type player. The best bets are Earl Clark and Jordan Hill, but if drafted they’ll get the Nellie rookie treatment and will be buried among the many 3’s and 4’s we have now and it’s likely we won’t see em well enough unless (A) Nelson reverts to traditional lineups (B) There are injuries © They are found to be true impact rookies (D) Nelson gets fired/retires or (E) 2+ Season have past.

First post, long time reader.

I completely agree that we can’t completely write off Monta as a point guard and he could end up being a better point guard than anyone we could realistically trade for or draft. Barring the heavens opening up and giving us Ricky Rubio or another Hornets PG steal of the century, we should stick with what we got.

The big issue is that we need a real leader on the floor. We played great this season when everyone was on the same page like the “magnificent 7” seemed to be at the end of the season. When Baron was here, it showed that the rest of the team respected him as a leader and even though he would get lazy sometimes, he could turn it on and the rest of the team did the same. That’s what we lost last summer and one of the biggest things that we are missing at the end of games.

Look at what happened to the Nuggets since Billups showed up. This is also one of the qualities at makes Lebron so great. We need some leadership and discipline and unless we get the kind of player that can bring that (hint: it could be any position), we’re not going to get much better. /rant

As long as we dump a crappy minute eating contract (I’m not here to name names).

he seems himself as a guard, and does preferr to score

ellis talks as if he’s the point guard, if we remember his riposte this season after being asked if that was his role. His job title is almost beside the point—the ball is going to be in his hands a lot until they find a true “distribution” guard, which he will never be. Much of the scouting report from his high school days, when he was point guard but not distributing much, is still largely operative, about his habits to either force the ball into the paint, freeze out his ‘mates, or prefer risky, highlight style passes to bread and butter hit the open guy/ move the ball passing. He still prefers the dribble to the pass, routinely doesn’t see open shooters, and doesn’t really excel at running the screen and roll. Watson worked very hard this season on executing the s & r and is at least as good as ellis already. Folks can say Tony Parker all night, it won’t make it true, whether you’re comparing their passing, or how Parker can mix up his timing and releases, protecting the ball when he penetrates. ellis just attempts to go between, through, or over defenders and never had the mind set to develop interior or inside out passing because he assumed he was superior and could get to the rim.

It won’t hurt the team to call him the point as long as the 2 and 3 have good ball handlers, but neither M’gette nor Azubuike have sufficient proficiency. This is where I can see the draft helping the offense even if a point guard isn’t taken—they might need to take on another project that will require a season or two, like Curry, then deal away ellis.

and his fans’ insistence that ‘it used to be o.k./ it can and will improve’ is such an obvious exercise in denial, it is nearly a futile exercise to bring it up. Those scouting reports from his high school days raised the strong possibility he wouldn’t respond to coaching, and the fact that Smart has been trying to work with him his whole pro career with minimal results strongly suggests that he just doesn’t feel defense, or believes that it defines him as a player. To me that’s a critical lack of depth, and makes him expendable not essential to building a strong team—selling tickets to casual fans and boosting co-well’s bottom line is a different matter of course.

Monta probably wouldn’t work with a ballhog like JR Smith in the backcourt, but Jackson will provide enough playmaking to allow Monta to be more a scoring PG. At least give it a chance.

JR Smith averaged 3.6 assists per 36 minutes this year playing next to Billups and Carter-pretty similar to Jackson’s career average until he was asked to be a primary ballhandler/distributor this year. J.R. Smith also rebounds and scores at around the same per 36 min. rate as Jack while getting his points much more efficiently. He shoots a much better percentage from the floor and from long range. Jack’s D is still better, but considering their respective ages and prices I’ll take JR Smith over Jack any day. I find it very interesting that so many fans dismiss JR Smith as a “selfish ballhog” when the guy has played a HUGE role in Denver’s turnaround and is actually one of the best young 2’s in the game.

look at tony parker, agent zero, and devin harris. All of them are scoring pgs but are still good facilitators

Monta is a liability on defense, but nobody really notices this because on the offensive end he can score easily. If he works on his passing and defense he will definetly be the point guard.

Monta
Morrow
Tayshaun
Randolph
Biedrins

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

it’s only human, for the attitude to shift if there’s $66m. guaranteed. Definite improvements since he was a rookie consist mostly in his becoming a stronger overall athlete, and improving his jump shot. Not in areas that require a high ball-i.q., like defense, or reading the defenders and making adjustments, changing the pace, hitting well timed but not flashy passing. He’s had tutoring from Smart all along, and the other guards, even crawfor-, have shown improvements from Smart’s teaching in areas that ellis has not. He’s young enough to still learn, sure, but he’s been in the league long enough to establish what his learning capacity is. He’s been rewarded for his great scoring ability, and that’s what he’s into above all else. Rondo, who couldn’t shoot at all when he first entered the league, is the same age—consider his progress.

clearly, we won’t really know if ellis has the inner resources (court smarts, motivation) for another season or two to make improvements in areas of his game that don’t come so easily, like playing d or dissecting (as opposed to out leaping or out speeding) opposing defenses. Jae has it right, I think, and it’s why i brought up his big contract—he has to find internal motivation. Without the goad of necessity—Bowen never gets regular employment in the league if he doesn’t put in the huge effort—I really doubt ellis has the needed degree of professionalism and will. He also doesn’t impress me as a thoughtful or reflective person—which is a component of being able to learn from mistakes, whether in life or occupational endeavors. He makes the same careless offensive fouls, turnovers, misplays on defending screen and rolls, over and over. Perhaps he likes to go faster than what his cognitive capacity can really keep under control, on the court or a two wheeler (was it really a moped—pretty unlikely—and if not, why cover up a lie with another?)

As for other possible reasons for Bowen’s late blooming—when did the league start testing for steroids or the other performance enhancers?

or alternatively, puts forth an idea that might bear reflection or consideration. That’s fairly standard english usage, sorry I’m not hip to the nuances of internet chat-speak. I truly don’t know what the union worked out as far as testing for that category of substances, and when it was enforced.

and trade Monta for CP3. Throw in a little Bellinelli or Wright and BOOM! Unstoppable baby!!! The Hornets need to rebuild anyways and Chris Paul can’t be too happy with the current situation there.

you’ve accurately described the situation, sam23. I will add a prediction that both ellis and Wright will miss a minimum of 20% of the season due to physical or emotional ailments, to reinforce your point about not counting on a much healthier squad. It’s well documented that the career winning pct. of the cohan ownership is about .37, noticeable improvement coming only under Karl or Nelson. The ownership itself would have to commit to a long term rebuilding plan that requires their support of a capable g.m., and their record is pretty conclusive that they have no intention of adopting that course.

They might have had an opportunity before they hired Mullin, which in retrospect was a p.r. move/let’s give him just enough authority to screw things up. He was originally a special assistant with Otis Smith senior to him in the office, the same Mr. Smith who’s running Orlando now. After St. Jean, they had the option to promote Smith and the rest is history. Of course Smith was probably glad to get away from the planned chaos. The other option still available is to let Nelson run personnel rather than coach, but he has strongly expressed his desire to stay out of that show—probably all too familiar with the ways of co-well.

The adventures in insolvency for the u.s. auto companies should teach consumers about the choices many companies make—they wouldn’t make difficult investments to keep their products in line with what their customers wanted, but tried to manipulate the customers into wanting the stuff they could produce without committing to making a better product. How many televised sports events did we see for the last twenty years filled with ads for gas guzzling s.u.v.‘s and variants? Co-well’s business plan is not about assembling a championship contender, but to keep profits rolling in, with minimal long term investment in either the personnel running the team or the roster.

Jackson and Biedrins could easily join the group who miss 20% or more from injuries. They are in the select minority who extend themselves on both ends of the floor, have tough matchups on d, and Jackson has a lot of serious mileage. m’gette is clearly in a higher level of risk, bids could start at 20 or 25 games and go up.

i agree with ffgolden about Monta.

1) At least give him a damn training camp at the position!

but i cannot really see Monta as being a good PG. I love him as a player but think we should keep him at SG (even though defensivly it is a problem, but then again the only warriors that really look like defensive presences are AR and Turif and a lil bit of Jack). To me i think we should put Marco Belinelli as our PG because iv seen that he is able to make great plays off assists, and on top of that he is able to score pretty well from deep, as well as drive the lane.