Troy Hudson is (un)officially the back-up point guard for the Golden State Warriors.
Can rapper T-Hud also resurrect his basketball career?
Tim Kawakami reports on his fantastic blog (by way of Geoff Lepper’s article "Guard Hudson agrees to contract with Warriors") that two people involved in the negotiations have noted that the Warriors have agreed "in principle" with former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Troy Hudson to a one year guaranteed contract worth $1.22 million.
Interestingly, Kawakami considers and compares Hudson to the potential availability of Andrei Kirilenko and which one is a better fit.
However much Kirilenko could fit in Nelson’s system–and yes, oh yes he could–and however well Kirilenko could defend most power forwards… $63M is just too much, given the Warriors’ situation, for a guy who can’t shoot a jump shot.
Hudson definitely fills a need and is, in my opinion, a great pick-up for the Warriors at that price. Although Hudson isn’t a classic pass-first point guard, he seems like he will be a huge upgrade in the ballhandling and dribble penetration department especially for a team that has been particularly fundamentally inept where guards can’t dribble and the big men can’t shoot nor catch passes (was anyone particularly frustrated by the fact that Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson dribbled better than Jason Richardson and Monta Ellis?). Further, it will be a pretty decent insurance policy, too, given how we have come to expect Davis to miss a dozen plus games per season…though Hudson is no stranger to injury, having been slowed the last few seasons with a variety of ankle injuries.
But seriously, if this signing does go through, I definitely welcome the possibility of not having to watch Ellis, heralded as the heir to Davis’ point guard thrown, take over the ballhandling duties when Davis is out of the game. I absolutely could not stand seeing him either get picked or throw lazy one-handed passes either out of bounds or to someone on the opposing team. I’m not saying that Monta will never be a point guard or will never develop into one, but, I guess like some young players, he has seemed resistant to developing his game beyond his comfort zone of being a scorer. Having another point guard might allow Monta to play his more "natural" position of shooting guard, where he seemed to thrive the most last season. But who knows, maybe Hudson will just end up taking over Jassy's role of team cheerleader!
Anyway, what do folks think of this un-official signing? Can Hudson be the answer to our ballhanding woes? And how comfortable would you feel with Hudson as potentially (high potential at that) your starting point guard mid-season?
ALSO: See TheCity415's diary, REPORT: Guard Hudson Agrees to Contract for more discussion!