I don't know if he is dumb or not, but I can tell you this, he spends way too much time trying to figure out what he wants to do next, and the worst time is when the ball is in his hands. When he is holding the bball and he isn't wide open, his head starts swinging like it's on a swivel. He even got a 5 second call tonight on the inbounds play. What in the world was he doing bringing the ball in? Way, way, way too much hesitation in his game. And he is tremendously one dimensional. To me, if a guy stands there with the ball trying to figure out what to do as the shot clock runs down, he misses the post up pass, he misses cutters, even though we get off a buzzer beater shot, that is the same thing as a turnover. It just doesn't show up in the stat column. Luther misses the simple post pass so many times or it takes him an extra 5 seconds to make a decision on where to go with the ball and that eliminates about 70% of our offensive options and typically eliminates the best option as the defense recovers on the block and forces us to have to swing the ball around on a short clock to get off a hurried shot. Bad shot rushed to beat the shot clock = turnover + .1 points. In other words, there ain't a whole lot of difference.
I like to see a well written post that is right on the money. His negatives do outweigh the positives. EVERY single game I am screaming at the TV at Luther, "YOU STUPID IDIOT!!!!", etc etc, and also with Rafer, and you know he has to have been coached by now not to do some of the things he does, but he still does them as if he doesnt listen or just doesnt understand. Did you see Tracy get on him at the end of the game? (and Rafer too when Rafer caused that incredibly stupid foul, even if it was all ball, you dont reach in with 1 second left on the shot clock)
Good post. The question for me is, does JVG keep giving Head (no pun intended ) time to get used to playing the PG position in hopes that he develops, or is it time to give up and look for an alternative - yet again? Most posters seem to be for the latter.
Head's a keeper. He's definitely one of the better young guys we have, but that said, Head shouldn't be played at the point at all. Ideally, his role on this team would be to be a Ben Gordon. Come in and kickstart the offense. And you guys are right. I'm not liking what I'm seeing with him lately. Even in his rookie year, he seemed less hesitant and unsure on offense. Now it seems like he doesn't know whether to jack the 3, or to drive. It's frustrating at times.
head inbounding the ball is a boneheaded move by jvg. he's done in numerous times when it's obvious head struggles finding anyone on the court. i think one of the former coach announcers on espn or tnt even pointed it out, saying that they preferred to have a bigger player inbound the ball because they could see over the defenses. mind-boggling that head continues to be called on for passing duties when that is the biggest weakness in his game....so blame luther for boneheaded passes or inability to even get rid of the ball, but blame jvg more for either not recognizing or failing to adjust and play to luther's STRENGTHS rather than his obvious, glaring weakness.
I wonder if Head's situation is similar to Yao a few years back, when JVG would set up Yao in the post but he'd clearly have a difficult time, often getting pushed out of position or stripped of the ball. A lot of people were saying how JVG was not playing to Yao's strengths (passing and at that time outside shooting) and was trying to make him into a bruising postup center a la Ewing, something that Yao was not. At least back then. It took some time, but Yao learned how to play in the post and now, well, everyone knows how that turned out. So maybe this is what is going on with Luther. Maybe JVG believes Luther is worth the growing pains to make him decent at the PG position? Just a thought.
Another problem that was created by JVG... Luther is a spot up shooter and a cutter, not much more His passes are weak and he can't dribble You can not let this guy run the team or make game time decisions I like him, but JVG makes him look bad
Ofcourse if Luther does become a good PG, most people will accredit it to him being a strong worker and JVG still isn't willing to develop players
Head just confuses the ever loving christ out of me. When T-Mac went down for that stretch early in the season he turned into the 2nd scorer on this team with Yao. He was penetrating, shooting midrange jumpers, and hitting 3's. WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT PLAYER? I'm not sure if it's the expectations of him running the PG position or he just lost that swagger he used to have. He HAS the atheleticism to do all of those things. He is not the best ball handler, but is sufficient to get by his man. It is just frustrating. Overall these guys need to attack the middle of the floor. Don't settle for long range bombs when you're not hitting them.
He is a limited player, and too much is expected of him. He is good at hitting the 3 ball, and is good with Yao on the baseline cut. He is NOT a good passer, and his defense is pretty bad on the perimeter too. I think Luther is not as good as LUTHER thinks he is. DD
Most nba players have very limited vocab... its not like all of them have horrible bball IQ. So hypothesis denied! j/k
I'm not sure DaDa. I think the Luther we see now is not necessarily the Luther that we'll see all the time. He is just so damn streaky it hurts my stomach. I think too much is expected of him as a ballhandler/playmaker, which clearly he is not. While he is undersized as a 2 guard he does have the speed to make bigger 2 guards chase him. The problem is that our offense doesn't call for a guy running off of screens all over the court, but that's a different beef. Again though his size makes him a bit of a liability on defense, though I know he at least try's to d-up his man. At best Luther is an important role player for this team who can bring offense off of the bench, when he is not asked to distribute the ball. In that 7 game stretch when McGrady was down he was averaging 16 PPG and shooting 45% from 2 and 47% from 3's. Right now though I just look at him and see NO confidence whatsoever. It looks like he is affraid to make mistakes on the court and is overthinking, which leads to those mistakes. But it is crazy to see him dunk on a player one game, and then NEVER attack the rim. That ability to attack is there, not sure why he doesn't do it more often.
Seriously, him at the PG spot is even worse than rafer. Put in Lucas or Span to backup, cuz we can't afford those turnovers everytime he runs point
Maybe JVG put him as point guard just becuz he's not a 7 footer. But i like what he does, hitting open 3s when the opponents double or triple Yao. That's when the rockets need someone to make the 3s when Yao passes the ball out. Although he doesn't play point guard well, i still like this guy. Maybe he will turn out to be a good point guard one day, u'll never know.
That would be known as developing a player. Wouldn't make sense to me to develop a player to play the point that doesn't have point guard instincts when we've got a natural point guard that needs to be developed. Luther has gotten much worse as the season has progressed with his decision making, passing, and dribbling. When he dribbles the ball, he looks like he is trying to catch a greased pig and the ball just pulls him all over the court. Not to mention he has absolutely no idea what to do with the ball if he is inside the 3 point line.
Pick 'n roll with a bigger teammate, shooting high percentage pull-up jumpers when open, dribble penetration, finishing strong at the rim, dishing out to open teammate, those fundamental offensive skills are glaringly deficient in all point guards on JVG's Rockets team. Steve Nash can do them all, brilliantly.
No, but being a turnover machine and making ridiculously bad plays when handling the rock does... I like Luther...as a 2 only.
There's no correlation. Bird sounded like some yokel from Deliverance, but there may not have been a smarter basketball player.
It has nothing to do with interviews with the media or high vocabulary. Bill Russell hated talking to the press, always gave one word answers and he has 11 rings. Basketball smarts is completely different from Book smarts.
