Let's see. A) John Lucas. 15 minutes, zero assists. B) Luther Head. 0-for-10 from the field. C) Billy Spanoulis. A bucket and two turnovers shy of a double-double. Pick your poison.
A) I can't stand a PG who doesn't dish out an assist. B) Shooting 0-10 is inexcusable no matter what. C) I need to view the tape to see what those turnovers were all about. All said, I won't hesitate to pick the starting PG on a WC championship squad.
Well, before tonight's game, Luther did well in the other pre-season games. So I wouldn't count him out yet.
In Lucas's defense, you can post a zero-assist night just by throwing 10 passes to Luther Head. As for Spanoulis -- is 8 TO's a Rockets record?
lol, Yao had a "Triple Double" that game, 20-14-10. He came close last year vs. Detroit with 20 points, 11 boards, and 9 turnovers.
I can't really vouch for Lucas since he has really been playing pretty bad but come on... One bad preseason game after a funeral doesn't mean Head is doomed. Other then that one bad game he played pretty solid during the preseason http://www.nba.com/playerfile/luther_head/index.html Vspan still does look like a "work in progress" but I think by mid season he'll look like a solid backup for Rafer. The guys shot is coming along and those turnovers that seem to be his biggest problem, shouldn't be a problem at all once he gets settled in. We'll just have to wait for the season to roll around to see what Gundy does with the guards. This is gonna be one of the most intresting season in years
A counterargument is that when a PG does that, it demonstrates he lacks the judgment and is unable to adjust to a situation. It's probably also unprecedented that a WC championship squad starting PG is playing on a Rockets team.
IMO, your question is "Giving more time, who will be the most reliable at PG". Giving more time, Turn over could be reduced, field goal accuracy could be improved, but the ablility of organization and judgement is native and harder to improve.
I go with Head right now. Depsite the horrible night he is actually a pretty proven commodity that has a year of experience with a good amount of minutes and has had a pretty good preseason overall.
a few days ago it was "Billy should start" now it is "Who should be our back up point" I just hope that in a few days time it will be "We found our backup PG"
For now, Luther Head can back up the point, until VSpan gets it together. But despite Rafer's solid play, we need a real PG. Hinrich, Bibby, that sort of player. And we need him more than we even need TMac. I guess we're stuck with: Rafer, Head, V-span/JLIII. Maybe TMac can handle PG duties to a degree when Luther plays "PG" (at least, on the defensive end).
Luther's gotta be the backup. Now way V-Span or JL3 should get backup PG minutes now. It isn't about developing any player; it's about winning games. Over the course of the season anything can happen but right now Luther should be the backup PG. If it was a regular season game, he wouldn't have shot 10 times yesterday. Cut him a little slack as he attended a funeral and flew to Orlando the same day as the game after missing 6 days.
TMac will engage the offense quite a bit. Billy will kill (them), not kill (us) as the season latens, and will 'assist' a late drive for better positioning.
1. Billy is a turnover DISASTER but at the same time, he makes things happen on the court and he ALWAYS has 2-3 outstanding assists per game. Last night he had a no-look pass on a fast break to resulted in a layup. I think Billy has the most promise if JVG can get him settled down a bit. 2. Luther is a solid guy but he doesn't give you much at PG. He's a nice backup 2-guard cause his shooting %. 3. Lucus. For now, he's practice squad material. He won't see the light of day this season, unfortunately.