There are many things you'd like a point guard to be: A creative passer. An ambidextrous dribbler. A long-range shooter. An inspiring leader.
There's one thing a point guard must be: An organizer. And that's how Raymond Felton and D.J. Augustin have failed of late.
The Charlotte Bobcats are in a six-game losing streak entering tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks. To say the point guards deserve all the blame wouldn't only be unfair, it would be dangerously simplistic.
But if you could make just one fix, point guard would undoubtedly be your focus.
Case in point: The score was tied when the Bobcats exited a timeout with the ball and about 30 seconds left Wednesday in Philadelphia. If ever a play should run smoothly, it's late-game directly following a timeout.
Problem: Stephen Jackson is new to the team and moved to the wrong side of the basket to begin the play. He didn't know better and Felton didn't notice as play commenced. From there, everything collapsed: No timing, no floor balance, a desperate shot (Boris Diaw's 3-pointer from the corner).
That miss led to a long rebound, a 76ers fast break, point guard Lou Williams' layup, and another perplexing near-miss.
Ideally, Felton would have moved Jackson to the correct spot. At minimum, Felton should have called timeout. That's a point guard's mission - organize.
Afterward coach Larry Brown began a sentence with "The point guards..." then abruptly stopped speaking, apparently to avoid saying something he'd regret.
I asked Brown if he was considering lineup changes, and he replied he didn't feel justified blaming one person for this loss.
Here's what I think: If Brown saw a ready-made alternative to Felton, he'd already have made a change. But Augustin looks even more shell-shocked.
That creative, aggressive rookie from last December is a befuddled mess. In the six losses, Augustin has never topped six points or four assists. His confidence looks cracked and when you ask him what's wrong, he has no explanation.
Felton articulated his problem Sunday: He's over-thinking about when to shoot, when to drive and when to pass. All that thinking - all that confusion? - is interfering with Felton performing in real time.
There are at least two jobs where real-time performing is crucial: NBA point guard and air-traffic controller. The way Felton's been of late, I'm glad he's not in a tower near an airport.
I don't know anyone who tries harder to do the right thing. But intentions aren't enough.
A year and a half ago, managing partner Michael Jordan asked Brown to find out whether Felton is an NBA point guard. The way he played the second half of last season, Felton seemed to answer that question.
Eleven games into this season, he's never been more of a mystery.
It seems like both Felton and DJ have lost their head...trade them both for a solid PG?
The entire NBA is full of guys with no passion. It's sickening. So much natural talent, they've got their paycheck, they just go out and play.
We're just terrible right now.
Looks like brash guys with more enthusiasm totally beat those mediocre guys, e.g. comparing Okafor and Rasheed Wallace, I would want Wallace just for the sake of mental toughness.
Too bad players won't agree on an incentive based contract. Look at McGrady, people think he stinks badly, biggest contract in the league and not playing (though the Rockets are enjoying the insurance money ).
I'm so heartsick about what's going on/not going on with our team that I can't bear to read any news or posts right now.
I hear ya. I didn't want to go to the game today but my daughter really wants to go because Spongebob will be there. I'm actually more excited about Spongebob than the cats. Sad.
Well if we could just play like we did tonight I'd have no complaints. Gerald Wallace's rejection of Hibbert was epic. Great play from Nazr, Brown, Diaw and Flip.
What we saw tonight is exactly what we're capable of. If we can play like that on a consistent basis, there's no reason we can't make the playoffs. However, until we start playing like that at least once every other game, I'm not getting my hopes up.
Was a great performance and agree with what others have said. Noteably though was the bench that stepped up and made the difference, and neither point guard had a big impact on the game. Hopefully we can play like that more in our home games. They kept saying we'd been playing well the last 3 and lost. Wasn't he trade 3 games before this one? Not saying Jax has been the sole difference, but maybe the shake-up has had an effect.
Wallace looked more in tune out there with S.Jax last night. I saw the team as a whole do a good job including the point guards. This is the type of game where good teams start to preform well for a long amount of time afterwords.
Point Guard problem?
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