Hoyas Stock: per Seth David .. (FWIW)

[krukster201]

thoughts on GU and other schools?

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/seth_davis/01/04/stock.report/index.html

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Georgetown (11-1, No. 12): BUY

I'm still not crazy about the Hoyas' lack of a true point guard, but every team outside the top three has a major deficiency somewhere. The Hoyas have a lofty ranking, but I rated them a buy because I don't think they have generated top-10 buzz. That could change in the next couple of weeks. They play two tough but winnable road games at DePaul and Marquette, followed by a pair of home games against UConn and Seton Hall. Realistically, the Hoyas could be 5-2 in the Big East heading into their big Jan. 25 showdown at Syracuse. I know Greg Monroe will probably never get the respect he deserves as long as he's in college, but this is a very good passing team, and junior guard Chris Wright is really coming into his own as a scorer.

[SFHoya99]

Huh. Honestly at 13 I'd be tempted to sell since I have yet to be convinced of upside (to #13). Post guard play isn't my concern -- though that may be his proxy for turnovers. Lack of big men and a low post game are my biggest concerns.

[pfhoya86]

The biggest problem I have with his 5-2 prediction heading into the Cuse game, is that I count 8 BE games before Cuse

[lichoya68]

PRECITCTION ONE TIE MAN ONE TIE OBLIVIISOUSILY MAN

[kchoya]

"Is it me, or is this team flying under the radar a little bit? Perhaps it's because Duke is a little bit boring compared to some of the glitzy guys in the top 10, but mostly the low buzz results from the nagging feeling that we've seen this before from Duke -- a talented but soft team whose stellar regular season will be followed by a humbling pre-Elite Eight exit."

Really Seth? You don't think Dook is getting enough publicity? Did the Duke Alumni Association make you say that?

[krukster201]

LOL .. my exact thoughts when I read that KC .. smh

[MCIGuy]

The Hoyas may lack a "true" point but they still may end up having the best guy playing the point position in the Big East. Besides its not like Chris is playing like Jason Williams at Duke by jacking up shots every time down the court. Chris does look to get his teammates involved more often than he looks to shoot

[Bando]

We lack a true point because in our system, everyone is the point to some respect. C'mon, Seth, this isn't that hard.

[seaweed]

Not surprising that Seth hasn't heard the news -

1 PG who is kind of a SG + 1 PF who is really a point forward > 1 PG

[MCIGuy]

When Chris was in high school jacking up shots like crazy (often bad ones) for St. John's folks labeled him as a point guard anyway.

At Gtown he has demonstrated more control, shoots much less, looks for his teammates more and runs the team all the while still being the primary ballhandler and NOW media folks want to claim he's not a point guard? He's much more of a point guard now than he was in high school.

[daytonahoya31]

I wonder what Seth will say in two years when Chris is playing point guard in the NBA?

[FrazierFanatic]

We "could be" 5-2 when we play Syracuse - is he saying that the best we can hope for includes losses at Pitt and 'Nova? We MIGHT be 5-2, or even 4-3 - but we COULD be 6-1, realisitically.

[seaweed]

Not to pick nits Frazier, but we can not be 5-2, 4-3 or 6-1 or even 7-0. We have EIGHT Big East games before 'scuse, so any combination of wins and losses that adds up to 7 is not possible. I say we will be 8-0, cause I am a total hoyahomer

[FrazierFanatic]

Yeah I saw the discrepancy, but I was focusing more on the number of losses. I would have mentioned 7-0 (or 8-0) but didn't want to jinx anything.

[theexorcist]

Jan 4, 2010 23:46:52 GMT -5 seaweed said:

Not surprising that Seth hasn't heard the news -

1 PG who is kind of a SG + 1 PF who is really a point forward > 1 PG

I'll defend Seth on this - it's a maybe. I brought a friend who doesn't follow Georgetown to the SJU game and described Chris Wright in a term Marty Blake had used in a 1992 article - "shooting point". Shooting points look to shoot first, not to pass. Point guards are tasked with distributing the ball to whomever has the best shot - really good point guards see the entire court, and know which of the five players has the best shot, the PG included. Chris Wright may be a better shooter than Steve Nash was in his prime, but Nash is still better for the team.

With that said, since the entire III system is all based around passing, Wright doesn't gum up the works - everyone passes the ball. And Wright's improved - he still wants to shoot, but he usually looks around and sees if anybody else is in a better position first. I'm cool with that if it leads to the success it has so far this season.

[hoyarooter]

"Chris Wright may be a better shooter than Steve Nash was in his prime, but Nash is still better for the team."



Chris is not a better shooter than Steve Nash. Not even close. Nash has for years been one of the best outside shooters in the league, because he knows when to shoot. Perhaps this was just intended as hyperbole, or you meant to say "even if CW were a better shooter than SN, Nash is still better for the team." And that would certainly not be an insult to Chris, because Nash is a two-time MVP sure thing HOFer.

[nychoya3]

I think the Nash comment was a hypothetical, basically that player A could be a better shooter than player B in that if they took the same number of shots with the same difficulty, player A would make more, but because player B is better at creating and shooting high percentage shots, he has a better percentage.

Steve Nash was a bad player to pick, because he's obviously light years better than Chris and just about everyone else as a shooter and a shot selector. The guy is 6'1'', 30 something with no jumping ability and he hits 54 percent of his shots. Insane.

[seaweed]

I guess the gist of what I was saying is that the PG does not have much pressure to pass/create assists when the PF is picking up a lot of that responsibility. Marty's term is OK, but I like JTIII's - he is a "basketball player." Coach used that term Sunday talking about JC - it is his highest compliment and implies transcendence of the usual limitations of individual positions and roles.

Also, I would consider changing the line "he still wants to shoot" to "he still wants to drive" - I feel like at least half the time he drives he has no intention of shooting and would rather just use the drive to collapse the D and create something for a teammate. unfortunately that sometimes doesn't happen and then he looks sort of stupid, but "drive to dish" can be just as good a strategy as "drive to shoot."

[theexorcist]

Jan 5, 2010 12:50:11 GMT -5 nychoya3 said:

I think the Nash comment was a hypothetical, basically that player A could be a better shooter than player B in that if they took the same number of shots with the same difficulty, player A would make more, but because player B is better at creating and shooting high percentage shots, he has a better percentage.

Steve Nash was a bad player to pick, because he's obviously light years better than Chris and just about everyone else as a shooter and a shot selector. The guy is 6'1'', 30 something with no jumping ability and he hits 54 percent of his shots. Insane.

Oops. Yes, hypothetical.

I will say that part of that "54 percent of the shots" are because he shoots when it's the best option on the court and the percentages are higher.

I'll dig myself a deeper hole. The sine qua non of the shooting points is Allen Iverson. Iverson wanted to shoot almost every time and break everybody's ankles. Even at the Answer's prime, Nash was a better point guard.

Iverson's teams, however, usually did pretty well, because most of the other options, even when open, weren't preferable to AI taking a shot with three people on him (because Iverson was that good). This made Iverson arguably a better player - when your other options aren't good, being a gunner isn't a bad strategy.

Wright had somebody who was picked in the NBA draft and a freshman who learned the game very quickly on his team. Yet he still looked to shoot first too often - and he wasn't good enough to score forty and have the Hoyas win every night. This year, with a similarly-talented cast, he's reined in a shoot-first mentality - though he still looks to shoot when he can - and the team has been able to take advantage of his scoring potential when the opposition doesn't expect it.