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December 26, 2007
Felton becoming more efficient
The thing I want from a point guard more than anything is efficiency. Point guards are hurt more by mistakes than they benefit from spectacular plays.
That word – efficiency – is the difference between Raymond Felton before in the NBA and Felton now.
His past two games are telling: Against New York and Milwaukee, he shot 50 percent from the field (10-of-20) and averaged nine assists. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 18 to 7, or nearly 3 to 1.
Michael Jordan made some challenging comments about Felton last week. The most important of those, I thought, was Jordan saying Felton has to learn not to try to do it all by himself. Certainly there were times in the past when Felton had tunnel vision, taking poor shots and missing open teammates.
That’s changing. He’s becoming efficient.
Posted by rbonnell on December 26, 2007 at 05:59 PM | Permalink
Comments
His assist:turnover ratio this year is the worst of his career.
Now, if you are only talking about the couple of games you mentioned, then, yes, Felton had been "more efficient" than he had been at times this season. But you should know better than praising Felton for anything over a short span of games, because he'll always balance out the good games with the bad ones eventually (see: the Washington game). Is he becoming less efficient now? No, he's just being Raymond Felton.
With him, it's pretty much one step forward, two steps back, two steps forward, one step back, etc. Outside of very minute -- almost negligible -- development, he is the exact same player today that we drafted a few years ago.
Posted by: Will | Dec 27, 2007 8:06:36 AM
What we see here is the results of the Bernie screwing withthe players development. Felton was never a true point in the NBA because we had preference to Brevin. This has hurt the development. We have never really seen Felton play point, just combo guard. Can he recover from this??? I'm not sure but if he doesn't adjust to being a true point we will get another one for the roster and let it play out...
Posted by: Local | Dec 27, 2007 11:41:31 AM
Wrong.
His development has not been stunted by playing him elsewhere, it's more like they play him elsewhere because he's not developing as a PG, at least not the way you would expect as a highly-drafted PG after a couple of seasons.
Guys like Paul and D.Williams both have also played alongside other PGs, and regularly do so. It sure didn't stunt their growth, did it? The reason why Felton is slow to develop is because he's just not a very good player, and he doesn't look like he's ever going to develop into more than just a mediocre PG.
Posted by: Will | Dec 27, 2007 12:22:56 PM
And furthermore, when a guy's proven to be more effective without the ball (REGARDLESS of the fact that he was drafted to be a long-term, franchise point guard), why would you force him to run the offense? He's proven to be bad at it.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Dec 27, 2007 12:49:13 PM
Speaking of poing guards, Jeff McInnis is horrible even if he is the one 'true' pg on the roster.
Posted by: fan | Dec 27, 2007 1:51:21 PM
Hell yeah...Derek Anderson is the best point guard we've got.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Dec 27, 2007 3:09:16 PM
Felton is a player. He is going to be just fine. Did anyone see him his last 2 years in Carolina. He was better than Chris Paul. His ability is there. What is holding him back????? Not enough movement on the floor, not enough defense on the boards, not enough basketball. I was at the game against the Celtics in which we friggin won that game. Except for that fact that with 4.3 seconds left, you let your player try and in bound on the Celtics side of the floor. Dumbest shit I have seen in a long time. But Felton was great in that game. If his team shows up with him we are fine. Felton is a bad ass and will always be. He just needs a little help out there. A little momentum.
Posted by: Adam | Dec 27, 2007 4:13:14 PM
That's real funny, Adam...do you mean the same Chris Paul who scored more while shooting better (from the field and from 3), hit a better percentage of his free throws while getting to the line more often, got significantly more steals, and had nearly as many assists while having far fewer turnovers? Maybe you do, but your point about Felton being held back by the rest of the team is just wrong. Statistically, Felton contributed more to the teams losses last year than any other player in the Association. His 9.72 player losses was the 55th-highest of any individual in league history, and the 11th-highest since 2000.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Dec 27, 2007 10:55:08 PM
When I was reading ESPN.com's front page article on Chris Paul, entitled "A Season for the Ages," I thought back to Felton's college career and it made me feel all better.
Oh, wait. No, it didn't. I couldn't care less about his college career, because it has nothing to do with how he is performing in the pro's. He's a very average PG, while Paul is already a star, on the verge of superstardom, and if you asked anyone what PG you would start a team with, him name is one of the 2-3 that would come up the most.
Posted by: Will | Dec 28, 2007 9:36:08 AM
Rick, care to revise your thoughts on Ray after seeing him "perform" the past 2 games? That was probably some of the worst basketball from a "point guard" that I have ever seen in my life. In 2 games, he's set his entire career back ten fold. We're in trouble.
Posted by: Major | Dec 29, 2007 5:05:12 AM
Set his entire career back? When was his career ever...forward?
Posted by: Michael Procton | Dec 29, 2007 12:16:39 PM
Felton is horrible. His decision making ability leaves much to be desired. The fact that he probably also leads the league in dribbling in comical. He calls his number too damn much and has not shown anywhere near the same improvement that D Williams or Chirs Paul have shown (all from the same class!). Take the open roster slot and go find a quality backup and bench Felton's Azz when he doesn't run the offense. He plays stupid and reckless with no fear of the consequences b/c Vincent won't truly sit his butt down. We're in trouble! Playoffs?!?!?! Shut the **** up!
Posted by: DT- Sec 101 Row G | Dec 29, 2007 3:52:42 PM
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