Wednesday, April 20, 2005

I'm divided on the lottery now

I'm not sure if I really want the Hawks to win the lottery. For one thing, if they pick second, then they might not have a chance to take Andrew Bogut, which would be preferable. For another, I'm not sure that dropping to fourth and getting Darren Williams instead of Bogut or Chris Paul might not be the best fit for the team.

I love Paul, but he reminds me a little too much of Jason Terry: a super-quick player with an outside shot, but limited defensive skills because of his size and a tweener problem because he's not a true point, but he's too small to play the two. Williams reminds me of Andre Miller: a true point guard with a competent outside shot who is big enough to defend well. Wouldn't that be a better fit for this team? The Hawks play terrible defense, in part because they can't stop dribble penetration. Williams addresses that need more than Paul does. On the other hand, the Hawks are a terrible outside shooting team and Paul addresses that need more than Williams.

Here's my other concern about Paul: why didn't Wake win more with him? Wake had good surrounding talent, so a star point guard should have gotten them to at least one Final Four. Why didn't they win more? Does Illinois necessarily have more talent or better coaching than Wake?

I'm like a middle school girl now. I love Chris Paul one minute and I sour on him the next. That G-d my wife is a psychologist.

1 comment:

Michael said...

Wake's primary defensive liability was Justin Gray, who got beat off the dribble repeatedly. I'd love to watch Paul's defensive efforts for the season, but fortunately, that's Billy Knight's job. I'd be interested to see what Wake fans think about his defense. There are no questions about Darren Williams' defense. Because the last decent Hawks team was built on defense (Mutombo, Augmon, and Mookie,) I'm partial to drafting good defenders.