Old ESPN article on Evans..
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I just listened to the same video that you did. At no point in the press conference did Westphal state that he didn't think Evans wasn't much of a point guard. You!!!! Decided to infer that. He stated that everyone on the team would have a chance to handle the ball but he had no doubts that Evans was capable of finding the open man and getting him the ball.
Also, he did not start by saying that Evans was a combo guard, which actually is immaterial, the reporter asking the question did. Westphal later in the conservation said that he liked combo players that could play more than one position.
I heard nothing negative in the entire press conference. But its amazing how you try and turn something, which is mostly fluff anyway, but positive, into something negative. Give it a break dude.
Also, he did not start by saying that Evans was a combo guard, which actually is immaterial, the reporter asking the question did. Westphal later in the conservation said that he liked combo players that could play more than one position.
I heard nothing negative in the entire press conference. But its amazing how you try and turn something, which is mostly fluff anyway, but positive, into something negative. Give it a break dude.
For those interested here's an old article by Basketball stats on how Evans projects to the NBA.
http://basketball-statistics.com/playerprojectiontyrekeevans.html
http://basketball-statistics.com/playerprojectiontyrekeevans.html
Verbatim transcript snippets of post-draft press conference. Draw your own conclusions.
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9:13
Evans:"I don't know what position I'll be playing yet, but at the point or at the 2, I think I'll help a lot..."
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12:03
Westphal (replying to the question "Can Tyreke be the distributor?":
"I actually like combo guards, I like combo players. The more versatile a player is, the better, in my mind. Tyreke's not going to be the only player on the team that's allowed to dribble, we want other people to dribble too, and we want him to go without the ball sometimes, to post up sometimes, to be a complete player. And the more players we have that are the complete package, the harder we'll be to defend. So, we'll call him the 1 and he'll defend the 1 most of the times, but I don't expect him to be Bob Cousy. I expect him to be Tyreke Evans, and if there's somebody open, they'll get the ball. And I have no doubt that he has the ability to share the ball, and if he has a chance to drive to the hoop, or if he has an open shot, then he'll make that play. And, uh, uh, I don't have any doubt that he can fulfill that role."
----
What this reminds me of, personally, is this wonderful bit of 1952 political speech:
"My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:
If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.
But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If-by-whiskey
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9:13
Evans:"I don't know what position I'll be playing yet, but at the point or at the 2, I think I'll help a lot..."
----
12:03
Westphal (replying to the question "Can Tyreke be the distributor?":
"I actually like combo guards, I like combo players. The more versatile a player is, the better, in my mind. Tyreke's not going to be the only player on the team that's allowed to dribble, we want other people to dribble too, and we want him to go without the ball sometimes, to post up sometimes, to be a complete player. And the more players we have that are the complete package, the harder we'll be to defend. So, we'll call him the 1 and he'll defend the 1 most of the times, but I don't expect him to be Bob Cousy. I expect him to be Tyreke Evans, and if there's somebody open, they'll get the ball. And I have no doubt that he has the ability to share the ball, and if he has a chance to drive to the hoop, or if he has an open shot, then he'll make that play. And, uh, uh, I don't have any doubt that he can fulfill that role."
----
What this reminds me of, personally, is this wonderful bit of 1952 political speech:
"My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:
If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.
But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If-by-whiskey
^^Wow. You're becoming a true artiste at clutching at phrases...
HERE"S the first paragraph:
ALL it says is "he's not projected as an NBA point guard." That's a passive statement, not an active assessment. BIG difference. And they concede that he did "EXCEL" as a point guard in college...
I also like how you conveniently omitted the comment about him doing poorly UNTIL he was moved to the point.
Taking comments out of context - or only quoting the part you think proves you case - just doesn't strengthen your argument.
HERE"S the first paragraph:
ALL it says is "he's not projected as an NBA point guard." That's a passive statement, not an active assessment. BIG difference. And they concede that he did "EXCEL" as a point guard in college...
I also like how you conveniently omitted the comment about him doing poorly UNTIL he was moved to the point.
Taking comments out of context - or only quoting the part you think proves you case - just doesn't strengthen your argument.
I don't care if Evans will average 4TOs a game in his rookie season coz I believe that the kid will also do his best to provide problems to opponent PG that not even any of our other PGs can dream of. His size and length is already an advantage against maybe 90% of the current PG in the NBA, especially if he's able to post up on them.
His length will force smaller PG to move quicker than they do to be able to get by him. An example would be when the Suns played against the Spurs that it would take a Raja Bell to guard Parker just to slow him down. Parker is already one of the quickest PG and Bell is not even the fastest of the SG but his length surely bothers Parker. So that is how i see where Evans will be able to nullify those possible turnover. Being taller than the guy you guard is not a sure thing that the smaller man will just easily blow by you. To a much exaggerated comparision would be Kobe guarding the Chris Pauls and Devin Harris and still being effective. And Kobe was not even a #1 pick or a #4 pick but he was a 13th pick. So I just don't understand all these Evan's can't do this or that even if the kid has not even played a official NBA game yet.
Plus with the SL as a snapshot, Reke will and can even block shots if he needs to.
If in case in his rookie year he may not be able run plays easily like most PG does. I don't think there is no more room for improvement with him being on 19. Coaches don't become NBA coaches and scouts don't become NBA scouts by just writing on forums and reading wikipedias. All I'm saying is that if Westphal says Reke will play and 1 and guard the 1, they have seen something in Reke that have convinced them. So let's give the kid a chance and cheer him. Jason Thompson plays C in college but the kid is starting to be better at PF. And to a more classical example is Corliss playing PF in college who was able to play SF in a different but effective way.
His length will force smaller PG to move quicker than they do to be able to get by him. An example would be when the Suns played against the Spurs that it would take a Raja Bell to guard Parker just to slow him down. Parker is already one of the quickest PG and Bell is not even the fastest of the SG but his length surely bothers Parker. So that is how i see where Evans will be able to nullify those possible turnover. Being taller than the guy you guard is not a sure thing that the smaller man will just easily blow by you. To a much exaggerated comparision would be Kobe guarding the Chris Pauls and Devin Harris and still being effective. And Kobe was not even a #1 pick or a #4 pick but he was a 13th pick. So I just don't understand all these Evan's can't do this or that even if the kid has not even played a official NBA game yet.
Plus with the SL as a snapshot, Reke will and can even block shots if he needs to.
If in case in his rookie year he may not be able run plays easily like most PG does. I don't think there is no more room for improvement with him being on 19. Coaches don't become NBA coaches and scouts don't become NBA scouts by just writing on forums and reading wikipedias. All I'm saying is that if Westphal says Reke will play and 1 and guard the 1, they have seen something in Reke that have convinced them. So let's give the kid a chance and cheer him. Jason Thompson plays C in college but the kid is starting to be better at PF. And to a more classical example is Corliss playing PF in college who was able to play SF in a different but effective way.
OK I am going to highlight the same things that Kingsgurl881 highlighted just to offer my argument..
"His size and length is already an advantage against maybe 90% of the current PG in the NBA, especially if he's able to post up on them."
This is actually true if Evans had a refined post game. He's got a good spin move to the glass, but needs a few more good "set" post moves. Needs to learn to go left consistently. But this part of his game I am really not worried about because he's a good offensive player and will figure out the NBA game quickly. (on offense)
"So I just don't understand all these Evan's can't do this or that even if the kid has not even played a official NBA game yet."
If this were the case then pretty much every college player would be in every mock draft out there because since none of them played an NBA game then we don't know what they can do either, right? Listen, Evans weak points have been beaten to death here. He's not a good traditional PG. Not yet anyway. He's more than likely to pass off the opponents back when trying to thread the needle so to speak than get it to a King for a layup/dunk. It's probably going to be REAL basic offensive sets at the beginning of the season when Evans is running the PG position so he's not overwhelmed. I have been trying to figure out which PG in the NBA Evans would remind me of but I cannot think of any, but I have come up with a sort of "mix". If I had to guess his ceiling, as a passer/distributor/play maker, I would say Derrick Fisher, or Andre Miller. In all other areas I would think his ceiling could be a less athletic version of James, or Wade.
Reke will and can even block shots if he needs to.
This is true. He will block some shots, but didn't you say above nobody knows what he is capable of not playing in an NBA game? Just messing with you. I worry about Evans defense against quick guards. It game him problems at Memphis so much that they had to switch defensive duties some of the times. In the NBA you wont have many of the 5'9 PGs running around, but you will have guys like Barbosa, and Parker, Paul, and a few others that can give him issues. But at the same time slower guys he will do well on.
Jason Thompson plays C in college but the kid is starting to be better at PF. And to a more classical example is Corliss playing PF in college who was able to play SF in a different but effective way.
That's totally different than a SG moving to PG.. The positions you mentioned are pretty much matchup positions. The PG has a lot more to worry about than just who he's guarding. He's responsible for most of the offense and making players around him better. In college it was pretty much Evans, Anderson, Taggart, and Dozier cleaning up on the offensive end with a few roleplayer type players (Mack) that occasionally hit a 3 or whatever. Basically the college game is a lot different than the NBA game. You will have to make the team better rather than taking your best player and riding him. One player can make the difference, but one player can't take the whole thing on his back and win it all in the NBA.
"His size and length is already an advantage against maybe 90% of the current PG in the NBA, especially if he's able to post up on them."
This is actually true if Evans had a refined post game. He's got a good spin move to the glass, but needs a few more good "set" post moves. Needs to learn to go left consistently. But this part of his game I am really not worried about because he's a good offensive player and will figure out the NBA game quickly. (on offense)
"So I just don't understand all these Evan's can't do this or that even if the kid has not even played a official NBA game yet."
If this were the case then pretty much every college player would be in every mock draft out there because since none of them played an NBA game then we don't know what they can do either, right? Listen, Evans weak points have been beaten to death here. He's not a good traditional PG. Not yet anyway. He's more than likely to pass off the opponents back when trying to thread the needle so to speak than get it to a King for a layup/dunk. It's probably going to be REAL basic offensive sets at the beginning of the season when Evans is running the PG position so he's not overwhelmed. I have been trying to figure out which PG in the NBA Evans would remind me of but I cannot think of any, but I have come up with a sort of "mix". If I had to guess his ceiling, as a passer/distributor/play maker, I would say Derrick Fisher, or Andre Miller. In all other areas I would think his ceiling could be a less athletic version of James, or Wade.
Reke will and can even block shots if he needs to.
This is true. He will block some shots, but didn't you say above nobody knows what he is capable of not playing in an NBA game? Just messing with you. I worry about Evans defense against quick guards. It game him problems at Memphis so much that they had to switch defensive duties some of the times. In the NBA you wont have many of the 5'9 PGs running around, but you will have guys like Barbosa, and Parker, Paul, and a few others that can give him issues. But at the same time slower guys he will do well on.
Jason Thompson plays C in college but the kid is starting to be better at PF. And to a more classical example is Corliss playing PF in college who was able to play SF in a different but effective way.
That's totally different than a SG moving to PG.. The positions you mentioned are pretty much matchup positions. The PG has a lot more to worry about than just who he's guarding. He's responsible for most of the offense and making players around him better. In college it was pretty much Evans, Anderson, Taggart, and Dozier cleaning up on the offensive end with a few roleplayer type players (Mack) that occasionally hit a 3 or whatever. Basically the college game is a lot different than the NBA game. You will have to make the team better rather than taking your best player and riding him. One player can make the difference, but one player can't take the whole thing on his back and win it all in the NBA.
Tony Parker entered the NBA without even a perimeter game. The Spurs hired a shooting coach for him and a few years after he was the finals MVP.
Rajon Rondo has no perimeter game, is not the best passer or play maker by a PG standards but was able to compete and contribute to Boston's championship thanks to the big three.
Baron Davis is a turn over prone PG but his strength and capability to post up any PG and score from anywhere easily nullifies the TOs.
Of this 3, I would compare Tyreke to Baron Davis but without the perimeter game and lesser play-making capability. He will be too strong for most PG in the NBA. But with the example of Parker's improvement, we can always hire a shooting coach to improve his perimeter game. And with the example on Rondo, I believe his play-making issues will improve with the presence of a more capable teammates than what he used to have in Memphis. And if Westphal can somehow implement great system then maybe TOs won't even be bothering Reke anymore.
And btw, the comment on Reke being able to block shots, I was referring to the SL snapshot where Reke played the PG most of the time and competing with NBA quality PG like Curry, Jennings, etc. And that is to another level than what you see in college basketball.
Rajon Rondo has no perimeter game, is not the best passer or play maker by a PG standards but was able to compete and contribute to Boston's championship thanks to the big three.
Baron Davis is a turn over prone PG but his strength and capability to post up any PG and score from anywhere easily nullifies the TOs.
Of this 3, I would compare Tyreke to Baron Davis but without the perimeter game and lesser play-making capability. He will be too strong for most PG in the NBA. But with the example of Parker's improvement, we can always hire a shooting coach to improve his perimeter game. And with the example on Rondo, I believe his play-making issues will improve with the presence of a more capable teammates than what he used to have in Memphis. And if Westphal can somehow implement great system then maybe TOs won't even be bothering Reke anymore.
And btw, the comment on Reke being able to block shots, I was referring to the SL snapshot where Reke played the PG most of the time and competing with NBA quality PG like Curry, Jennings, etc. And that is to another level than what you see in college basketball.
You would pay to go to a kings game so you could wear anti kings clothing? I dont get it
Remember the movie "Major League"? I am those fans sitting in the bleachers.. I'm a pissed off die hard that wants a good team.
It's more of an anti Petrie and Maloof move.. I have not been real thrilled with how they decimated the team over the last few years. At least it's purple!
Remember the movie "Major League"? I am those fans sitting in the bleachers.. I'm a pissed off die hard that wants a good team.
Remember the movie "Major League"? I am those fans sitting in the bleachers.. I'm a pissed off die hard that wants a good team.
How can anyone think that drafting the 19-year old kid Evans ( who is NOW more than ever obviously look like the BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE at #4 ) meant a continuing decimation of the team?
We probably have identified all the pros and cons of experimenting on playing Evans at 1. If you could really be very objective and set aside your biases ( or your crush on Rubio ) and be a little bit reasonable, you probably will be able to give Evans the benefit of the doubt before you write him off.
Why is it so hard to just let go and just wait and see first what will happen with playing this talented Kid at the point guard position?
I am just curious, do you have a crush on Rubio?
I was in the pro-Rubio camp pre-draft day, and was disappointed when we didn't draft him. Reading and hearing some of the followup afterwards, I'm inclined to believe the front office made the right pick.
I'm excited to see Evans give playing point in the NBA a go. If, it turns out he's actually a shooting guard, then the team might have to consider trading Martin for a point guard down the road.
When teams draft this high, they -have- to go for best talent available, and I believe thats what our front office did here. It doesn't matter what position the talent plays, you've got to have superior talent to have a chance, and I think/hope we just got some.
I'm excited to see Evans give playing point in the NBA a go. If, it turns out he's actually a shooting guard, then the team might have to consider trading Martin for a point guard down the road.
When teams draft this high, they -have- to go for best talent available, and I believe thats what our front office did here. It doesn't matter what position the talent plays, you've got to have superior talent to have a chance, and I think/hope we just got some.
A
I am just curious, do you have a crush on Rubio?
whats with your mancrush on evans? just because he has a 6'11 wingspan?
i find it hilarious how so many of you can say that he will be good pg in the nba without ever seeing him play a game in the nba but condem anyone who thinks otherwise based on the same amount of info.
