Post-draft thoughts (2 of 3)

H. played division 1 college ball and has remained distantly involved in professional hoops (in ways we won't get into) since then. It's an indication of the kind of perverse basketball fan that he is that he watched most of the Portland Trailblazers games last year. The following is taken from an exchange we had post-draft:

The conventional knock on Telfair is that he regressed his second year and was a bad PG on a bad team, but this is crap.

The Blazers had three PGs competing for minutes last year: Telfair, Blake and Jack. Despite being 5 and 2 years younger then both of them, Telfair won the starting job convincingly coming out of training camp. He played very well for the first 6 weeks of the season before going down with a wrist injury that had him out until January. Blake took over the starting job when Telfair went down, during which the Blazers stunk, and the team started juggling Blake and Jack in hopes one of them would take over. Once Telfair came back it took him about 6 weeks to get his groove back, during which the team had a dysfunctional three-PG rotation going.

Here’s the thing, though: Telfair beat out Blake again, and they started playing Blake at SG to make room for Telfair at the point with Jack backing him up. Remember, the team was a basket case by this point. None of his team-mates were playing hard, none of them were doing the things away from the ball that a PG needs for the offense to work. The team was a complete mess. I watched almost every Blazers game after the All Star Break and Telfair was one of the only guys who played like he gave a damn. And I think this is important: the TV announcers loved Bassy. Every single game they made a point of talking about how hard he practiced, how much work he put in on his own time. The people around the team seemed to genuinely love the kid. On a garbage team where everyone had punched the time clock I think this sort of thing says a lot about him.

I really believe that a true PG, which Telfair is, has no chance on a team with young players who have no chemistry or quality NBA talent. This kid could thrive in an offensive system that actually has roles and a couple of veteran players. Do you realize that his running mate in the backcourt last year the majority of the time was Steve Frickin Blake and Juan Dixon? No PG is going to look very good or put up numbers when Blake or Dixon is your SG. The defense could all leave the court to get a beer and Dixon still wouldn’t be able to get open. I think Telfair will do well over the next couple of years. Just giving him Paul Pierce to pass to off dribble penetration will make him worlds better.

You have to give kids this young time to mature on and off the court before dumping them off to the next team. I think Portland just made a mistake. But keep in mind that both Telfair and Khryapa were John Nash's picks and once he was fired Pritchard finally got rid of Telfair (who he reportedly never liked) and Khryapa (who was lower profile but likely a similar scenario). That stupid movie Telfair made probably didn't help, since Portland is such a marketing disaster right now. When McMillan came in last season, the Blazers wasted a bunch of time seeing if they could make Telfair into Delonte West: bring it up, pass it off to the wing or post, and go stand around and set up for the open jumper. Not his game at all, and suddenly Telfair looked like a pretty ordinary PG, with occasional flashes on the fast break. Telfair is more a pick-and-roll, penetrating PG.

Telfair improved his three-ball shooting from 24% as a rookie straight out of HS to a very respectable/solid 35% in his second year. He has excellent form and rotation while his shot selection/getting used to the speed of the game figures to continue to improve and has been given accolades for his work ethic on a team that it would have been easy to quit on. I wouldn't say he will be a perennial All-Star or anything but he might be the best PG the Celtics have had in 20 years (yeah, i know this isn't saying much).