Do you need a traditional PG to contend?

[FAH1223]

I'm looking around the conference finalists and its very interesting how they've played without a traditional, pass-first PG.

Mavs - Luka is the PG but he's doing everything. Brunson is also scoring. Crypto boy off the bench shows up every 5 games or so to score. And they're able to facilitate to a roster full of shooters.

Warriors - As we know, Draymond facilitates in the half court as the point-forward. Steph is one of the best off-ball players of all time. Poole comes off the bench gunning but has improved at finding his teammates. You also have had Otto Porter facilitate. Bottomline, there's always 2-3 ball handlers there on the court.

Celtics - They tried the Schröder and it had them in 11th place. Smart isn't a traditional PG but he's able to slow down other guards and make enough shots/plays on the other end. Tatum and Brown have gotten better at finding the open man though they still have moments of tunnel vision. But its a team that's totally bought in on moving the rock after getting past their bad habits. Derrick White clear upgrade off the bench.

HEAT - Lowry is hurt, they're starting Vincent. But they're finishing with Butler, Oladipo, and Herro all being ball handlers..

 

[mastermind]

The answer been no since the Heat won a title with Bron.

 

[Doctor Doom]

Nope.

As long as someone on the floor is capable of reading how the game is going and accordingly quicken the pace/slow it down, it doesn't matter. You don't need a great passer to run 95% of the plays we see in the NBA. High PnR/Floppies/Handoffs/Iso/Post-ups don't need a traditional PG to be run.


Only thing the NBA needs more of are players capable of making basic entry passes. Bigs be having mice stranded down in the paint but pretty much every team can't take advantage of it because no one can make that pass.

 

[010101]

every player on the roster should have a full bag now*

 

[Jplaya2023]

With the way the NBA now allows your best wing player to be the "PG" the answer becomes no because they don't have the ball as much as they used to and teams now look for their "smaller PGs" to be more of a shooter and space the floor more now.

 

[triplehate]

Pgs for regular season. Your big wings need to be handling things in the post season

 

[KidJSoul]

No

Even historically, "traditional point gusrds" haven't won as the undisputed best player on the team. It's only Magic and Zeke. Even then, Zeke still had games where he needed to explode scoring. Or his teammates.

Just have really good playmaking scorers - whether it's the Tatum/Butler type wings, the 4 out Luka types, or unique players like Curry.

 

[Swiggy]

You need to have some type of a facilitator. Team ISO only going so far.

 

[Max Power]

It's been like this for decades.

 

[Lord Beasley]

you don't need a pass first PG, you need more of a guy that can torch when he needs to but can still get folks involved. a PG that will take a shot when it's there, but call a play when it isn't. and a great coach goes a long way

 

[UpAndComing]

Yeah you need traditional point guard to run Post Ups with a dominant Center

This is easily the WOAT era with knowing how to play with and make dominant offensive Big man in the paint effective

Any other type of offense doesn't need a traditional point guard

 

[Dad]

 

[get these nets]

I think yes. might not be the one playing the pg position, but you need a high IQ facilitator and decision maker on the offensive side of the ball.

When everything else breaks down, that person puts you in a position to win by making the right read, calling the right set, dishing to the right player or calling his own number.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

You don’t necessarily need a traditional PG these days, but sure as hell need more than one guy on the floor whose at least an above average passer. Even wings these days need some semblance of a playmaking skills, which is one of the reasons why I give Mitchell so much shyt because he’s meh as a passer.

The main reason why the Celtic’s got better is because they learned (including Tatum) to become better passers which helped them stop taking those ugly ass shots that they were doing earlier in the season.

 

[Remote]

If you have proper ball movement and spacing, it would be less common to see 1 guy routinely get 10 assists because your teammates are all sharing the ball.

Here's the leaders in assists per game this season:

1. Chris Paul 10.8
2. James Harden 10.3
3. Trae Young 9.7
4. Dejounte Murray 9.2
5. Luca Doncic 8.7
6. Darius Garland 8.6
7. Tyrese Haliburton 8.2
8. Nikola Jokic 7.9
9. LaMelo Ball 7.6
10. Kyle Lowry 7.5

Paul and Harden were eliminated because their teams didn't get the inside dominance they needed so that concentration in ball handling was more harmful than good.
Doncic actually started sharing the ball more toward the end of the Semi-Finals.
Jokic is a unique case. He shared the ball quite a bit in his loss to the Warriors but his supporting cast was awful.
Lowry has been hurt this postseason.
Young, Murray, Haliburton, Ball and Garland didn't even make the playoffs.

I wrote all this to highlight a broad point, but I'll also say that Assists are results. They're not predictive. So I'm not really sure that high assists tell you much in and of itself.
It is possible to have lots of ball movement and through chance, 1 guy ends up with the bulk of the assists.