Denver Nuggets: Breaking Down The Shooting Guards

facebooktwitterreddit

The point guard position is often regarded as the most important player on the court in basketball. The point guard is the quarterback of the offense, the one who controls the flow of the game, the one who sets up teammates and the one responsible for taking care of the ball. The Denver Nuggets seem to have taken the importance of the point guard to heart considering they have four of them on their roster for the 2013-14 season. Hell, they like point guards so much they might even put two of them in the starting lineup. But what does that mean for the limited number of shooting guards in Denver?

In my 2013-14 Denver Nuggets season preview, I projected Ty Lawson and Randy Foye to both be in the starting lineup, with Lawson running the offense at the 1 and the jumper-happy Foye replacing Andre Iguodala at the 2-spot. Thanks to Iggy’s departure, the Nuggets only have two shooting guards remaining on the roster: Wilson Chandler and Evan Fournier.

Normally, Chandler would’ve started at the shooting guard position instead of Randy Foye. But with Danilo Gallinari still recovering from his ACL tear and expected to be out for some time, the versatile Chandler will have to start at the small forward position. At 6’8″, 225 pounds, Chandler is more than capable of playing the 3-spot. He posted 13 points and 5.1 rebounds per game during the regular season and was an unstoppable force on offense when he got hot. And I’d say he’s capable of guarding the position as well, but it doesn’t really matter since the 2013-14 Denver Nuggets won’t be remembered for their defense. Unless they give up 110 points per game. In which case, they will be.

Jokes about the Denver Nuggets’ defense (that gave up 101 points per game last season) aside, a starting five of Lawson-Foye-Chandler-Kenneth FariedJaVale McGee doesn’t look terrible on paper, but it’s certainly undersized and will have problems guarding players in the post. Or on the wing. Or at the point guard position. They might as well call them the “Enver Nuggets”. Okay, maybe I’m not done with the defense jokes. But the point is that until Gallo, the team’s best perimeter/wing defender, comes back, the Nuggets’ backcourt will be looking pretty small.

In my opinion, the Nuggets are missing out on an opportunity by not giving Evan Fournier a chance to start over Randy Foye. Fournier showed a lot of promise off the bench last season and looked even better once he was called upon to replace Gallinari in April. During that month, Fournier’s numbers jumped to 11.5 points, 2.8 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game on 49.3 percent shooting from the field. The case against Fournier is that he shrunk from the spotlight in the playoffs and so did his numbers: 4.8 points, 1.0 assists, zero rebounds, 0.5 steals per game and 35.3 percent from the floor. But that’s to be expected of any rookie asked to do too much too fast (I resisted the urge to make a French joke here. Which I can do, because I’m part French).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7GJBXM8V9E

In comparison, Randy Foye shot 39.7 percent from the floor for the whole season to the tune of 10.8 points per game. That’s to say, his regular shooting percentage for the whole season is comparable only to Fournier’s horrible four-game postseason stretch. It took Foye nine shots per game to get his 10.8 points per game, which isn’t exactly in the pinnacle of efficiency. In April, when Fournier was playing 23 minutes per game, it took him nine shots per game…to average 11.5 points per game. On 50 percent shooting. Is the point that Fournier could be far more efficient getting through yet?

Defensively, you can’t really make much of an argument for either guy. Last year, Fournier’s defensive rating (an estimate of points allowed per 100 possessions) was 108, compared with Foye’s defensive rating of 111. But at 6’6″, Fournier’s height makes him a decidedly superior choice to play the shooting guard position over Foye’s 6’4″ frame. So would you rather have a short, inefficient jump shot happy point guard playing the 2-spot, or a promising, young prospect who’s proven himself to be efficient in extended minutes? Wilson Chandler will have to play out of position until Gallinari returns, but until he does, Brian Shaw should take an extended look at Fournier before deciding he’d rather have Foye replacing Iggy at the shooting guard position.

[slider_pro id=”8″]