My brother (and, to a lesser extent, I) love scoring point guards. Recent NBA history has several notable scoring point guards. My brother once wrote an academic paper on the subject of scoring point guards.
We're ignoring Steve Nash and Chris Paul, who can both score in bunches, but also lead the league in assists. They are just great point guard, but not scoring point guards.
Sticking with scoring points, Sam Cassell (aka alien-head) is (was) one of them. For evidence of this extra-terristerial origin, one need only look at his head. That guy was a baller, but undoubtedly from outer space.
Another is Steph Marbury, the producer of my beloved $15 Starbury balling shoes and eater of Vaseline. Undoubtedly another strange character, though my brother is always quick to point out, a 20 point 8 dime guy given the opportunity.
Of course, my favorite NBA player, Tony Parker Longoria, is a scoring point guard. I profiled him quite recently, so we'll just move on from there.
As for the young guys, you could look at Tyreke Evans, who I think will win rookie of the year, but in my opinion is more D-Wade than a point guard. Curry probably is more of a Monte Ellis than a point guard (which is part of the reason that backcourt can't work).
When healthy, the best scoring point guard in the NBA is probably Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas, of the Washington Wizards (on an off-topic note, I will probably be forced to adopt the Wizards as my team upon my move to DC, so hopefully they stop stockpiling injury prone guys). He's a career 22 ppg scorer, and between 05-07, he averaged 202 treys each year. So yeah, he can really score the ball. And he's a point guard. A SCORING POINT GUARD! The real problem is that he's played like 15 games in the two years prior to this one. He's back now, scoring well (24 ppg) but he's obviously not quite on top of his game (4.8 turnovers per). He's at about 75%, I think.
Anywho, the Wizards had a very high pick in the '09 NBA draft, a pick with which they could have had Ricky Rubio or Brandon Jennings or Steph Curry or whatever. Instead, they traded it to Minnesota for Mike Miller and Randy Foye, who look really nice in their new jerseys.
Anyway, I guess the idea was take some veterans on and try to win now. I wasn't that excited about this move for them, but hey, surely Flip Saunders can make something out of this roster:
- PG: Arenas
- SG: Miller
- SF: Caron Butler
- PF: Antawn Jamison
- C: Brendan Haywood
- Bench: Foye, Andray Blatche, some guy from Argentina, that guard from USC, DeShawn Stevenson's beard, and Javale McGee
Of course, Flip Saunders should have known that this wasn't going to last. Jamison is hurt, Miller is hurt, Foye is hurt, and Stevenson sucks. Here's their actual line-up, as of Tuesday.
- PG: Arenas
- SG: Stevenson
- SF: Butler
- PF: Blatch
- C: Haywood
- Bench: an injured Foye, Oberto, McGuire, Young
So not the best. So bad is that bench that the starters all played 39+ minutes on Tuesday. McGuire managed to make one basket, and that was the ENTIRE output of their bench. Oberto played 17 minutes and somehow failed to record any points, assists, steals or blocks and chipped in just a SINGLE rebounds, despite being the backup center. The Miami Heat put up 15 points, despite the well known fact that the Miami Heat bench players are not good at offensive basketball.
What is clear is that the Wizards need some bench scoring punch.
Earl Boykins spent last season somewhere in Europe, probably playing basketball but I don't have any evidence of that. As far as I know, he could have been riding around Europe on a Europass, checking out cool Italian villas he could buy with his Bobcats money.
So now, he's back in the Association, and my brother's excited reaction was "two great scoring point guards reunited." Reunited? I tried to think back, and my vague foggy memories of the early 00's include some period in which the Warriors may have had Arenas and Boykins, although I'll just trust that my brother is right and let it go.
Boykins is known for three things: being a scoring point guard, being possibly my brother's favorite player, and being really short. How short? This short:
To be fair, Yao Ming and Tim Duncan can make a lot of big people look small. So here is a fairer comparison:
Allen Iverson (who by the way shouldn't retire but should be in the Bobcats saving Gerald Wallace) is generously listed at 6'0''. I've read that he's closer to 5'9''. So that gives you an idea of how small Boykins is. He's small. REALLY FREAKING SMALL.
But he can also score the basketball really well. He's a career 9.4 ppg guy and he does this in only 20 minutes a game. If you look at his recent years (aside from his mysterious journey to the Continent), he's been especially prolific. Three years ago, he put up 15 ppg in Denver. Two years ago, he scored 5 per in 15 minutes for my wretched Bobcats. But believe, it is really hard to score on the Bobcats. Gerald Wallace knows this.
Perhaps at 33 years of age, Boykins doesn't have it anymore. But there is no risk in a move like this, and he could prove to be a valuable commodity, backing up Arenas, or perhaps playing with Arenas when Flip Saunders tires of Stevenson's horrid shooting.
So welcome back, Earl Boykins. Thank you for making my brother happy.
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