A number of folks have pointed out that our old friend/brief fling Lester Hudson scored 13 points for Memphis last night in just 12 minutes on 4-of-10 shooting from the floor, a shots per minute ratio even Kobe Bryant would envy.
Panic is already setting in: Did we a give up a useful player!!?!?? A back-up point guard who could help us now!??? What was Ainge thinking in waiving Hudson?
He was thinking: How can I help this team win right now? And he correctly assumed that Hudson, who has no experience playing point guard at a high level, is not ready to help Boston right now, and that an empty roster spot is worth more to the 2009-10 Celtics than is Lester. One good game against Memphis—in which Hudson shot 40 percent and turned the ball over twice in 12 minutes—does not mean Ainge was wrong. Not even close. As John Hollinger notes today, Hudson’s scoring outburst only underlined the fact that he doesn’t really know how to run the NBA screen/roll yet—at least not in a way that helps his teammates get more efficient shots.
But Hollinger did have an interesting take on Hudson’s should-everything-go-right potential.
Via TrueHoop:
Hudson is a shoot-first small guard, a species that often has trouble adjusting to the NBA, but he has a good body and competes very well at the defensive end — in last night’s second quarter he took several shifts against Kobe Bryant and held his own. What has to improve is his ability to run pick-and-roll plays to get shots for others rather than just a wild jack from 25 feet. If he can manage that, he’ll be in the league a long time as a Bobby Jackson-type bench scorer.
Loading ...