Bibby analysis

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

It just so happens ESPN.com's Ric Bucher analyzed Bibby in his weekly
profile of the league's guards this week. Here's what he had to say (I think
the Terrel Brandon comparison is pretty accurate. A young, healthy Terrell
Brandon):

Movin' up: Bibby
(14.5 ppg, 7.5 apg, 3.5 rpg, 1.5 stls, .434 FG, .833 FT)
For those crying about the young players coming into the league without a
grasp of the game's important subtleties -- don't worry, I've been guilty of
it myself -- do yourself a favor and catch a Grizzlies' game. Bibby, only in
his third season, operates at the wheel of that hooptie squad as if it were
a brand-new S-model Boxster. His numbers would be better if he held the ball
more, but no one passes it ahead on the break or swings it in the halfcourt
quicker. He plays as if there's a egg timer in his head and every time he
gets the ball he has three seconds to do something with it. That doesn't
mean he won't put it on the floor and attack the basket; he just won't take
the three or four moves that so many young players need to set up his drive.
Deceptively quick and fearless, he'll go inside and find angles to get the
ball up through the thicket of surrounding arms and bodies -- but he only
goes if the opposing guard is looking to help out elsewhere or playing up on
him to deny him jumpers. There's a good reason for the latter; Bibby has
become adept at curling and drifting into open spots on the floor for
mid-range jumpers, which he is deadly knocking down. He reminds me a lot of
Terrell Brandon <http://espn.go.com/nba/profiles/profile/0398.html>. His
body isn't very well defined, but he's a lot stronger than he looks and has
learned how to use the baseline and the sidelines defensively to help
squeeze his opposite number