Re:Banks Sparked Us

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

>>>Tammy,

Banks still has his bad moments, but Mike James will certainly NOT be the 
point guard when we hang up number 17.  Marcus Banks may be the guy, and we'll 
never know unless we start giving him more meaningful minutes.  <<<<<

I'm not arguing the point he needs minutes or that James is the point guard 
of the future because he's not.  I was arguing the fact that Marcus was 
responsible for some sort of spark which led as to win the game.  In reality we just 
started making shots.
However, people on this board had better decide whether they are willing to 
lose some games in order to give Marcus minutes.  With the way most carry on 
with every loss, I doubt they are.



>>I don't see any of the point guards who were available in this year's draft 
outshining him (with the exception of LeBron, of course). <<<

It depends on what you mean by available.  Since you used James as an 
example, I assume you mean anyone in the draft.  If that's the case there are plenty 
of points who have played better than Banks so far.  You saw one of them in 
Kirk Hinrich the other night.  Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for us, he 
had his worst game in over a month against the Celtics.  
Still, he's averaging 10 points and 5.5 assists, 12 points and 7 assists for 
the month of December, and has garnered praise from all over the NBA for his 
defense. He's already had three double-doubles and he shoots better than Marcus 
in all three categories.
 The Sporting News just did an article on rookies who have stood out besides 
James and Anthony.  Kirk was #4. TJ Ford was #5.  Luke Ridnour was #10.  
There's three right there.  Four if you count Dwayne Wade, who plays some point for 
Miami and came in at #2.  

http://www.foxsports.com/content/view?contentId=1997822

NBA,coms rookie ranking also has Wade (#2), Hinrich (#4), Ford (#5), Ridnour 
(#9) in their top 10 and two more point guards, Steve Blake & Raul Lopez, in 
their honorable mentions.

http://www.nba.com/milk_rookie/rookie_rankings_031229.html

This isn't to put Marcus down.  But Celtics fans often have no objectivity 
when talking about their young players and Marcus is no exception.  There 
certainly are point guards who are out performing him right now.  To be fair, most 
of them we would have had to trade up to get.
But the way you phrased your statement there were none better.  They were 
there and we did basically trade up to get Banks.
I still hold out hope for Banks.  I'm not writing him off.  But let's not kid 
ourselves either.  He is very much a work in progress.

TAM