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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A tale of two (point guards)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - Aside from locker room real estate and their designated position, Hawks point guards Mike Bibby and Acie Law IV don’t appear to have many similar traits.
Bibby has played over a decade while Law is still in the Pampers stage of his NBA career.
Bibby is one of the league’s sweetest shooting point guards while Law’s shooting stroke remains a work in progress.
Bibby has no peer when it comes to locker room hijinks and chatter while Law rarely speaks louder than a whisper, unless he’s prompted.
Bibby has the implicit trust of his teammates to run the show as he sees fit while Law is still working on his command of the game when he’s on the floor.
“See what happens when the head of the snake is missing,” one Hawks player said during a break in the action late in Saturday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. “We’ve got to have Mike on that floor. He’s the head of the snake.”
(We should see both of them on the floor tonight against Washington at Philips Arena.)
The Hawks’ point guard dilemma came to a head in that loss to the Clippers. But the issue isn’t so much about what Law can or cannot do (with the limited amount of minutes he’s played the past year and 50 games, it’s hard to know exactly what he’s capable of), but more about what it is that Bibby does to make things run so smoothly when he’s on the floor.
So I spoke with a good friend who is an advance scout for one of the Hawks’ Eastern Conference rivals who had some keen insight, having worked with Woodson before:
“Looking at the way Woody [Hawks coach Mike Woodson] coaches and what he looks for out of his point guard it’s about knocking down open shots,” my scout friend said. “That’s what Woodson likes. Just knock down some shots. The Hawks don’t run a traditional pick-and-roll offense, which is the staple of most NBA teams and conducive to the skills of most NBA point guards. So much of what they run is through Joe Johnson. That’s why he leads the team in assists. And that’s why Bibby plays so well off of him, because he can just spot up and do what he does best. Law is more of a traditional pick-and-roll guy whose game would have to change dramatically to fit into what Woody wants from his point guard. I commend the kid for doing whatever they’ve asked him to do to try and adjust, but you can tell he’s not playing instinctually out there and he’s not playing to his strengths.”
What makes that so interesting is that Law said essentially the same thing to me Monday afternoon, save for the critique of his own performance.
Rather than sulking and licking his wounds after the Hawks’ dismal showing against the Clippers (Law actually played pretty well, finishing with eight points, six assists and just one late turnover in his season-high 28 minutes), Law was in the office of Hawks assistant coach Jim Todd watching film and trying to zero in on his strengths and weaknesses from that performance.
“I’ve just got to keep working,” Law said. “I was in there with JT looking at those cut ups to see the little things I could have done better. I did a lot of good things, too. I thought I defended Baron Davis well and made some things happen. But you can always get better. I’ve just got to find my niche and continue to get better. It was just one game, 28 minutes. It wasn’t my entire season.”
The Hawks might have just 32 games left with this current point guard configuration. Bibby will be a free agent this summer and there are no guarantees that he’ll be back with the Hawks (a heated discussion for a later time, of course). With All-Star Weekend in his hometown (Phoenix) and the NBA trade deadline both within the next 10 days, you can bet the Hawks’ point guard situation will heat up, if nowhere else other than the rumor mill.
And despite a limited sample of his abilities, teams remain intrigued by what Law is capable of.
“He’s a guy I’d trade for,” a former Western Conference general manager told me Monday. “He’s a guy that makes an impact when he’s on the floor. He’s a big point guard that is athletic, capable of defending an assortment of guys on the perimeter and he plays with an explosive burst to the basket that you can use to your advantage in this league. There are plenty of people keeping an eye on that situation in Atlanta just to see how things work out.”
