It is a secret to no one that follows the NBA that the Cavaliers are in dire need of a point guard. While many of you have given your support to Delonte West in that regard, it seems that if we could get a solid option at the ‘one,’ West could bump over to the shooting guard and provide a flexible option from the wing.
While names like Baron Davis and Kirk Hinrich continue to float around in the rumor mill, the Toronto Star’s Doug Smith lists Cleveland as one of the teams in talks with the Raptors for point guard T.J. Ford.
The Star piece is primarily aimed at the talks that are reportedly going down between the Raps and the Indiana Pacers. Not surprisingly, the Pacers are still attempting to alleviate themselves from the $40+ million that they owe Jermaine O’Neal over the next two seasons. They’re set to move on without Jamaal Tinsley, but the fact that they own the 11th overall selection makes obtaining a solid guard a bit easier.
This is where the other teams come in. But would Ford be a good fit here?
If you ask me, we not only need our point guard to be a distributor (which Ford definitely is, as seen by his career average of seven assists per game), but we also need a scoring threat – especially from long range – which isn’t exactly T.J.’s forte. Sure, he has the occasional big nights, but he’s a career 12 points per game guy. And while his field goal percentage has improved year-over-year, he’s still hovering at 43 percent as a whole.
And while his turnover rate is a bit alarming (3.3 per 36 minutes), what may be more of a concern is the two neck injuries that he has sustained over his four seasons. He’s missed an average of 19 games per year for a bevy of reasons, but the obvious big detractors were his rookie campaign as well as last season. Is this something that we should be willing to risk? Not if I had any say. If I’m going to risk injury to a point guard, he better be giving me B-Diddy numbers.
So where does this leave us? Perhaps nowhere different than we were a week ago. The rumors will continue to swirl up until draft day, and odds are that we’ll see something that hasn’t even been dreamt to this point. But for now, I’m thinking that Ford should be crossed off of the Danny Ferry wish-list.
(via Indy Cornrows)
Is Ford Bound for Indiana? [The Toronto Star]