Too Early to Judge Stoudamire
For the record, I've never been a big fan of Damon Stoudamire going back to his college days at Arizona. He's extremely talented, but also strikes me as cocky and arrogant, even if he is one of the smallest players in the league. It's hard to see him fitting in a Spurs system that values teamwork, not to mention humility, modesty and sobriety.
But I've set aside my personal bias in an attempt to embrace the acquisition of our new backup point guard. For one, Stoudamire's career numbers are impressive. In 13 seasons he's averaged 13.8 points and 6.3 assists a game while shooting 40.8% from the field and 83.3% from the free throw line.
His numbers over the last two seasons are a little less impressive, though, averaging about 7 points and 4 assists in 20-odd minutes. With five games as a Spur under his belt, Stoudamire has been even less impressive: 6.6 points and 1.8 assists per game, with a plus/minus of -8 over 102 minutes.
In all fairness, he did miss the entire month of January, and it would take any player some time to get up to speed on Pop's playbook. We'll know better how he fits in the first week after the All-Star game.
Bottom line: it's too early to tell whether the acquisition of Stoudamire will help the Spurs en route to their fifth NBA Title. And in that light, perhaps the most important stat is the Spurs record since Stoudamire joined the team: 4-1.
But I've set aside my personal bias in an attempt to embrace the acquisition of our new backup point guard. For one, Stoudamire's career numbers are impressive. In 13 seasons he's averaged 13.8 points and 6.3 assists a game while shooting 40.8% from the field and 83.3% from the free throw line.
His numbers over the last two seasons are a little less impressive, though, averaging about 7 points and 4 assists in 20-odd minutes. With five games as a Spur under his belt, Stoudamire has been even less impressive: 6.6 points and 1.8 assists per game, with a plus/minus of -8 over 102 minutes.
In all fairness, he did miss the entire month of January, and it would take any player some time to get up to speed on Pop's playbook. We'll know better how he fits in the first week after the All-Star game.
Bottom line: it's too early to tell whether the acquisition of Stoudamire will help the Spurs en route to their fifth NBA Title. And in that light, perhaps the most important stat is the Spurs record since Stoudamire joined the team: 4-1.
posted by D Strickland at 10:06 PM
2 Comments:
Three words: Little Man Syndrome
For the record, I think this is a positive signing and the NVE comparisons are unfair. We'll see how positive of a signing this is.
I agree that this is positive news, so far.
To satisfy my own curiosity, I compared Stoudamire in his 13th NBA season to Van Exel in his 13th season and the stats favor Stoudamire for the most part.
Btw, I forgot to mention that Stoudamire was also Rookie of the Year in '96.
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