I guess DW is kind of the same so you can take him off, but Ivey and Davis aren’t PGs. Ayo is literally playing PG in the NBA. Morsell primarily plays PG even though he’s not a great facilitator.
Davis averages 2 assists per game. He is a different category of player. Ivey there is a better argument because he can distribute a little bit, but he isn’t bringing the ball up the floor on the regular
I purposely left them off because if you’re getting that deep with just guys, you have similar players in other years like CJ Walker, PSU Wheeler, Boo Buie again, etc. Trying to stick with the top guys. And then even Aaron Henry has a better case to be added to last year’s lineup of PGs than Ivey or Davis because he basically was the only facilitator on MSU. This year has more “just guys” at PG than usual.
If you don’t want to include Morsell and would prefer Ayala it’s fine, but the ball didn’t get up the floor by itself and the offense didn’t get initiated on its own. Morsell and Ayala are both more of a PG than Davis. Why exactly are we trying to make Davis a PG here? He isn’t even in the top 25 in conference for APG. He has 3 total assists over the past 3 games. He is a 2 all the way.
Ivey usually gets the ball off of secondary action. Ayo was way more of a PG than Ivey. He averaged over 5 assists per game which was #2 in the conference. I don’t think it’s the same. But even in the world where you include 2022 Ivey in the PG/CG rankings, that means for last year you get to include Henry, DW and 2021 Ivey. I think the point remains.
I guess I’m just not sure of the point. Is Marcus Carr better than Payton Willis? Both put up huge numbers on bad teams, Willis is more efficient.
If you want to include Henry and Davis, I think Davis is the better player. I’m fine if you want to exclude them both but also guys who just have to create every shot.
Ivey and Ayo are very similar in terms of roles to me. Both are the best ball screen guard on their team but do play next to shorter players.
So in the end the mush comes down to basically Trice being better than Buie? Duane Washington being better than Frazier?
I’m not even trying to say the point guard crop is good, it just doesn’t seem all that different than last year. We were all convinced Marcus Carr was the best PG in the league last year and it turns out he’s been pretty well and exposed as an empty stats guy. How is that any different than Willis?
I think we are just arguing two different things. You want to say the overall guard crop is just as good as last year, which is a point that I think has more merit especially because of how much better Ivey and Davis are than last year’s guards besides Ayo. However, I’m just talking about PGs (either that or you seem to have a looser definition of a PG). Probably just semantics because you don’t necessarily need a good PG to have a good team. I’m just trying to make a point that it’s a down year for actual point guards.
No way. Ayo was second in the conference in APG and still plays PG in the NBA. He was a CG at the absolute minimum and was primary ball handler when Curbelo wasn’t on the floor. Ivey averages 3 apg. Ayo averaged over 5. Ivey is a 2 and will not play any PG at the next level because he is not a PG. I just don’t think they are the same even though you may want Purdue to embrace Ivey in a similar role as Illinois did Ayo.
The line is starting to blur quite a bit in this debate. When I started it I was thinking mostly about actual point guards who are responsible for bringing the ball up the court initiating offense. I don’t think the conference had a lot of great ones last year either but this year it felt difficult to even find the second best true point guard in the league.
They just showed a couple shots of Gard walking in and I can’t repeat the words that came out of my mouth when I saw him. I will be cheering for Minnesota as well!