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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4370947, member: 9844"] My point is more about the shooters both Paige and Nika had to work with. In their freshmen year most of the time played at the 2 and 3 was Christyn and Evina. When either Paige or Nika was playing the point, on the perimeter they had just OK three point threats. That also made it easier to defend the paint against us, because if you gave up an open three to Christyn or Evina it was still better than an easy 2. When Nika and Paige were in at the same time the best combination was Nika playing the point and Paige at SG. If Paige was the point, she had Nika and either Christyn or Evina to pass to on the perimeter, not a very good option, but when Nika played the point at least she had one very good shooter in Paige as an option. In many ways both Paige and Nika had a handicap of frequently not having dangerous three point threats to play with. This year is entirely different. We have three guards that cannot be left alone beyond the arc. That also opens up the inside options some. I believe that shooting and passing are very related. If you have three shooters without enough passing that shooting ability could be underutilized, just like having a passer like Paige or Nika can be underutilized if their perimeter threats are mediocre. Before Paige's injury this was going to be the year where we had the perfect marriage of passers and shooters, enhancing the value and production of both types of players, and of course Paige is in both categories. Azzi now figures to be the best of the four guards, and I feel she will get big minutes, but the higher percentage of those that are at SG the better, with her playing the point only when Nika is sitting. As for minutes overall the real debate is between Lou and Nika. Lou might be a better overall player than Nika, but even if that is true there is more to it than that. If Lou is in for Nika then presumably Azzi is the point, so it is not just which of those two are better because Azzi as good as she could be at the point, is not as great as she can be as a natural SG. Then also factoring in a balance of traits, passing, shooting, rebounding, defense. With only 4 guards (for now) over the season, we should see all the permutations and combinations of these four. I don't know which 3 Geno will start with, but over time the results will probably determine what works best. I think the correlation between shooting and passing is very strong. With Paige we had both traits in one great player. Nika has some of Paige's passing and defense, and Lou appears to have some of Paige's shooting and scoring ability. So Geno has to figure out how to incorporate those traits with what he has in the other two, which is mostly shooting and scoring from Azzi and Caroline. Always an interesting debate. [/QUOTE]

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