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Message: [QUOTE="CocoHusky, post: 4372391, member: 5823"] Paige and DT are awful tall bars by which to measure any playmaking SG because each also managed to win Liberman Award as the best PG in the country. The PG position has evolved at all levels of basketball to a position which values scoring more than it does passing. Ari McDonald did not have a single assist in the Arizona FF game against UCONN, but she put up 26 points. Destini Henderson had 4 assist in the championship game and she also managed to put up 26 points. Hardly anyone talks about Stephen Curry assists numbers but he is a constant MVP candidate. Courtney Vandersloot has led the WNBA in assists in 5 of the last 6 seasons as was never in serious contention for a spot on the USA basketball national team. For UCONN specifically and among the players like Nika that who were restricted to playing the PG position only ( Jenn Rizzotti Sue Bird, Renee Montgomery, Moriah Jefferson, Crystal Dangerfield) were all double digit scorers as the UCONN starting PG. So if I'm going to pick a side here I would side with Azzi as the starter because the PG position (all positions ) at UCONN requires you to do three major things (pass, defend & score ) at high levels. IMO Azzi does the "combination" of these three things at a higher level than Nika and should get the nod as the Starting PG. To be perfectly transparent for me it does come down to the scoring deficiency on the part of Nika, which is very hard for me to write because of how much I value defense. If Nika's European passing efficiency is to be submitted as evidence of Nika's passing prowess then so should Azzi Fudd's time at USA basketball 9 (U19, U17, U16) where she was definitely utilized as a play making guard and finished among the teams leaders in assists. In 2021 at U19 Work Cup Azzi finished 3 on the team in assist behind Caitlin Clark and Te-Hina Paopao and ahead of Diamond Johnson. One of the more confounding things regarding Nika ( see [USER=3834]@Cuango[/USER] last post) is the binary (full or empty) value proposition that is associated with Nika specifically when it regards her starting. The backup PG position is going to be an extremely valuable position for UCONN this season just as it has always been for UCONN for the past several years. Nika's value to the team does not go from 1 (full value) to 0 if she does not start. In fact I'd make the argument that because she is the only game changing perimeter defender on the roster ( with Aubrey recovering from surgery) Nika becomes more value to the team coming off the bench to cool down a hot shooter or change the defensive tempo of the game. [/QUOTE]

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