The Bobcat Nation

I know MSU fans are unhappy with Singleton right now and the way he is playing... but what other options do they have?

After seeing them in person yesterday, I don't see a lot of ways around Singleton getting a lot of minutes. Dison played 19 minutes but he really did not do anything of note... took a couple bad 3s, and didn't really create anything offensively. He may be a good player in time, but for now it seems to me that Singleton is the better option, even with flaws in his game. Dison's best offensive game was the intra-squad scrimmage... for now his scoring his basically limited to jumpshots, and he has not really been a prolific jump shooter this year.

I like putting Blount/Reid/Moon out there for stretches and having Blount be their primary ballhandler, but I think that can only work for stretches. For one, they don't really have the wing depth for that since Stewart left the team. Reid was noticeably gassed at times in this game, playing 37 minutes (out of 45). Neither he nor Reid has the handle to be the primary guard for stretches, so it would have to be Blount. Having a lineup of something like Blount/Moon/Johnson/Budinich/Fall for stretches I think would be troublesome too, because they would lack so much quickness at the 3. Plus, Blount is not really a natural lead guard anyway, much more of a slasher and not a creator, I am not sure he would work in that role.

So, I hear you guys on the Singleton complaints, because he has not been all that good this year, but as people that watch MSU more than I do, what do you guys propose? Curious to hear your thoughts.

Dison is probably not better than Singleton, but so what? The team losing with Singleton in there. This team has no present, since the Cats aren't going anywhere this season. Singleton's gone after the inevitable first-round tournament exit, so we might as well get Dison in there more and let him make his mistakes this year so he will have learned from them by next year.

Singleton played fairly well against Weber...except that as a point guard he would drive the lane until the Weber bigs met him at the charge circle and instead of kicking the ball out to a wing....he would try to score over or around them. Even Lillard would kick the ball to a wing when he entered the lane on a drive more than half the time.

Singleton has the ability to penetrate, but once he has done so, sometimes he gets trapped or stuck and turns it over. I just don't quite think he has the court vision to be a great PG in this league. But yes he is our best option right now, and I love his effort day in and day out. But when is the last time we had a PG average more than 4 assists a game?

EDIT: I did some research to my own question. The last time we had any player average more than 4 assists a game was in 2003-2004, Frank Brown...

Singleton has been painful to watch for the last few seasons. CelticCat did some good research. That is ridiculous that we haven't had a guy avg 4 assists per game since '04. Bad PG's + bad scorers = very few assists.

We can't recruit good big guys OR good guards....this is pathetic!!

Singleton is averaging 4.2 assists per game in conference games. That's fourth in the league. His assist/turnover ratio is 1.7, which is third in the league behind Garrity and Saldivar. So statistically either Singleton is doing alright or just about everyone else is having trouble at point guard. Only one player averages over 5 assists per game, that's Garrity.

CelticCat wrote:Singleton has the ability to penetrate, but once he has done so, sometimes he gets trapped or stuck and turns it over. I just don't quite think he has the court vision to be a great PG in this league. But yes he is our best option right now, and I love his effort day in and day out. But when is the last time we had a PG average more than 4 assists a game?

EDIT: I did some research to my own question. The last time we had any player average more than 4 assists a game was in 2003-2004, Frank Brown...

I think for me it is not about his actual stats it is about his game time decisions. When the game is on the line for example we have the ball with ten seconds he walks the ball up the court and chucks up the three. When we have two very good wings breaking to get open and he is not willing to make the pass to them. Several close games in a row he has made very poor on court decisions that I think have cost us games. He is not a pass first point guard but one that wants to be the hero and you cannot have that in a point guard you need someone that is thinking pass first.

JMO

4everacatfan wrote:I think for me it is not about his actual stats it is about his game time decisions. When the game is on the line for example we have the ball with ten seconds he walks the ball up the court and chucks up the three. When we have two very good wings breaking to get open and he is not willing to make the pass to them. Several close games in a row he has made very poor on court decisions that I think have cost us games. He is not a pass first point guard but one that wants to be the hero and you cannot have that in a point guard you need someone that is thinking pass first.

JMO

Either that, or he has to be better at being the hero. Will Cherry can hog the damn ball all he wants because he's just that good. Damian Lilliard can hog the damn ball all he wants because he's even better. When Singleton's on the floor, he's somewhere between the 3rd and 5th best scorer for the Bobcats, depending on the lineup.