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Watson the best backup PG?

He's ALREADY that. He's got a chance to be the best backup since Stockton backed up Rickey Green.


*edit* OK, maybe I was a little hasty. He probably hasn't passed Fisher yet on the list of backup PGs, but he's well on his way.


Mark Jackson the Cancer?
 
I can't imagine Watson will sustain the impact and production he's been bringing the past 5 games or so, but there's no way he does anything but learn more and get more comfortable as the year goes on.
 
Milt was alright... he had some moments... but it was mostly like that mixtape above... turnovers and a crooked jumpshot

I love Watson on this roster. He's a solid backup/rotation guard.
 
Dee Brown. Oh wait the owner thought he be a distraction to deron. Joke of greg miller. Bottom line is he didnt like dee cuz dee had 3 kids by 3 dif ladies
 
he had a better field goal percentage than williams in his only year here.

again, i'm not arguing that he was good, but the common reaction of "WHOA HE WAS SO BAD" to palacio or any ex-jazz player is silly and shortsighted.

Uncle Milt was terrible. Just terrible.
 
He's ALREADY that. He's got a chance to be the best backup since Stockton backed up Rickey Green.


*edit* OK, maybe I was a little hasty. He probably hasn't passed Fisher yet on the list of backup PGs, but he's well on his way.

Fisher played SG almost as often, and thus offset any good he did as PG imo.
 
When I mentioned Howard Eisley, I'm speaking of Eisley's 95-00 tenure when he was the best backup PG in the league and in my mind became the standard-bearer for all Jazz backup PGs - not the Eisley who split time here in 2004-05 with Keith McLeod when Arroyo and Lopez both got hurt/became headcases.

Fisher's best moments (during the 2007 playoffs or the gamewinning layup against the Knicks) came at SG, not PG where he was actually pretty bad at running our offense and couldn't run a pick-and-roll to save his life. Too often he would just duck his head and drive.

On the court Mark Jackson did a pretty good job and ran our offense beautifully, but any time you try to lead a lockerroom revolt against John Stockton and Jerry Sloan, that automatically knocks you down to the bottom of the totem pole.

Oh and Palacio was dreadful. He made a couple of big runners/layups in a huge win in Detroit (back when the Pistons were one of the best teams in the league) and that carried him alot further than his natural ability. Couldn't shoot from 15-feet and couldn't pass off the dribble. He was a veteran who could defend and drive the ball, but that's it.
 
Going purely by stats, you'd be hard pressed to find better back-up PG numbers than John Crotty in 2000-01

7 points, 4 assists, 47% fg 45% 3ptfg, 86% FT

Too bad he blew out his knee during the season.
 
the backlash against palacio is driven by the same reasoning as the backlash against any ex-jazz player; they don't play for utah anymore. therefore, they were terrible, are terrible, and will always be terrible. in the grand scheme of things, the ~20 minutes per game palacio played wasn't that bad.

Oh my god, he is serious.
 
We have only had one really stellar backup PG, and that was John Stockton. He might seriously have been the best backup PG the league has ever seen. He is followed, and not very closely at all, by Eisley, Crotty and Watson (in no particular order). Eisley was fairly solid, but we still had serious slippage when he came in the game. All you could hope for was for us to maintain. Crotty I thought had a good handle on what we were trying to do, but lacked some of the physical ability to pull it all off. Watson has the athletic ability Crotty lacked but all the smarts and more talent. I think really our best backup PG other than Stockton is the Watson/Price hybrid. Having them both out there together is surprisingly effective and the duo constitutes the best backup PG we have had yet, at least since Stockton took over the starting spot.
 
Eisley was fairly solid, but we still had serious slippage when he came in the game. All you could hope for was for us to maintain.
Couldn't disagree more. Routinely in the late 90's Stock would sit at the 4-min mark of the 1st qtr (when Sloan would always rest him) and Eisley would enter, then Anderson to start the 2nd and the Jazz would go on huge runs - largely because at this point Eisley was more offensive minded and would also push the ball (especially at home) and because the overall talent in the league wasn't as strong most 2nd-units had no answer for the Jazz's bench. Game 1&4 of the '98 WCF, Game 1 of the NBA Finals and Gm 3&4 against Sacramento in '99 are some notable games I remember Eisley performing just as effectively as Stock, if not more so.
Having a 2nd-unit that can increase the lead while your starters sit is the ultimate luxury over an 82-game season, and lately that's what this year's team has had.

Crotty actually finished a few games with Stock during the first half of the 01-02 season, I remember him hitting the game-clinching 3 in a close win over Charlotte. Limited athetically but found a way to get sneaky layups, a great open-shooter and always made good decisions. It's a shame his knee acted up, didn't really enjoy the Rusty LaRue experience as much.

Watson's more of a defensive PG who's at his best pushing the ball - like he did in his Seattle days. I think his halfcourt execution has improved, and will continue to improve with the return of Memo in a few weeks - because then Utah will have another scorer and won't have to solely rely on CJ Miles coming off screens.
 
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