Position Breakdown: Point Guards

Blazers.com : Another year is upon us and like all years in the NBA preseason, there will be battles for who gets playing time. The most interesting position to watch and see what Nate does, leading up to the first game, will be the quarterback or who will be the point guard of the 07-08 Blazers.

I don’t think you want to call this Nate’s problem position. Any time you have the depth and skills that the five perspective guards have, it can’t be called a problem. The five that are in the hunt for playing time are: Taurean Green, Jarrett Jack, Sergio Rodriguez, Steve Blake and Brandon Roy.

To start the discussion on who might win most of the minutes, you might discount Taurean Green immediately – you shouldn’t. He can do two things that are necessary for a point to be successful – shoot and play defense. He will improve if he gets opportunity but that may be difficult since the people ahead of him are the hardest workers on the Blazers, and they’re not about to share the minutes down to his level.

If you’re Nate, you know you want the ball in Brandon Roy’s hands in the fourth quarter, but that might not take the other points out of the game. Both Steve Blake and Jarrett Jack have moved over and played the two guard spot before. That leaves the first – three quarters for playing time at the point between Jarrett, Steve and Sergio. Nate will look very closely at last year to see who might run his team the best.