Good article this morning on Charlotte Bobcats guard Raymond Felton. Felton, in his 3rd year with the Bobcats, is coached by NBA legend and renouned point guard coach Larry Brown. Here is a little from the article:
“Just trust me.”
It was that simple and that complex when Raymond Felton met with his coach about 10 games into this season. The Charlotte Bobcats had started 3-7 and the offense was the least productive in the NBA.
Coach Larry Brown was riding Felton hard, as is his habit with point guards. Felton didn't mind that; he considered himself lucky to have a former point guard for a coach. He just needed to make sure Brown understood something.
“Just trust me,” Felton recalled telling Brown. “I'm going to play hard every night. I'm going to do what you want me to do. But at the same time, let me be me.
“I told him, ‘Push me to be better because I want to be better. And I want to make the team better.' Everything just worked out.”
That doesn't mean Felton never errs. Sometimes he shoots too much or throws the ball away or forgets to get a teammate enough shots. But Brown gets it about Felton's intentions.
The statistics aren't dramatically different; his points (13.7 per game), assists (6.8) and shooting percentage (40.8 percent) are roughly the same as last season. But point guards aren't easily defined by numbers; it's a nuanced position that is more about making hundreds of decisions each game in real time.
To Brown, a point guard is there to serve others; to keep them involved and organized. If you happen to score some points along the way, that's more a bonus than an objective.
To be a point guard, you have to be a leader, and Felton wasn't situated to be either until this season.
“The leader of your team has got to be either a guy who can be an All-Star or the point guard,” Felton said. “Without the ball in my hands, I wasn't the leader. Having that ball in my hands at clutch time, to make a play, that gives me the confidence that I can lead these guys.
“To talk to them, to yell at them if I need to, to demand something from them, and have them say, ‘OK' instead of giving you a look that says, ‘Hey, who you talking to?'”
To pull that off, Felton had to prove he was a good decision-maker. When it comes time to make those hundreds of choices each game,there's a balance to be struck between technique and psychology.
“There are 20 things going through your head in any one possession,” Felton said. “A shot's missed, there's an offensive rebound. New shot clock. You see someone open. Do you pass it or not?
“You don't want your teammate (thinking) ‘He won't pass me the ball!' But you also don't want coach yelling at you because he's thinking, ‘We haven't scored in a while and we have a new shot clock. Yes, he's open, but run a play to get a better shot.'”
Brown loves that Felton is more conscious of those calculations.
“Is he a perfect point guard right now? No, but I think his progress has been dramatic,” Brown said. “He's got to continue to recognize when guys haven't been involved, when they need to get a shot. He's got to be a more consistent jump-shooter, to make people guard him honest.
“But he loves to play. And he wants to learn.”
