Who is a betterstarting PG; Barea or Ridnour?

[Jefferson25]

Seems like our forum is split between Ridnour and Barea as our starting PG? After watching the epic 2-overtime OKC game last year when Love and Barea went off, I would have to go with Barea. What are your guys thoughts? This will be a big decision before the start of the season since Rubio will be out until January.

[mplsguy]

I would have to say Luke might be a better facilitator but Barea definitely has better finishing ability. Luke is too weak and gets pushed around easily by stronger, faster point guards

[silverson]

Who in this forum believes that Barrea should start instead of Ridnour? I only suggested in the other thread that maybe Barrea will start the opening night because Ridnour has not played many preseason games.

[Hawkeye15]

Ridnour for sure.

[Hawkeye15]

I would have to say Luke might be a better facilitator but Barea definitely has better finishing ability. Luke is too weak and gets pushed around easily by stronger, faster point guards

Barea can't run an offense, dribbles the air out of the ball, gets his teammates stopping, can't make an entrance pass, and can't defend at all.

Luke isn't an ideal starting PG by any stretch, but Barea isn't even a PG to begin with. He is a midget SG.

[iliketurtles24]

Luke...

[twin4life]

Why is Will Conroy a choice?

[mngopher35]

Ridnour easily, he can actually run an offense. Barea seems to just dribble all over with his head down.

[Bigus Dogus]

I have never criticized an entire thread, but came very close here. JJ is not a PG, he is a SF (Melo, B-Easymold) in a toddler's body.

[mplsguy]

Wow you guys bash Barea like crazy I personally think he is one of our best penetrators and gets to the rim at will. Just watch his highlights for Dallas in the finals. He can actually drive, create a foul, or score at the rim.

Luke on the other hand will blow a wide open layup or will miss with any sign of contact. Luke can only hit open shots and cannot create his own shot at all. I like Luke as a backup but we need a starter who can penetrate and cause some havoc.

[topdog]

Wow you guys bash Barea like crazy I personally think he is one of our best penetrators and gets to the rim at will. Just watch his highlights for Dallas in the finals. He can actually drive, create a foul, or score at the rim.

Luke on the other hand will blow a wide open layup or will miss with any sign of contact. Luke can only hit open shots and cannot create his own shot at all. I like Luke as a backup but we need a starter who can penetrate and cause some havoc.

It's not about who is more dynamic. I don't think anyone doubts that J.J. is the more dynamic individual player as witnessed by his huge OKC performance and the way he lit it up in the finals.

We're talking about who is the better starter. Luke is the better starter because he does defer to other players and is a better passer. He's not a great defender, but he is better than Barea. Now, if Barea can become a better passer off of his penetration, then by all means the discussion changes (he did a good job of this against Detroit), but a starter needs to initiate the offense and get good passes to guys like Pek, Love and Roy in positions where they can score, pass or attack. Barea's passes tend to be too late in the shot clock, too low and too erratic.

[Hawkeye15]

Wow you guys bash Barea like crazy I personally think he is one of our best penetrators and gets to the rim at will. Just watch his highlights for Dallas in the finals. He can actually drive, create a foul, or score at the rim.

Luke on the other hand will blow a wide open layup or will miss with any sign of contact. Luke can only hit open shots and cannot create his own shot at all. I like Luke as a backup but we need a starter who can penetrate and cause some havoc.

That is the only time Barea is of value, when he is surrounded by elite floor spacers, and has the space to catch and drive (Dallas had this, we didn't last year, and even now we don't have the shooters Dallas did that year). He is not a lead guard. He doesn't run the offense, instead exhausting all avenues for his own scoring before deferring.

Starting PGs are supposed to keep the offense running, organized, and spaced. Luke does a far superior job of this, and he also gets the ball to players in the right areas, versus JJ just throwing passes before and after players get to their spots.

If JJ Barea is your starting PG, you are in the lottery. Period. Luke is an ideal backup, Barea more of an off the ball scorer who thrives in situations I painted above, with great shooters and spacers on his team to keep the floor open.

[Hawkeye15]

defensively, neither is good. Luke melts through picks, and Barea is easy to shoot over, both are killed by quick guards. Barea does at least draw a high amount of charges, but his defense is not better to the point you overlook his inability to run an offense. I picked this from Barea's scouting report, it sums it up perfectly:

Barea's main benefit was that he created lots of shots at a roughly league-average conversion rate. That makes him ideal with a second unit but not as valuable when the shots could be coming from Kevin Love or Nikola Pekovic instead.

[Hawkeye15]

one last thing. This is probably the year Luke sort of falls off a cliff. He is already dealing with back issues, and he was not that good last season. At his age, and body type, along with clearly slowing down, look to see a lot of Roy/Shved playing PG until Rubio is 100% and assumes his 35 mpg.

[Sota4Ever]

Malcolm Lee