Duhon vs. Ivey

[clrumph]

I'm a pretty big college basketball fan and I was sure that we would draft Chris Duhon is he was available with one of our THREE 2nd round picks last year. After we picked Donta at #34 (I didn't have a problem with that since he was rated as a 1st round talent) I just knew we would grab Duhon if he was still there at #38. Lo and behold Duhon is still available but BK drafted Royal Ivey instead. Of course Duhon went one pick later to Chicago. Needless to say I was not happy that we passed on Duhon at that spot, but I always give the benefit of the doubt to a GM until the players themselves prove otherwise. However, I must admit us not picking Duhon over Ivey has been bothering me all season.

This brings me to tonight's loss to the Bulls in which Duhon hits EIGHT three pointers (two more than Ben Gordon has in any game this year) while Ivey played only six minutes and missed his only shot (a three-pointer, how ironic is that?) on a team with no shot of the playoffs and who is basically holding open auditions to see who will be with the team next year. Meanwhile Duhon is the starting PG on a playoff bound team and he will probably make the 2nd team all-NBA Rookie squad with Childress (I think Josh Smith will make the first team). Duhon is a pure point guard, he is comfortable running a team, and he consistently hit big shots at Duke. On the other hand Ivey is a SG who is trying to make the switch to PG at the NBA level with very mixed results.

Is there ANYONE out there who feels that we didn't make a mistake by passing over Duhon? I really hope Billy Knight does a better job in this year's draft because he really had an opportunity to improve this team in last year's draft but it looks like the Bulls did a much better job.

By the way, my picks would have been:

1st round pick #6 - Andre Iguodala (Imagine him and J-Smoove running the break and dunking over people - simply would have been awesome. J-Chill will work too but he has to work on that ugly jump shot)

1st round pick #17 - Josh Smith (luckily he fell into our lap even though he was rated as a top 10 pick before the workouts)

2nd round pick #34 - Donta Smith (he has a lot of potential from what I've seen this season)

2nd round pick #38 - Chris Duhon (choosing Royal Ivey over Duhon here was the biggest mistake BK made because of our utter lack of a legitimate PG on our roster at the time of the draft)

2nd round pick #53 - (This pick was traded to San Antonio so I can't choose a player here because we didn't have the pick)

In this year's upcoming draft I would rather BK trade both of our 2nd round picks (#31 and #58 and maybe a player or a future 2nd round pick) in order to move up into the latter part of the 1st round. I think someone good is going to drop and hopefully BK can trade up to take advantage of the situation. If we get stuck with both of our 2nd picks I hope BK doesn't have a brain freeze like he did last year when he picked Ivey.

By the way, I'm sure Duhon enjoyed sticking it to the Hawks tonight because we had two opportunities to draft him in the 2nd round AND we needed a point guard and BK still didn't draft him. I know if I was in Duhon's shoes I would've have enjoyed it because without his heroics I really think the Hawks would have beat the Bulls tonight.

[Weez]

nope. I prefered Duhon as well, esp. in that 38 spot...

[pathway23]

I don't care much for Duhon. He is a defensive liability imo.

Ivey just isn't getting much of a chance to prove himself and has less talent around him than Duhon does.

[CBAreject]

It's not a big loss. I think BK was taking a chance on a player that he felt had a chance to be special. Duhon is what he is, which is--a backup PG. He's going to be good at that, but I don't think he'll ever be a starter. His 3ptrs were a freak thing. He can shoot OK, but he actually struggles with his mid range game, and will probably always post a lousy shooting percentage.

Donta was the same deal...take a player that has a shot to be a starter for you. We can't build this team with backups, but once we have it built, we can fill in with those type of guys easily.

If we really want Duhon, we'd have to pay for him after his 2nd year either way. If we want to sign him, we can do it.

[Nicholasp27]

duhon had a freak game and i knew this would happen

ivey has games where he hits everything he shoots, but he doesn't get the green light to take many shots or the mins most of the time...

AND

ivey is a good defender, unlike duhon...that means he has a chance to be a top-notch backup or even grow into a decent starter...

82games.com stats backup my assessment of ivey

[mudderfudder77]

Quote:

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I don't care much for Duhon. He is a defensive liability imo.

Ivey just isn't getting much of a chance to prove himself and has less talent around him than Duhon does.

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Let me chime in as a Bulls fan who is just now emerging from the 6 years of hell they put me through. The reason that Duhon is a starter on a playoff bound team is because of his defense. I didn't see the Hawks game - maybe his defense was off- but the reason Skiles has had him starting all season is because he doesn't play defense like a rookie. He is an excellent help defender and understands team defense. He might never be a great one on one defender, but he doesn't have to be because he doesn't allow himself to get put into those positions. The Bulls are structured around their team defense and Duhon is a big part of that. Duhon's problem is that you'll be lucky if he gives you 7 pts a game. The assists will always be there, but I don't think he'll ever be a consistent shooter. But most certainly defense is not his weakness...

[Admin]

I dont know why people think he is a poor defender. He was giving Lue major fits last night defending him on the ball. Every time I can recall seeing Duhon play he showed me terrific defense and a great feel for getting players the ball in open space. However, until the last couple of months he was a terrible shooter. He has since picked that up (from downtown at least) and has become a guy you cannot leave open outside. As we saw last night, he kept getting left wide open and kept nailing 3pter after 3pter. It was so bad that Woodson couldnt even find a guy to go in the game to stay on him.

At this point it is too early to say we should have drafted Duhon over Ivey. Perhaps if Ivey was on the Bulls with all of their talent he would be lighting it up and Duhon might be struggling here.

[Blunt91]

Well I remember after the draft that their was an article about Ivey that stated the Hawks were going to wait until their 3rdsecond round pick to take Ivey but Ivey's agent was on the phone with the Hawks during the draft and told them that if they didn't select Ivey with the 38thpick another team would pick him before their last pick came around. Now it is very possible that the Bulls could have had interest in Royal Ivey and would have taken him instead of Chris Duhon.

[emeans]

I too wanted Duhon with the 38th pick. I didn't even know who Ivey was until someone told me he played for Texas. Then I remembered who he was and I also remembered that he wasn't a better college player than Duhon by any stretch. And yes Duhon can play excellent defense too, so don't give me that Ivey was picked because of his defense excuse.

We should have drafted Duhon as a backup PG period!!

[pathway23]

no use crying over spilled milk. No GM is perfect, and I personally like Ivey. I have a problem with any Duke player no matter how good they are