Off-Day Open Thread: Does Chris Duhon Still Have Your Confidence?

..of making it REALLY hurt when Jameer has to sit. Even Dwight sitting for Gortat isn’t nearly as big a handicap for the team.

My problem with Duhon is his lack of basic skills as a point guard.

on the defensive end: he’s an average to above average defender, that’s fine, but he regularly closes out WAY to hard on shooters. This is something Van Gundy’s teams have always been exceptional at: closing out under control so as not to put strain on the defense if the shooter fakes the shot and easily goes around the agressive close out. It’s one of the reasons the magic have kept teams that generally are shooting teams (chicago, atlanta hawks etc.) out of the paint, and to low shooting percentages. duhon does not do this. his closeouts are way too agressive.

on the offensive end: where do i start. reluctance to shoot, terrible decisions once he turns the corner on the pick and roll (how many times is he gonna turn the ball over trying to pass it between two defenders to the roll guy when there’s NO space to do so??), and my biggest problem with him: his passes are often weak and off target. there have been so many times when his passes do not his the shooters where they need it to go up with the shot. either that, or the pass is so weak that it never gets to them (opposing team steals it), or by the time is DOES get to them, the shooter no longer has the open shot.

these are my issues with duhon.

To be semi-long… I think it might be wise for Stan to still give him the majority of the minutes in the regular season. Why? Because last year, it seemed pretty clear that J-Will tired out by the end of the season and the playoffs. If we keep giving Duhon the majority of the back-up minutes, we give him more time to (hopefully) become comfortable in the system. However, if that doesn’t happen, at the worst J-Will can step in pretty easily as the back-up and play when called upon… and with fresh legs.

Kidding, but as an Aussie id love to see one of my countrymen on the Magic. He’s actually had two decent games in the last few days, now that he is getting a chance to play some minutes. Kid has potential.

and he hasn’t let me down.

Probably would be good with a younger Turkoglu on the floor with him at the same time. Can be “good” with Vince on the floor if the Magic will run the offense through Vince.

But at this point, you can’t really run the offense through Duhon because he’s not a threat to score from anywhere – not quick enough to get inside, when he gets inside he has a low chance of scoring, he doesn’t shoot the three, he hasn’t been good on the pick and roll, he’s a bad free throw shooter… so…

I liked his hustle in the Atlanta game though and I respect that. Let’s not be all out negative on him, let’s be fair. I mean, it’s not like he’s not giving a damn… he tries but at this moment, he just plays bad. Hopefully with more time he’ll start to make better decisions and understand more what he can or can’t do with this team and what, when and where his teammates expect him to do stuff.

Duhon just plain out Stinks, PERIOD. If Williams started in the Bucks game, Magic win. Stan Van Dumpy is a hardhead and Otis Sh*ts is another story bringing this waste (Duhon)of 3.5 million to a contract for 4 straight years. Duhon is a joke to watch as even as 3rd string point guard. Anyone who thinks Duhon will be better this year is fooling himself. OR RELATED TO HIM. JUST ASK the New York Knicks who could not wait to dump Duhon. The guy even looks dumb.

This is soooo funny I can’t stop laughing.