Well we knew it was only a matter of time, so here it is my first post of one of my errrrr favorite Hawks Jeff Teague. I see this as a good time to talk about him before he goes on the public scene in Houston where he might possibly (dare I say) get national attention in the skills challenge and the chance that M-V-Teague might actually catch on.
But before I go on, let me reflect on a few names that have plauged us in our epic search for a point guard for this team. Anthony Johnson, Tyronne Lue, Royal Ivey, Salim Stoudamire, Acie Law IV, Bimbo Coles, Jason Terry, Kenny Anderson, Tony Delk, Speedy Claxton, Mike Bibby. Whew, those were some good times that defined whether or not you were a serious Hawks fan. Now after naming those names, I hope that many here now appreciate what it's like to have a point guard that can actually score and isn't hidden on the defensive end on a nightly basis.
Earlier in the season, Evil Dallas took the time to research him in his "Know Thy Self Series" in which he gave us some interesting facts and also his quick thoughts about Jeff and the upcoming season. One of my personal random facts about Teague is as Hooter Baby pointed out to me, no one ever understands what the heck he is talking about whenever he tweets something.
Okay well coming into this All-Star break, I'm sure that we are all happy that Jeff is continuing to grow as a point guard and is becoming more comfortable as a distributor and a scorer. Also I'm sure we are all grateful that he ended the dark era in Atlanta's search for the next point guard.
Jeff in my opinion has been having a good season because we see the improvement not only on the court but also on the stat sheets. He has improved in just about every statistic that includes ppg, apg, 3p%, and the number of times he gets to the line. He is slowly turning from the big time dunker and scoring pg to a passing pg that can set up his teamates.
He still has some work to do but the improvement that I see in this department of his game has grown. In an article I found by Jacob Frankel on Hoop Chalk, he talks about the maturation of Teague and once again that he is seeing lanes not only as a scorer, but as a distributor. We can see in one of the clips on the article the improvement he has in his vision that has him averaging 9 assist per game in the month of February.
After watching Teague this season it seems that the light has clicked for him and he is starting to understand the game. In the last 10 games Jeff is averaging about 18 points per game, 8 assists, to go along with 1.4 steals with an impressive field goal percentage of 53%.
This isn't just good, had he played like this since the beginning of the season he may have had a shot at the all-star team. If he can continue this path for the rest of the season and the future, Ferry may have a tough decision coming this summer to go along with the Josh Smith decision especially since we now have a price on the other guards in his class in Ty Lawson and Jrue Holiday.
We all know that this summer Atlanta has a lot of cap space and are building for the future. Personally I hope that Teague is part of this future because if we give up on what has been a strong, steady, and impressive improvement, then I'm sure that some team out there will be more than happy to have young Jeff Teague on their roster.
For now let's root for our Hawk in the skills challenge (boy if he wins just imagine the chaos it would create) and hope that the momentum that he had this past month will continue for the rest of the season and hopefully in to the playoffs.