Salmon heading up stream?

John Salmons. 29 years old, probably our starting off guard. Tall, lanky, can score off the bounce or spot up. Defensively can be a bother with athleticism and size. Effort is there. Best offensive move is a one dribble hesitation pull up jumper from his left hand. Decent rebounder.

But can all of these positives off set Ben Gordon type of reproduction. By all accounts, yes. After the trade, on a per minute basis, Salmons was better than BG. We went to both players during crunch time, especially during the playoff series. Both came up big, and sometimes both made dumb mistakes.

Perhaps the best question is whether Salmons is a quality enough shooting guard for a team that wants to win in the playoffs. His biggest achilles heel is his willingness to receive and shoot--the man can be a black hole. You give him the ball, you should it's going up. He doesn't make teammates better, he's not a passer, and his finishing ability at the rim is beneath most at his position. A good shooter, but not a dead eye by any standards. Would prefer him to be more patient and understand how to manage a clock, involve his teammates.

Alot of the season's success will depend upon how our backcourt rotation produces. A rotation of Hinrich, Salmons, Pargo, and Deng needs to be efficient for the team to be in the top 8 in the East. ESPN's Hollinger believes we hit the 9 seed, even though he thinks this is a team that could potentially turn the corner. If we turn the corner, most would believe it would be a playoff team, anything else would be a downgrade.