Peachtreehoops nails it on why Jeff Teague has struggled.

[coachx]

I know many of us have said that missing Horford's pick and roll / pop game has hurt Teague. Kris at Peachtreehoops.com nails it and articulates it better then I have seen. Definitely worth a click.

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2014/2/26/5449192/mailbag-atlanta-hawks-jeff-teague-nba-playoffs

How much of Teague's struggles since his quick start can be attributed to Al being hurt? Is Teague's offensive game that reliant on his pick & roll/pop game with Al? Why hasn't that approach translated as well with Milsap?

The Hawks lost a good shooter and one that thrived in the pick and pop game when they lost Al Horford. No doubt that has affected the entire team and not just Jeff Teague. However, we have seen a different approach as home teams defend Atlanta without Horford on the floor.

Instead of having to worry about the pick man as a shooter, teams have flooded the paint with defenders and that has decreased the room Teague has to operate. Pero Antić was able to replace some of that by knocking down some big shots and earning the respect from the defense.

Additionally Teague's own shooting has really hurt him. His three point percentage is down to 28 percent this season and opposing defenses have been able to duck under the screen because Jeff has been unable to make them pay.

Atlanta's system is built on spreading the floor and providing room for the point guard to operate off of the pick and roll. Combinations of Millsap and Horford or Millsap and Antić have successfully provided Teague space. Lineups of Millsap paired with Brand or Ayón haven't been quite as successful in terms of freeing Jeff.

Again I think there is a lot of factors at work. Winning the rebounding battle and pushing the ball in transition is another thing that I didn't even touch on. I still believe the biggest difference has Jeff's inability to knock down the jumper consistently. If he is shooting 36 percent like last season, then I think opposing defenses would have to change the way they defend him.

Great question and one that deserves a more thorough breakdown that I will try to get to soon.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Dolfan23
Fixed quote

[Plainview1981]

He has struggled to shoot this season. He was getting to the line more earlier this year, but I think the burden of having to be both a creator and a scorer is more than Jeff can handle on a nightly basis. While he was never Ray Allen as a shooter, his shooting has went downhill last year. With guys like JJ, Josh and even Devin gone... It's all up to Teague to get others involved and he just has not found a balance.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Hotlanta1981

[Admin]

I don't think they really nailed anything. They just came up with the same speculation that we have. Bottom line is that this is all just excuses to try and justify a mediocre PG when we should be coming to the realization that it is all he is and likely will ever be. He'd be a great PG for a team like Miami but he's not what we need here.

[buckeye242424]

He has struggled to shoot this season. He was getting to the line more earlier this year, but I think the burden of having to be both a creator and a scorer is more than Jeff can handle on a nightly basis. While he was never Ray Allen as a shooter, his shooting has went downhill last year. With guys like JJ, Josh and even Devin gone... It's all up to Teague to get others involved and he just has not found a balance.

This. It's simple, he had a terrible year shooting. The article says he's done 28% on three's....

[Camouflage]

His ability to rock past the defender and grab an and1 is excellent. Above average shooter and passer. Below average leader. If he could step up his leadership skills and maybe work on the 3 ball, he could be everything we wanted. Again, just my opinion.

[nathan2331]

I don't think they really nailed anything. They just came up with the same speculation that we have. Bottom line is that this is all just excuses to try and justify a mediocre PG when we should be coming to the realization that it is all he is and likely will ever be. He'd be a great PG for a team like Miami but he's not what we need here.

You're right. He's the type of player who's only as good as his teammates, but I still wouldn't mind keeping him around. I really thought he would make the jump to top point guard status though, since up until this point he had been improving.

[AHF]

His ability to rock past the defender and grab an and1 is excellent. Above average shooter and passer. Below average leader. If he could step up his leadership skills and maybe work on the 3 ball, he could be everything we wanted. Again, just my opinion.

Above average shooter and passer?

He is an adequate passer (not particularly creative but does a workman-like job). He is well below average this year. He is shooting just under 28% from 3pt range and hitting 42% of his overall FGs. His .517 TS% is the worst since his rookie season.

I think Dolfan nails it in describing Teague as an average PG. The only aspect of his game that strikes me as above average for a PG is his athleticism. That at least gives me hope he can continue to improve since he has the tools but he seems to still be lagging on the skills (although much improved from early in his career).

[Peoriabird]

Just a down year..It happens. Certainly doesn't help that he is playing with career back ups. He will be better next year. Heck he is even play better now so cut the guy some slack!

[AHF]

Just a down year..It happens. Certainly doesn't help that he is playing with career back ups. He will be better next year. Heck he is even play better now so cut the guy some slack!

I agree it is a down year. That is why I think of his as being more average than the below average performance this year. I just can't wrap my head around him above average as a passer or shooter in a league as rich in PG talent as this one.

I came into this year hoping to see him progress into that above-average range but this stands out as an off year for him instead. He is better than he has looked the last few months but not as good as he looked to start the year. Hopefully he can get back on track to finish the season and carry that into next year.

[BrazilianHawk]

An average PG and not what we need here, they say?

I'd definitely work on filling the other glaring holes in our roster before dismissing him as a disposable player.

Teague has getting better year after year and is struggling because the entire team is. Despite his terrible FG% this season, he was posting 10+ assists night in and night out. that's not average numbers for me.

Chris Paul wouldn't keep the team in the third seed with a dilacerated roster as ours. Why should Teague?

[JTB]

I will say this...I agree that Teague is an average point guard but he's also the type of average point guard that CAN make an all star appearance once or twice in his career if there was a star player on this team.Teague is a great role player! Put him with Kevin Love and horford and I gurantee he will average some fantastic stats and shoot around 45%, 15-17 ppg, 7-8 assists. BUT try and make him the leader...the one we depend on....the BETA DOG and he will fail you!I don't agree with keeping Teague cause I don't see a superstar player coming here anytime soon. I ONLY agree keeping Teague if we get a superstar player and if Teagues the 3rd best player on the floor...if you haven't noticed Teagues an absolute beast as the 3rd go to man on offense.

Edited February 27, 2014 by JTB

[AHF]

An average PG and not what we need here, they say?

I'd definitely work on filling the other glaring holes in our roster before dismissing him as a disposable player.

Teague has getting better year after year and is struggling because the entire team is. Despite his terrible FG% this season, he was posting 10+ assists night in and night out. that's not average numbers for me.

Chris Paul wouldn't keep the team in the third seed with a dilacerated roster as ours. Why should Teague?

He averaged 7.9 apg last year and is averaging 7.8 apg this year. He has had double digit assists in 20.4% of games this season and has only 1 double digit assist game in 2014. Last season, he had double digit assists in 21.3% of games. Whatever you thought of his assist numbers last season, they are level or worse this year (I think of them as being pretty much unchanged).

I think a healthy Paul would have this team as the 3rd seed similar to the 46 wins his team won in NO in 2010-11 (West = Millsap; Korver > Bellini; DMC = Ariza; etc.) but that is a useless debate given the impossibility of proving it out.

Edited February 27, 2014 by AHF

[Admin]

An average PG and not what we need here, they say?

I'd definitely work on filling the other glaring holes in our roster before dismissing him as a disposable player.

Teague has getting better year after year and is struggling because the entire team is. Despite his terrible FG% this season, he was posting 10+ assists night in and night out. that's not average numbers for me.

Chris Paul wouldn't keep the team in the third seed with a dilacerated roster as ours. Why should Teague?

Really? He had his career year in 2011-2012 and then went down quite a bit last year to slightly above average and this year he's well below average so he's on a sharp downward trend and it's not because of injuries and who's playing with as it started last year. You guys might not realize but this is his worst year since his rookie season when he barely played. He's just been that flat out bad and I don't have hopes for him improving to anything more than average because he's mentally weak. In fact his career WS/48 is EXACTLY .100, or league average.

Teague has had 11 games with 10+ assists this year, only 1 of them since before the New Year. He's had 23 games with 4 or more turnovers. He's had 27 games with a +/- of 0 or better and 27 games with a -1 or worse. He's extremely bi-polar and that's not the type of player you want running your team on the floor.

[Bahamut]

Bye, Jeff.

[JTB]

Really? He had his career year in 2011-2012 and then went down quite a bit last year to slightly above average and this year he's well below average so he's on a sharp downward trend and it's not because of injuries and who's playing with as it started last year. You guys might not realize but this is his worst year since his rookie season when he barely played. He's just been that flat out bad and I don't have hopes for him improving to anything more than average because he's mentally weak. In fact his career WS/48 is EXACTLY .100, or league average. Teague has had 11 games with 10+ assists this year, only 1 of them since before the New Year. He's had 23 games with 4 or more turnovers. He's had 27 games with a +/- of 0 or better and 27 games with a -1 or worse. He's extremely bi-polar and that's not the type of player you want running your team on the floor.

Again he's great with a star player and all star player....hell I think he will be in the argument as a reserve all star if he's our 3rd go to guy. I honestly believe most of us wouldn't complain about Teague if he was the 3rd go to guy as I'm sure he can highly succeed. But the experiment of trying to see if he can carry this team should have been put to rest a month ago.I like the fact that Teague can explode as a great player behind other sure all stars cause it makes him look like a worthy player! I don't like that he can only do that if there's talent on the court that's better than him......like somebody said earlier if you put Teague on the heat he will make chalmers and cole look mediocre as I believe he will emerge and make a team like that to look like a BIG 4 simply because the pressure is off of him due to 3 other stars being on the court by his side! That's the kind of player Teague is!And that's not a bad thing for a player to only be really great when he's a 3rd or 4th option cause a lot of players can't do that. This hawks team just isn't in that position yet!...give me Teague,horford, love for one year and I gurantee the hawks make BIG time noise in the east! Simple as that.

[willthepureshooter]

Hes playing with a bunch of bums-- end of discussion! The loopiness in this forum is unbelievable. Teague takes all the blame when we're losing, but not when we're winning. I'm pretty sure the Hawks would be blown out in these last couple games if Teague wasn't going completely bonkers (27pt avg with over 50% fg). Go rag someone else instead of harping on a guy thats trying to get this team over the hump. You guys don't deserve a star player because you will never be grateful. Look how many of you turned your backs on Jamal Crawford when he was here.. Yet hes single handedly leading the Clippers this season averaging just under 20pts a game at the tender age of 32.. I would love to see some of you guys perform on the basketball court so I can see how many superstars we have at the squawk..Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[buckeye242424]

I've never said a bad thing about Teague on this board once....unless this is it. He's average, at best, PG guard in this league.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/position/pg

Jimmer Fredette has a better efficiency rating than he does...SMH....

[Admin]

Again he's great with a star player and all star player....hell I think he will be in the argument as a reserve all star if he's our 3rd go to guy.I honestly believe most of us wouldn't complain about Teague if he was the 3rd go to guy as I'm sure he can highly succeed. But the experiment of trying to see if he can carry this team should have been put to rest a month ago.I like the fact that Teague can explode as a great player behind other sure all stars cause it makes him look like a worthy player! I don't like that he can only do that if there's talent on the court that's better than him......like somebody said earlier if you put Teague on the heat he will make chalmers and cole look mediocre as I believe he will emerge and make a team like that to look like a BIG 4 simply because the pressure is off of him due to 3 other stars being on the court by his side! That's the kind of player Teague is!And that's not a bad thing for a player to only be really great when he's a 3rd or 4th option cause a lot of players can't do that. This hawks team just isn't in that position yet!...give me Teague,horford, love for one year and I gurantee the hawks make BIG time noise in the east! Simple as that.

No he's not "great" under any circumstances. His very, very best season was a good .131 WS/48, which was a major aberration as he's had 3 seasons below .100 (average) and then 1 more last year at .111, which is barely above average.

You want to talk about "great", that's Chris Paul, who's career AVERAGE WS/48 is .246 and his very WORST season was his rookie season at .178. That's a "great" PG and someone who's twice the PG that Teague could ever dream of being.

Being more realistic, we can look at Ty Lawson, who's career WORST season was .135 as a rookie and who has a career AVERAGE of .147. Now does anyone here consider him to be a "great" PG? I certainly don't but he's much, much better than Teague is 9 times out of 10.

The problem here is people still believe that he's capable of being more than he is and we've all been guilty of it at one point or another. The truth is that he's just an average starting PG and on good days he can be above average but he's got just as many days where he's below average.

[Admin]

Hes playing with a bunch of bums-- end of discussion! The loopiness in this forum is unbelievable. Teague takes all the blame when we're losing, but not when we're winning. I'm pretty sure the Hawks would be blown out in these last couple games if Teague wasn't going completely bonkers (27pt avg with over 50% fg). Go rag someone else instead of harping on a guy thats trying to get this team over the hump. You guys don't deserve a star player because you will never be grateful. Look how many of you turned your backs on Jamal Crawford when he was here.. Yet hes single handedly leading the Clippers this season averaging just under 20pts a game at the tender age of 32.. I would love to see some of you guys perform on the basketball court so I can see how many superstars we have at the squawk..Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

And yet when presented with multiple facts that show he was just the same with JJ, Smith and Horford you still come up with the excuse that it's who he's playing with. First it's JJ dominates the ball and takes too many shots, then he's gone and it's Smoove won't pass him the ball and then he's gone and low and behold Teague doesn't step his game up at all and in fact regresses for the 2nd straight year.

[Admin]

You're right. He's the type of player who's only as good as his teammates, but I still wouldn't mind keeping him around. I really thought he would make the jump to top point guard status though, since up until this point he had been improving.

I thought he might make the jump as well, but he's actually declined the past 2 years so he wasn't actually improving. Far and away his best season was 2011 but that's proving to be an aberration as he's been well below that every other year.