Kemba Walker just had one of the best seasons any point guard has ever had.
How could he not be considered a point guard?
That was the argument on what a "pure PG" really is. Kemba was great because of how he took over a game and scored the ball for the most part, not by the way he ran a team. I think the argument is a bit overrated to be truthful. As longnas your PG has the ability to see the court and find open men as well as score, he could be termed a "pure PG"
FWIW - Re: "pure PG"s. In just about every list of the GREATEST College teams of all time, the 1969 UCLA Bruins is in the top 3. Lew Alcindor. Sidney Wicks. Curtis Rowe. Steve Patterson. Lynn Shackleford.
But when you talk about guards, Mike Warren had just graduated, and Lucius Allen was suspened for the entire year (a little cannibus catastrophe). The starting guards on that team were Kenny Heitz and John Vallely. Two years before, Kenny Heitz was a starter on the 1967 national championshiop team. He started at what we'd now call "power forward" (the perimeter forward was long range shooter Lynn Shackleford). And John Vallely, he'd just joined the team as a JC Transfer from Ventura JC. Where he was the teams star small Forward. He essentailly played PG in '69, and parlayed that opportunity into the overall 14th pick in the draft.
Take the best talent. Period.
I don't go back as far as you--I was born in the 80's--but I remember 1990 on and from that point you can pick MAYBE two championship teams that arguably didn't have a true point: McNamara for Syracuse and Scheyer for Duke. McNamara had Carmelo Anthony--perhaps the most dominant freshman ever--and Hakim Warrick. Scheyer was clearly not a pure point, but he had a ridiculous basketball IQ and took care of the ball exceptionally well if my memory is correct.
Certainly the game has changed since the days of Alcindor, and I don't think choosing a team with one of the most dominant centers to play the college game is a good guide post.
Just like in the NFL, you need somebody very good QB'ing your team and that is the point guard in basketball. Yeah, I'm sure there are exceptions like Trent Dilfer in football, but it's a pretty safe bet that you need a stud QB if you want to build a championship team.
Will we be good with KA and our current roster? Of course.
Will we be a more complete team if we had an elite pure point guard? It's a no brainer to me.
You could probably go out and kill a deer with a knife, but if I was going on a hunting trip, I'd rather have a gun. I think some of you just want to argue silly points because the summer and Lavin's amazing recruiting is leaving us with few bones to pick after we've developed an appetite for disagreements in the Norm era.