He leads the team in assists because many of those rushed shots are by D'Angelo and they go in.
Oh brother. The same D'Angelo shooting 31% from 3 and 40% from the field? His shots are not going in at any special rate this season.
And lets pretend for a second that they were. I'd be forced to mention that Magic led his team in assists because many of those rushed sky hooks by Alcindor went in and Stockton led his team in assists because many of those rushed one handers by Malone went in. Trying to somehow argue that the assists of Mean Joe are somehow less worthy than the assists of other players puts you on a slippery slope wearing ice skates.
Comparing Phil to Magic...oh boy.
Is that really how you interpreted that post?
No, I'm kidding. But, I agree with Moose.
Phil is averaging 2.8 ast's playing 30+ minutes at the PG spot. Let's look at his numbers for what they are. Not that impressive.
It's been observed and mentioned on this board by others and I that our team doesn't really run a traditional offense with a set point, shooting guard and small forward. Sir Dom, 3'lo, Mean Joe and the Aggie( when he's not hurt ) all take turns bringing the ball up and starting the offense. It looks to me in recent games that Dom is playing as much point as Phil.
Fair enough. But, then at least you would agree that saying he "leads the team in assists" sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is. And I stand by what I said about his court vision, it's almost non-existent. He doesn't keep his head up when he dribbles into traffic, he doesn't look for cutters, I've seen him blatantly ignore Marco at least twice for a wide open shot, and like Moose said, he has a knack for dribbling around for 30 seconds and then either passing or shooting a wild shot as the shot clock winds down.
I like Phil, and think he can be a contributor to this team, but he needs to calm down, play more naturally and play off the ball. When he shoots open shots, I like the chances of them going in. He also has the best floater on the team and I'd like to see him drive more.