[外電] Al Harrington可能的貢獻
What does Al Harrington bring to the Washington Wizards?
(僅以此篇獻給無緣來公牛的Al Harrington Q____Q)
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The Washington Wizards just signed journeyman combo forward Al Harrington.
What does the former member of the Pacers, Hawks, Warriors, Knicks, Nuggets
and Magic bring to the table?
On August 11, it became official: the Washington Wizards signed Al
Harrington. After spending much of last season on the bench with a torn
meniscus and a staph infection, Harrington is apparently in great shape and
ready to play a key role on what's looking like a playoff team.
Even if he hadn't missed most of last year with a knee injury, it would be
easy to forget Harrington even exists. He's spent most of his career in
basketball purgatory -- he started out with the Pacers, went to the Hawks
in a trade involving Stephen Jackson, came back to the Pacers, went to the
Warriors in another deal centered around Stephen Jackson, spent a few years
on the post-Starbury, pre-Amare Knicks, played half a season with the
Nuggets before Carmelo Anthony left, stayed with the Nuggets thereafter,
then wound up on the Magic as a throw in to the Dwight Howard deal.
But what could he bring to the Wizards?
Harrington has one key skill that's the likely reason Washington even
considered signing him: he can step out and hit a three pointer. A career
35 percent shooter from deep, Harrington made 33 percent of his three balls
during his last full season in Denver. There are roughly a dozen power
forwards in the NBA capable of making three pointers at that rate while
taking the shot on a regular basis, according to Hoopdata.com, and that
number only goes down when you consider how few of the players listed can
capably defend their position when opposing teams aren't going small. It's
also worth noting that Harrington was particularly effective from the right
corner during his last full season of play, knocking down almost 55 percent
of his threes from that spot in 2011. He also made a reasonable percentage
of his above the break threes, another skill that will help him when he's
trailing the Wizards' youngsters in transition. Considering how often shots
from his sweet spots come up when Washington gets out and runs, Harrington
should see his three-point percentage rise this season.
The rest of Harrington's offensive game is pretty unremarkable. He's a
middling passer who typically puts up more turnovers than assists, doesn't
draw a lot of fouls and is an inefficient scorer inside of the arc. He's
been a key part of some bad teams and it's easy to see how those teams
struggled to score efficiently with him jacking up bad shots. Fortunately,
he should only be the third or fourth option any time he's on the floor, so
a reduction in usage and uptick in accuracy should be in the works for
him.
Despite his lack of size and reputation as a gunner, Harrington is a
surprisingly solid defensive player. No, he doesn't block shots or pick up
a lot of steals, but he's strong, knows where to be and moves his feet.
Harrington's teams have traditionally been better defensively with him on
the court than when he's off of it, while MySynergySports.com rated him the
NBA's 57th-best overall defender, 67th-best post up defender, and 16th-best
defender against the pick and roll roll man in 2011-12. Those numbers come
nowhere close to telling the whole story, but they do tell some of it.
While he's not known as a rebounder, his career average of 7.1 total
rebounds per 36 minutes won't kill the Wizards as long as he's playing next
to a legitimate center.
The only real cause for concern when it comes to Harrington is his age.
He'll be 34 in February, an age when most basketball players are either
retired or considering it. A decline in his overall production is to be
expected, but fortunately for Washington, three-point shooting and knowing
where to be on defense are two skills that age well. Even if the bottom
falls out and Harrington basically stops scoring inside of the arc and
rebounding, he'd still be in line to get minutes ahead of Kevin Seraphin so
long as Emeka Okafor and Nene are are healthy.
More likely than not, Harrington's going to be Washington's first big man
off the bench. He's going to feast off pick and pop jumpers from John Wall,
as well as the above-average passing of Nene, Otto Porter, Bradley Beal and
Trevor Ariza. He's played most of his career in small, shooting-centric
lineups and should find himself in a similar situation in Washington. Due
to the presence of three small forwards who deserve at least some
consideration for a starting role, Harrington's going to take most of his
minutes from Jan Vesely and Seraphin while more likely than not pushing
Chris Singleton out of the active lineup.
Bottom line, this probably means more wins for Washington, even if it's just
by getting the team's worst players of the court and replacing them with a
league-average third or fourth big man.
Harrington's not going to set the world on fire and a less is more approach
to the game from him would be ideal. He'd have been a bad pickup if
Washington had signed him to a hefty contract like he received from Denver
in 2010, but if he's even 85 percent as good as he's been the last few
years, Washington may have gotten a steal. Bigs who can hit a three and play
passable defense in the post are a rare commodity.
Now, let's see if he can stay healthy.
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