National Basketball Association

Backup Point Guards Becoming Hot Commodities Right Before Training Camp

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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In less than one week, the future of three NBA point guards changed. As a result, backup point guards are becoming hot commodities.

It’s a slow period for NBA news, but strangely enough, several stories emerged between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4 involving point guards.

Some of the news was bad, some good, but it all leads to some interesting concerns for franchises to tackle, which could result in an increase in value for backup point guards.

We’ll start with the first piece of news from Aug. 28, regarding Cavaliers’ backup point guard Mo Williams.

Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com reported that the 33-year-old is considering retirement.

The Cavaliers’ front office may not have envisioned that scenario when they let Matthew Dellavedova go to the Milwaukee Bucks, but the team does not have an experienced backup point guard on the roster behind Williams.

Their options are slim. The Cavs can either trust second-round draft pick Kay Felder to assimilate quickly, allow Jordan McRae to see significant time handling the ball or search for what’s left via free-agency.

The Cavs aren’t the only team with point guard issues, as the Sacramento Kings received some bad news on Sept. 2 regarding Darren Collison, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic battery from a May incident.

The Kings will have to find a way to deal with the pending suspension of Collison, who was expected to start in 2016-17.

The last time an NBA player pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge, the penalty was a 24-game suspension. The Kings can’t expect to just live without an alternative for 24 games, if that is indeed the number of games Collison will be suspended.

Sacramento signed Ty Lawson to a one-year, non-guaranteed deal, but given his recent history of trouble with the law and lack of productivity in 2015-16, it’s difficult to predict how he will fare with the Kings.

The Kings also have Garrett Temple, who could serve as a solid backup, but there’s a reason no teams were willing to guarantee a roster spot for Lawson and he has an uphill battle to return to the way he was playing in his first six seasons of his career in Denver.

It would be a great comeback story for Lawson, but Kings fans should not hold their breath on a resurgence from the 28-year-old.

The third story that broke regarding an NBA point guard came on Sept. 4, when it was revealed that Jrue Holiday will miss the start of the season to be with his wife, who is facing brain surgery.

Obviously family is more important than basketball and anyone in Holiday’s situation would agree he has his priorities straight.

It does create an interesting dilemma for the Pelicans, though.

The only true point guards in New Orleans are Langston Galloway and Tim Frazier, neither of whom would be considered starting-caliber NBA point guards on most teams.

The Pelicans could try to use Tyreke Evans at point guard, as they have done in the past, but the results didn’t turn out well.

Even if the Pelicans opt to go that route, Evans is expected to miss the start of the season, as he’s recovering from knee surgery, giving New Orleans yet another issue to overcome in the beginning of 2016-17.

What this means is that even though training camp is less than three weeks away for most teams, NBA free-agent point guards could be receiving phone calls sooner rather than later.

Available point guards include Norris Cole, Mario Chalmers, Steve Blake, Kendall Marshall, and Jordan Farmar, just to name a few.

The Cavs, Kings, and Pelicans aren’t the only teams who could benefit from addressing their point guard depth, but those three teams are certainly at the top of the list to keep an eye on in free-agency for the next few weeks.

Players like Cole and Chalmers, who have enjoyed recent success and did not sign early in free-agency, may have become even more valuable in this past week because of all these new circumstances.

Could the Cavs go after one of LeBron James‘ old pals from Miami? Would the Pelicans end up re-signing Cole after a wild free-agency period?

What do the Kings do without Collison, one of the few bright spots (at least from a talent standpoint) on an otherwise discouraging team?

It should be an interesting few weeks leading up to the start of NBA training camp. Perhaps we’ll see a trade or two to address those point guard concerns on some NBA rosters.