Charlotte Bobcats Shooting Guard Battle: Gerald Henderson vs. Ben Gordon
Oct 8, 2012 Shooting Guard Updates
The Charlotte Bobcats have a few position battles going on, but the most interesting battle seems to be between Gerald Henderson and Ben Gordon for the starting shooting guard spot.
Each of these guys has a unique skillset that is quite different from the other and the starter will likely be decided by what happens in the battles at the other positions around them.
Gerald Henderson should be the clear cut starter, but his primary weakness is Gordon’s strength. Henderson took 35% of his shots inside of 9 feet from basket, while Gordon took 73% of his shots outside of 16 feet. Henderson only managed 7% of his shots from three point range, while Gordon took 28% of his from that range. Basically, Henderson is an interior player while Gordon is strictly a perimeter player.
This really becomes an issue depending on whether Kemba Walker or Ramon Sessions is playing point guard. Unfortunately, Walker and Sessions have the exact same issues as the Henderson/Gordon pairing. Walker took 61.2% of his shots from outside of 16 feet last season while Sessions took 57.6% of his shots within 9 feet of the basket.
If Sessions wins the starting job, then I’d probably be more inclined to think Ben Gordon gets the starting SG spot. If Kemba Walker takes the starting PG spot, then Gerald Henderson might make more sense starting at SG. It’s all how the Bobcats want to go about spacing the floor to work to the advantage of their chosen starting point guard, rather than simply handing the starting SG job to the most qualified player (which is clearly Henderson).
Either way, I think Henderson and Gordon are both going to harm each other’s fantasy value by evolving into some type of timeshare, although it’s a real possibility that the loser of the battle becomes the first scoring option off the bench, therefore insuring that they both are able to log near starters minutes. I’m guessing that a Walker/Henderson pairing starts the game, but a Sessions/Gordon pairing will also see plenty of minutes.
Be careful with Gerald Henderson, I’ve seen some sites really hyping him up and advising to draft him in the top 10 shooting guards, but I’m not really comfortable with him being that high unless he’s showing a serious advantage in minutes over Gordon in camp.
Tags: fantasy basketball, Shooting Guard