What does Nate bring?

[gar]

With so much depth at the off guard position, what value does Nate have if he is not playing the point. With Von coming on, Delonte coming back and Doc's comments about Marquis playing more at the point is hard to see why we should play him - especially with our rebounding problems.

We also need to be concerned about defending the 3. Nate is tenacious, but Delonte is much better defending the 3 and can also rebound. Would rather see Marquis and Wafer out there or Delonte and Marquis as a two PG tandem. You don't loose shooting (spacing the floor) with either Delonte or Von and you gain a lot more in other ways.

[greenpride32]

He brings engery and instant offense off the bench.  I know his shooting hasn't been great as of late, but when he's on, he's on.

Right now Marquis is primarily spelling Pierce, and Nate for Rondo.  You can't really backup two positions.  When West comes back he'll be backing up Ray and possibly Rondo at times.  It would be nice if Wafer can can give productive minutes for Ray. 

[birdbrady]

He brings engery and instant offense off the bench.  I know his shooting hasn't been great as of late, but when he's on, he's on.

Right now Marquis is primarily spelling Pierce, and Nate for Rondo.  You can't really backup two positions.  When West comes back he'll be backing up Ray and possibly Rondo at times.  It would be nice if Wafer can can give productive minutes for Ray.  

When he's on, he's on? And when will this be? In some 30 pt win in late November against Atlanta? Because other than that he's been brutal.

Nate has had a history of being fairly productive, certainly productive enough to warrant being a rotation player on a championship contender.

But this year has been absolutely unacceptable.  And quite frankly, with Wafer's improvement, I personally see Nate sliding to being in the 13th-15th man on the team.  He has shown absolutely nothing this season, and has already single handedly cost us a very important game (12/25 @Orlando.)

[Birdbrain]

Not very much the past few games.  But he's the type of player that can change momentum of course that's a double edged sword.  I do agree though if Delonte is healthy I would prefer him and Wafer to get most of minutes mainly due to Nate's lack of defense.  I love his heart and the fact doesn't have any problem taking big shots but, his size kills the C's at the point of attack.  With that said, I expect him to come up big at a crucial point in 2011 playoffs.  

[wdleehi]

He bring an offensive punch to the bench no one else on the bench can.



He is a SG that is being forced to be a PG because of injuries.  Once West is back along with Daniels, he will only need to worry about his ability to score within the Celtics offense and not worry about running the Celtics offense.



He is in a slump.  He will get out.  

[Chris]

We went through this at the beginning of the season too.  He is a very streaky player (much like House).  When he is on, he is unstoppable, when he is off, he is pretty close to useless.  Unfortunately, at the moment he is off.  It won't last forever.

[gar]

Most of his points do not come from within the flow of the offense. He shoots before we have rebounders in place and he slows down ball movement.

[Roy H.]

Nate's positives are energy, hustle, microwave offense, and outside shooting.  He's got the 3rd highest 3PT% on the team, behind Ray and Paul.

His negatives are that he shoots too much when he's cold, he's not a true point guard, and he's limited on offense.

It's going to be interesting to see what Doc does if / when Marquis, Wafer, Delonte and Nate are all healthy.  At least one of those guys needs to be the odd man out.  Especially if Wafer can get his outside shot going, I could be him supplanting Nate.

[birdbrady]

It's January now.  I understand players can be hot and cold guys, but when the hell has Nate Robinson changed ONE game this year, in a positive way? In fact, outside of a back to back in late November (@Tor-a loss, @ATL-a win), he hasn't strung together two-or-more good games in a row!

I thought Nate was a good shooter, but you absolutely cannot say, after three months of basketball that Nate's p----poor shooting is a result of a 'funk.'  Couple games, even a couple of weeks - fine.  But three months?  He also doesn't drive to the basket anymore at all.  He is absolutely regressing as a player, and if there isn't any signs of life with him - there is no way he should garner ANY rotation minutes; regular season OR playoffs.  He's lost us more games than he's won.

[Eja117]

He has that certain je ne sais quoi, but I don't know what it is.


I stole that from a New Yorker cartoon, which is very very embarrassing to me.

[gar]

Well put! I think that is probably the first time I have seen anyone use french in these forums and to use it to describe something related to Nate deserves a TP!

[dpaps]

If Nate can win us even one playoff game, which he did last year, than he's worth his roster spot on the team and worth minutes now. He has the ability to come into any game off the bench and have a bigger effect than any other bench player. We haven't seen it yet this year, he's in a terrible slump, but also remember that he plays his best when playing with delonte in my opinion. It lets him play off the ball and Nate and Delonte seem to have great on court chemistry.

[gar]

Good Point! He has not developed much of a chemistry with Marquis. Perhaps he will come into his own once Delonte is back; however Would also think that Marquis and Von would be in a similar position to benifit from Delonte's ability to space the floor and open up outside shooting. Defenses can't play off Delonte like they do Marquis or Rondo.

[Fan from VT]

Either absolutely nothing or quite a bit. Such is Nate.

[Who]

Explosive scoring / shooting