Energy, athleticism, toughness, durability, fearlessness and great enthusiasm. Being one of the starting defensive backs every game as a freshman for a PAC-10 team is pretty impressive for a seriously undersized athlete.
While we all agree that he is not starting point guard material, to have the luxury of having a player of that caliber as a 9th, 10th or 11th man says a lot about the depth of our team.
BBD is not a great starter and is much better as a 6th man. That does not diminish his value to the team. The same with Nate. While we don't want him as our starting point guard, as a talented situational player, we're lucky to have him.
He is very competitive, and doesn't mind having the ball in his hands at crunch time and usually performs well then. Those missed free throws alluded to by an earlier, astute poster is uncharacteristic of him.
Look at last night. At the end of the game with 9.5 on the clock and up only one, he wants the inbound pass from Rondo. We would rather have the ball in Nate's hands in that situation than RR, because more often than not, like BBD, he hits free throws at crunch time.
Nate's athleticism allowed him to not only get free in the back-court to take the inbound pass, but also allowed him to kill a precious 5 seconds off the clock by running around elusively till he was fouled. He then buries those free throws.
I'd go into war with Nate on my side anytime, and, especially given the fragility of our team we need to keep his confidence up. DWest down till perhaps the All-Star break, Marquis health always a concern, RR plantar fascitis, tweaked ankles, strained hammy. Let's hope none of those health issues become exacerbated, but if they do, I'd like Nate on my team.
