Quincy Pondexter

Quincy Pondexter
SF – 6’7, 220lbs - 30 years old – 8 years of experience

Kudos to Pondexter for making it back to the NBA after two full seasons missed with knee injury and subsequent serious infection. The injuries, however, have robbed him of much of his game. In his return, Pondexter roughly knew what to do on both ends and where to be, yet his much-diminished athleticism left him unable to do much of it, which undermined any defensive nous – having also never been a great ball handler or shooter, his offensive role essentially did not exist. The size is an advantage, but there are better three-and-D role players available, and it is tough to see a path back to the NBA now that the guaranteed money has dried up. Not unless that knee keeps getting better.

Quincy Pondexter
SF, 6’7, 210lbs, 29 years old, 6 years of experience

Pondexter has fully missed both of the last two seasons due to injury and should not be considered a part of the future at all until further notice, let alone a key part. It should be remembered that he was a fairly marginal player even before the injuries.

Player Plan: One year and $3,853,931 remaining. Allow to expire. If he takes the court, even better.

Memphis are said to have targeted Lee. The deal was thus their idea. This is...fine, potentially. If Courtney Lee continued to play at the standard that he has done this season, then he is both worthy (just) of his price tag, and a useful fit for the Grizzlies. They need an extra secondary ball-handler with adequate defense and good outside shooting, and Lee, with his better jumpshooting and size, is more suited for this role than Bayless.

However, Memphis is now committed at Lee for $5,450,000 next season, and $5,675,000 the year after. This is in addition to paying Quincy Pondexter $3,146,068 next season in the first year of his four year, $16 million extension, plus paying a significantly struggling Tayshaun Prince $7,707,865 in the final season of his unnecessary deal. That is a combined $16.4 million on a trio of useful but flawed wings without there being a starting calibre player in the bunch.

It's not wrong to want role playing wings who provide a solid complimentary job on both ends, and all three can be said to be so. It is not even necessarily wrong to pay them at those prices - Prince is significantly overpaid, but the other two are acceptable overpays, paid 30% too much for at least a year too long yet tolerable in isolation. But it is wrong to tie up your limited payroll flexibility on limited, duplicative backups. They are not in isolation. They are on the same team. Combine them with Tony Allen's reasonable but lengthy contract - he willl earn a steady $4,831,461 next season, but will still be earning $5.5 million when he is 35 - and the Grizzlies are ever more heavily invested at a position where they still need a lot of help. The second rounder that Boston enclosed to compensate for the excess that is Lee's contract might end up being a valuable one, yet this should not be sufficient justification.

The Grizzlies have some useful young pieces but nothing substantial. Conley and Koufos provide a decent duo, as does Leuer on the wing, yet they are at best complimentary talents. It remains to be seen whether any of the troika of Bayless, Jamaal Franklin and Quincy Pondexter (already extended long term, but underachieving and now out for the season) can add much to it.

Memphis' trade to get Quincy Pondexter was both a success and a mistake. It was a mistake because of the price paid - to obtain QPon, the Grizzlies traded away Greivis Vasquez, their first round pick only one season before, after an indifferent rookie season. Vasquez has since gone on to break out and lead the NBA in assists. Pondexter will surely never lead the league in anything.

That said, the price paid to acquire someone via trade should stop mattering the day after the trade is made. Thereafter, it must matter only how that player produces. There, we find some better news. Pondexter has sprouted into a useful role player at a position of need - in this respect, then, his acquisition has been a success. And in tying him down to an extension, Memphis is looking for at least more of the same.

Last season, Pondexter added one notable piece to his game. Hitherto a mediocre outside shooter and inefficient, low volume scorer, Pondexter added a 39% three point stroke on a much increased number of attempts, making himself into a good spot-up shooter and suddenly finding an identity to his floundering offensive game. Combined with his decent although improvable defensive play, Pondexter found his spot on the rotation of a playoff-caliber team as a three-and-D specialist, which is exactly when an extension for him became a viable and desirable option. The only question was whether the four year, $14 million deal he has signed is a fair price.

Nobody can be too overpaid at $3-4 million a season, and this extension for Pondexter is within an acceptable price range for him. It is, however, on the higher end of that range at the moment. Solid as he is, Pondexter is still merely a sufficient role player, an 8th man, a player who helps a team when the team is already good and playing well but who ultimately has slightly greater value than Mr Generic Replacement Player.

Price tags for comparable three-and-D players include the three-year, $11,287,500 deal San Antonio signed Danny Green to, the five years and $26,836,600 Portland gave Wesley Matthews, the three-year $9,406,000 contract Shane Battier got from Miami, and Martell Webster's new four-year, $21,990,500 contract from Washington.

Pondexter ranks below these players in ability (Spurs blog Pounding The Rock produced a Read full article

This is an odd way to conclude the Sam Young era in Memphis. This time last year, in light of the injury to Rudy Gay, Young was a valuable starter and a key, if flawed, cog in their Cinderella playoff victory over the Spurs. His jumpshot lacked three-point range, he broke plays, played with his head down, and his team defense was atrocious, yet the combination of his humiliatingly effective shot fake and sheer determination gave the Grizzlies a much needed offensive option. When nothing else was going on, Young would put his head down and go for it, like a much older looking Corey Maggette, which worked better than it may sound. And he always played hard.

This year, however, with Gay’s return to health, Young’s lack of improvement to his game, and the acquisition of Quincy Pondexter (who provides the defense and intangibles that Young just doesn’t), Sam wasn’t in the rotation, playing only 21 games all season, 13 of which were in January. He likely won’t be in the Sixers rotation, either.

Of the aforementioned 29 players signed so far, all but Wesley Johnson, DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe, Gordon Hayward, Avery Bradley, Craig Brackins, Quincy Pondexter and Lazar Hayward have performance incentives in their contracts. This means that the top three picks all have them, as do most of the ones below them. So when I say it is standard practice to have performance incentives in rookie scale contracts, I am not just yanking your crank. It really is.

Pick 26: New Orleans gets this pick as the final part of the Cole Aldrich trade, and they nail this one. They choose Quincy Pondexter from Washington, a player who doesn't help with the interior defense problem, but who does instantly become the team's best small forward.

The small forward spot has been nothing but fail for the Hornets for years. The Peja Stojakovic signing was dreadful. James Posey woefully underperformed. Mo Peterson, even more so. Julian Wright has not done much. And the Bonzi Wells rental was unsuccessful. But with Pondexter on board, New Orleans may well have one position sorted out down the road. Now they need to take Peja's expiring and properly, seriously, genuinely, trutfhfully, sincerely do something about the big men spots. And that means doing more than just trying to paper over the cracks with that human crack paper, Sean Marks.

New Orleans's absolutely fantastic 2009 draft night salvaged many years of bad decision making. Their 2010 draft night might have done the same, but it won't be because of Brackins.

In his draft capsule, Quincy Pondexter has a neck wider than his head.