Today we take a look at the point guard position. Forgive me if in the last couple days the Heat have signed someone new that should be part of this poll, and for that variable I'm adding an ‘other' that can be voted on. As of when I am writing this, the two guys in contention for the starting job are Mario Chalmers and Carlos Arroyo.
Both of these guys started a good amount of games for the Heat last season so we know they are capable of handling the job. Rio is the young talent whose career has been a lot of peaks and valleys. He is very quick in different ways, showing an ability to get to the rim on offense and racking up the steals with his quick hands on D. The downside on defense was that his feet didn't often keep up with his hands, causing him to get beat off the dribble which lead to bad fouls.
The other big knock on Chalmers is turnovers, and that is probably the area he most has to improve on. He averaged 2.0 a game in his rookie season and didn't do much better last year, giving it away 1.7 times. While that looks like a small improvement, it isn't. He played 32 minutes/game in his 1st season and just under 24 last year.
Arroyo is stable but not a playmaker. He can handle the ball and runs the offense efficiently, and he is also a pretty good shooter from the 15-18 foot range. He is a career 43.8% shooter from the field but hit 47.5% last year with the Heat.
What gave him the advantage over Chalmers last season was his ability to take care of the ball. Arroyo turned the ball over 0.8 times/game last year, his lowest total since becoming a regular rotation player back in 2003. Back then he wasn't getting in more then 12 minutes a game, but since the 03-04 season Arroyo has been averaging at least 17 min a game.
Last year with Miami he averaged more minutes then he had since 03-04, which is why his turnover numbers are so impressive and why they got so much attention.
While offense is something that should certainly be taken into consideration when casting your vote, you have to consider what the Heat is going to need from the point guard position this season. Taking care of the ball should be priority #1; the majority of the offense will be coming from the 2-3-4 positions, and odds are that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will handle a portion of the ball carrying duties.
The 2nd team point guard will be relied on a bit more, and for obvious reasons. That's when there will be a little more emphasis on the offense and keeping things stable while our big guys rest. We'll be able to speculate a lot more when we have an idea of what the Heat's rotations will look like, but for now I'm just keeping things as basic as possible.