Shots From the Dome

Since leaving UF after his junior season in 2005, Anthony Roberson has bounced around the fringes of the NBA — he signed with Memphis his rookie year, splitting time with the Grizzlies and the D-league affiliate Arkansas Rimrockers, then spent most of 2006 with the Golden State Warriors before being dropped late in the season for Kelenna Azubuike, who looks like he may be the starting shooting guard in San Francisco when the season opens.

This year, however, a number of factors combined with his improving play at the point guard position may have led him closer to finding an NBA niche. I’ve often said that to have a chance to stick in the NBA, a player must have at least one NBA-level skill, be it shooting, quickness, defensive ability, basketball IQ, and NBA body or even competitiveness or leadership. Beyond that, it’s luck, finding the right fit, a coach or team that believes in you, having a good reputation, etc.

If a player has that NBA-level skill, he at least has a chance, even IF he is below NBA-level in other areas.

In that vein, for example, a former UF player like Orien Greene has been able to stick because he has NBA-level size, quickness and defensive ability for a point guard. So, despite the fact that his other point guard skills to this point are only average (only about a 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio) as well as being a 39% shooter (22% behind the arc) his other skills are superior enough to give him a shot each year. This year, that means that OG has a shot at being the backup point guard for the Sacramento Kings.

With that in mind, we have Anthony Roberson. The NBA-level skills that Peep brought to the table coming out of college were his shooting and scoring ability as well as quickness and athleticism (which unfortunately he mostly used only to score, and score outside of the paint to boot). He was a poor defender (although at least willing his final year at UF under assistant coach Larry Shyatt), looked primarily for his own shot as a point guard, and, as I mentioned, didn’t use his quickness to get into the lane to draw fouls.

The good news for Roberson is that his skill-set seems to fit in well with the Denver Nuggets so far. They are a team which tries to play up-tempo while showing at times little regard for defense. Furthermore, their key weakness last year was outside shooting to complement the inside play of Carmelo Anthony and drives of Allen Iverson. If that weren’t enough in Roberson’s favor, one of his chief competitors at the lead guard position, Anthony Carter, broke a bone in his hand and will be out for 6 weeks.

Roberson also seems to have begun to improve his other NBA point guard skills. So far in the preseason, he has scored 12, 13, 22, 12 and 12 points, validating his scoring reputation. More importantly, though, in his last game, during a starting role as the Nuggets rested many of their stars, he took coach George Karl’s criticism of his play to heart and had 11 (!) assists along with only 2 turnovers while playing 36 minutes. He also only took three 3-pointers during the game after jacking 21 in the previous 4 games.

The bottom line is that if he continues to play like that, Peep will not only make the squad but become a rotation player on what looks to once again be a playoff team.