Matt Steinmetz of CSN Bay Area Tweets that Rodney Carney may get the starting shooting guard position instead of Reggie Williams and heres why:
MSteinmetzCSN: Keith Smart indicated that if Curry can’t go tonight, he’ll start Rodney Carney and bring Reggie Williams off bench.
MSteinmetzCSN: Smart said it’s difficult for Reggie Williams to both get others involved and be aggressive. Likes Williams off bench.
Carney has been putting up some decent stats in limited minutes and this extended opportunity might finally be what he needs, like Dorell Wright, to develop the potential that draft pundits saw in him before the 2006 NBA draft.
But after I watched Carney against the Lakers, Carney at the shooting guard position seems more like a strategic move to maximize Williams effectiveness as a scorer versus a distributor. In garbage time, Carney seemed somewhat of a ‘loose canon’ in that he preferred to jack up shots in one-on-one situations. Granted, the game was well over with with over 7 minutes left in the fourth. But Carney hardly showed much offensive skill with his dribble anti-penetration, step-back 18-20 footers.
Perhaps he’s just shaking off the rust but lets hope Carney can be more effective this time around.