FanPost

Josh Childress looking for another chance. Does he deserve it?


Not that we would be able to provide Childress with another chance even if we wanted to- but I found this article interesting for a couple of reasons.

First - it has some interesting history of his decision to go to Greece, and that he's about to finish a college degree. The article is really very positive on Childress- but probably to unrealistic proportions. As much as I like him, some information wasn't very forthcoming.

Second- the author and Childress give their reasons why he didn't work out for the suns:

My time in Phoenix … it just wasn’t the fit i thought it would be and they thought it would be.

A broken ring finger on his shooting hand slowed him down in his first season with the Suns. He came back sooner than he probably should have, given his desire to prove himself after playing in Europe, and was in a system where wings were spot-up shooters and not the jacks-of-all-trades player Childress thrives at being.

Third- it puts blame on the trend of analytics for teams staying away from him:

In the larger scope, Childress has also become a casualty of the analytics revolution that has swept through the league the past five years. High-percentage jump shooters who stretch the floor have become the new utility players who cash in most during free agency (see Kyle Korver and J.J. Redick this summer).

There’s always room for a pro’s pro on someone’s roster, a guy who does all of the dirty work and accepts that role. But now that guy needs to be a dead-eye shooter, too. And while Childress is a career 33 percent 3-point shooter (52 percent from the floor overall), he’ll never be confused for one of these shooting specialists.

But that is, as we know, only half the story. Childress had been a pretty decent shooter from the arc at Atlanta, but couldn't hit the bright-side of a barn with his time in PHX. Sure, that 33% might be an average, but it was in the neighborhood of 20% while here. Plus, we all saw that his defensive abilities weren't what we were used to seeing, and even his speed/hustle was not what it used to be.

I, for one, really liked his personality and was happy to have him around for a while- but then I didn't have to pay his contract. I hope he gets on a team's training camp to see what he can do. I'm routing for him. Maybe he can make a comeback.