ROSTER TALK: Mavs favs for Vogel if no HC job exists. Kyrie handshake deal?

[KillerLeft]

SOMEONE is going to be needed and used as a backup PG, the 3rd guy. It's inevitable. If FN is ever going to learn to be a playmaker as well as a defender, he's being put in an ideal cocoon to learn. I am as leery as the next guy, but they did see a little something last season, so it's not unreasonable to try him.

Nor is it all that risky. In normal games and situations, the 3rd guy will ALWAYS be on the floor with either Luka or SD doing the vast majority of the playmaking, so won't have to be depended on for a large degree of that until and unless he's ready.

Depends on what you mean by "3rd guy." I took the meaning to be 3rd PG, which I assume is actually the 4th guard, playing behind Luka, Dinwiddie AND Hardaway. Essentially Ntilikina's role from last season with Burke's sporadic minutes added in going forward. That's not even as risky as what I think you might be suggesting. 

If he's always on the floor with Luka/Dinwiddie, sure. He did catch and shoot a bit better than I expected last season, and there's reason to hope he's been working to improve even more this summer, so I'm game to give that a shot. I like the player. 

But, to couch him as a "backup PG"...even if, like I think, they're just using that term the way they might have when discussing Burke at this time last season, and not the way they would've described Brunson going into the season (before he became a starter), that does feel like risk to me. If/when Dinwiddie or Luka miss time, if Ntilikina is the 3rd PG, he absolutely will be handling the ball without one of the others on the floor with him.

I'm all about giving Ntilikina chances to find a role, I'm just worried about depending on him to fill this one competently. It's not even that I'm sure he can't. It's just the word "depending" that freaks me out.