Marcus Banks, Now and ?

I seem to be the Patron Saint of Supermarket Shopping Cart Collectors. Last year, there was this kid who came by to collect my shopping cart outside of my local Stop and Shop. He felt the need to tell me that everyone was mad at him, and how much his life sucked. I asked him old he was, and when he told me 19, I said "Shit, that's your problem. Everyone's life sucks at 19. Hang in there. It gets better." Or something like that.

Now, there's this other guy, who months ago noticed me wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt, and now every time I see him, we have the same conversation:

Him: Do you know Pigpen, he was in the band a long time ago.
Me: Yeah, he died.
Him: You know his son died two years ago.
Me:That's too bad.

Then someone will say something about how Bob Weir is doing, or about the Dead's tour this summer, and he'll throw in a few more facts about Pigpen's son. Every time.

None of this has anything to do with Marcus Banks, the Celtics brand-spankin new point guard. I'm still excited about the draft, and what it means to the Celts, so we have another day of Marcus on the agenda, and that's it. Promise. Then we'll go to Kedrick Perkins.

I thought I would look for comparable players to Marcus. The first thing I checked was current point guards who were selected in comparable positions. There isn't anyone who was picked in the same number 13 slot, but I did find these guys:

12 None
14 Tim Hardaway and Mateen Cleeves

11 Terrell Brandon
15 Steve Nash

10 Lindsay Hunter and Jason Terry
16 Tony Delk, Bryce Drew, Brevin Knight, and Jiri Welsch

Not a bad group of players, and if you take away the 10 and 16 picks, which are three away in either direction, it looks even better. The C's would definitely gamble on a drawing that would give them either Hardaway, Cleaves, Brandon or Nash.

But there's also something unusual about Banks - his size. He's listed at 6-2, 220, which is pretty bulky in the NBA. There are players who are 6-6 that don't weigh that much. I took all of the point guards who were between 6-0 and 6-4, and 200 and 240. I came up with a list of 13, which I have listed below along with the spot they were drafted:

Jason Kidd - 2
Baron Davis - 3
Chauncey Billups - 3
Stephon Marbury - 4
Antonio Daniels - 4
Andre Miller - 4
Mateen Cleaves - 14
Derek Fisher - 24
Frank Williams - 25
Gilbert Arenas - 31
Shammond Williams - 34
Eric Snow - 43
Carlos Arroyo - FA

Wow! You have a lot of the best point guards in the business on this small list. But then you look again and say "Oh No! Not Mateen Cleaves again!" Of course this doesn't mean everything. There is still the part about playing basketball. I mean, I was between 6-0 and 6-4, and 200 and 240 coming out of college (guess which part I am no longer), and I've never been confused with an NBA point guard.

Still, its interesting to see the high success rate of point guards Bank's size. Now, it would be unfair to compare him to all of those players who were picked in the top five, but then it is equally unfair to compare him to second rounders. So who knows?

There are no real conclusions that you can draw from either list. But I think it all helps to get a feel for a player's potential, and certainly the sky seems to be the limit for Marcus Banks.