Jeff Teague With An Impressive Preseason Debut

[Built Ford Tough]

Jeff Teague swears he was nervous before the Hawks' preseason opener Wednesday night at Philips Arena.

 

He even had the stomach tremors to prove it. But it didnt take long for the rookie point guard to shed his inhibitions, which led to his shredding the defense of the New Orleans Hornets in the Hawks' 108-102 win.

 

Teague led the Hawks with 19 points off the bench and a team-high 33 minutes as the Hawks' starters built a huge lead and the second unit cruised, for the most part, over the Hornets.

 

Teague even managed to put a smile on Hawks coach Mike Woodson's face several times throughout the game, a tough job for many of his rookie predecessors.

 

"Coach didnt really dial off on me or anything," a smiling Teague said afterwards. "But he did tell me at halftime to play my game and stop playing nervous. And I was nervous. Man, I was nervous. I got out there and I didnt want to make any mistakes."

 

Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson noticed the early jitters and did his best to calm down the rookie as they headed back to the floor after halftime. The rest of Teague's teammates echoed the sentiment.

 

http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-hawks/te...ght-157488.html

 

Personally, I would be more impressed reading about him having a fantastic point guard game (running the offense, setting up teammates, being a leader on the floor, etc...) just because I know that Teague is a very good scorer, but the reason why he fell in the draft was because of his lack of point guard skills. If he can develop his point guard skills he could very well become one of the steals of the draft.

 

Playing behind a veteran point guard like Mike Bibby should be great for Teague though. He may not be the most prototypical point guard (Bibby) but he is a very smart player and can teach Teague a lot of things about being a point guard in the NBA.

[Multi-Billionaire]

I was really hoping Nuggets could get him. We had a chance but picked Ty Lawson.

 

I really think he's going to be a very good scorer, he has a knack for scoring, a natural born scorer kinda guy. Can really pass too if he wants to, but not high in his priority... think Gilbert Arenas but I wouldn't compare him that high yet.

 

And I'd like to see how Lawson and Teague fare before saying more, but if I had been making decisions at draft night, I'd have picked Teague over Lawson, but for now Ty is a Nugget so I'm rooting for him to succeed.

Edited October 10, 2009 by Snake

[Cobb]

Teague played really well tonight. I know how frustrated he must've been after shooting 0-15 against the Magic in the last preseason game. It's good to see him get off to a good start.