The Hawks didn’t pass on the sophomore point guard from Wake Forest this time.
Four years after taking Marvin Williams instead of Chris Paul early in the NBA draft, the Hawks snagged Jeff Teague with the 19th pick Thursday.
If Teague’s pro career comes anywhere close to Paul’s, the Hawks will have landed the steal of this draft. Paul is a two-time All-Star, an Olympic gold medalist and widely regarded as the best point guard in the NBA just four years into his career with New Orleans.
The expectations for Teague won’t be nearly as crazy as they were for Paul — there were seven point guards drafted ahead of him Thursday night — but Teague says years from now he expects everyone to realize that the Hawks got the best of the bunch.
“I feel like when you look back down the road, I’m going to be the best point guard taken in this draft,” Teague said via conference call from his home in Indianapolis. “With my potential and my work ethic, I feel like I’m going to be the best. Those other teams are going to realize they passed up on a great point guard, and the Hawks got me.”
I was not sold on Jeff Teague as a combo guard, and I still am not. However, as long as he is strictly a point guard I really like the pick for us. He'll be a good scoring guard, and we have the luxury of having a guy like JJ in the backcourt with him so that Teague won't have to be the primary decision maker.
I want to see how Teague is going to fit in (though I think he'll be fantastic in transition for us) before I really decide what I think about this pick.
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Originally Posted by myst
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He is going to be an 18-20 PPG guy in a couple of years. If you can get him to learn how to manage a team in that timeframe you guys could be awfully good rather soon. Diss is right I would have taken him top 10.
I get the feeling that he was one of the ones the Hawks wanted going into the draft because they took almost no time until Stern announced the pick.
Joe Johnson: I just thought it would be good to stop by and introduce myself. I called [Hawks coach Mike Woodson] and he told me this would be going on, so I just came down in my shorts and T-shirt. With Jeff and Jamal, we’re getting two guys that we know can put the ball in the hole. And that’s a good thing. Those are two great guys to fit our system and that will be able to get up and down the floor. Obviously, we’d love to have Mike back, but that’s the part of this that we have to deal with, that we really have no control over. Hopefully, we can get something worked out, but Jeff and Jamal definitely give us some options no matter what.
Mike Woodson: I’m not knocking Acie Law in any way shape or form, but this kid [Teague] is what I’d call a true point guard. I gave Acie some opportunities, and it just didn’t work.
This pick is growing on me. I think alot of people slept on Teague, but he could very well be the steal of this draft.
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I wouldn't say mature, cause imm still a kid @ heart... When I play i'm not worried about what ppl are thinking of my maturity level. I just wanna win. -- JasonDub
Im just focused on the Magic. Tryna get a championship -- JWill
Jeff Teague, taken with the 19th overall pick by the Hawks, will wear No. 0 to start his NBA career.
"I started wearing zero my freshman year of college," said Teague. "I wasn't highly recruited. I was kind of like the Gilbert Arenas story. He kind of reminded me of myself."
Teague has heard that he's too small to be a major player, and was lightly recruited out of high school.
Jeff Teague
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