In the comments section of a post this week I decried the signing of Kevin Ollie as our potential 3rd point guard. I'd like to say here and now that I apologize to Mr. Ollie and would like to present to you the reasons why I'd like the Wolves to consider keeping him over Rafael Araujo, Blake Ahearn and Calvin Booth.
Kevin Ollie was undrafted. Yep, plenty of guys get passed over in late June, only to work their way onto a couple NBA rosters or even have a very respectable NBA career (Ben Wallace, for one). But Kevin Ollie has stuck around for 11 years since leaving UCONN. Coincidentally, the Wolves are Ollie's 11th team (Joe Smith, Bobby Jones and Dan Dickau: eat your hearts out).
For a point guard to stick in the NBA for 11 years with averages of 3.8 ppg and 2.3 apg while shooting 41.1% isn't easy. So if he's not contributing much in the box score, there's got to be a reason he's averaged 15.6 mpg in 587 career games, right? Ollie works extremely hard, plays solid defense (at least he has in younger days), and makes very few mistakes. While those things won't get you on the All-NBA team, they will keep you in the leauge and are invaluable qualities on a young squad.
A couple statistics in his favor are nice too: his career Ast/TO ratio is 2.875, he's never averaged more than 1.3 tpg (he did it twice and once was as a rookie).
Those 11 years of experience are exactly what we need from a 3rd point guard. We don't need a starting or even backup point guard. We have a pair that are 25 and 23 years old. Despite Sebastian Telfair's improvement as a floor general and because Randy Foye has a ways to go, the Wolves could use a steady hand to run the offense in times of crisis and on the practice floor. Moreover, with the youth talking playoffs, it's nice to actually have someone who's experienced team success in the postseason.
Turns out Ollie's a stand-up guy in the community to. Read this story about his basketball camp and tell me your heart isn't warmed.
He rocks one of the best mustaches in the league:
via i.a.cnn.net
I rest my case.
So, Mr. Ollie, welcome to Minnesota, at least for the time being.