Indiana Pacers Love/Hate Series: Cory Joseph
By Tony East
What we don’t love about Cory Joseph
Cory Joseph’s limitations are positional. He is a point guard without a lot of offensive skills that his role typically has.
Most point guards can create shots for others, or themselves, in some way. For Rajon Rondo, it’s his passing. In the case of Kemba Walker, it’s getting his own shot. For Darren Collison, its the floor spacing he provides.
Joseph offers none of these. His 3.2 assists per game are fine, but it isn’t much for a point guard that plays as much as he does. He can’t really create his own shot. And he’s about a league average three-point shooter. He doesn’t hinder the offense by being on the court, but he isn’t making anyone’s life easier, either.
Speaking of dribbling, that is something else CoJo does problematically at times. He gets in these zones where he is focused on making something happen off the dribble, and it causes him to dribble the air out of the ball. It leads to a decent percentage of his turnovers. He just needs to give up the rock sometimes.
CoJo is good at running plays and cutting at the right time, though. All in all, he’s a fine offensive player, so it is hard to find something not to like about him besides his lack of shot creation.