When the Boston Celtics signed undrafted (and undersized) point guard Phil Pressey to a guaranteed deal I was more than surprised. It was strange to me how someone so under the radar (at least from my point of view) could be signed to a guaranteed deal before summer league even began.

My first impression of the former Missouri Tiger was that he was a tough defender. Pressey often can be seen pestering opponent’s point guards, sometimes even picking them up full court a-la Avery Bradley.

One thing that Pressey does even better than Bradley is handle the ball and run the offense, which is why he’s been making such a great impact as of late. Pressey is much more adapt to running a team, he helps the C’s offense flow and keeps it from turning into stagnant iso ball or ineffective pick and rolls.

 .Although Pressey is quick enough to get by his man a decent amount of the time, he lacks the strength to finish inside amongst the NBA giants. He proved in preseason that he is capable of making open jumpshots, although he has struggled thus far shooting the ball (Just 26% from the field and 17% from 3-point land)

http://youtu.be/DzAUIcS0DYM

The video above (The 11/9 game against the Heat AKA The Jeff Green game winner over LeBron James game) has a few great examples of how Pressey is constantly attacking the defense which not only creates scoring opportunities for himself, but it opens up his teamates for shots as well.

He may not be able to score the ball all the time, but his attack mentality allows him to have an impact on offense to compliment his pestering defense, and he seems to be a good change of pace type of player off the bench for the C’s. So what do you think of Phil Pressey?

(This article can also be viewed at Celticsblog.com)