I agree with this. The last thing to remind everyone of is that presumably Tatum (and most other NBA players) are being asked to distribute more once they become professionals for obvious reasons. It stands to follow that some of what we see as reticence to pass to one teammate or another could be a function of trust or simply inexperience.
OK, what is pass frequency? Is this share of the teams total passes? The website glossary doesn't really explain how its computed.
This is just me guessing, but I think it’s percentage of teams passes.
I’m with you on preferring the team impact stats, but they show the same thing in that the offense is far better with him in the game, and goes to hell when he sits. Here is the teams offensive ratings for when the following players are on and off the court.
"FREQ" is defined as "The number of events that occur that fit the specified criteria based on the number of events overall". So I would imagine it's the players total passes divided by team's total passes.
I'm not going to say that JT is or will ever be KD, but KD is the model for how and why peak JT could be that guy. They're length freaks. Or more appropriately length+skill freaks, unlike LBJ and Shaq.
Even those numbers are flawed. They don't know what to do with players like TL because there is no way to justify a 140 ORtg and 103 DRtg. This isn't new either, he's been a darling for his whole career using those metrics.
I’m just talking the teams rating when he’s in. They have a 110 offensive rating when Rob plays, and a 112 when he sits.
Yeah, they have way different numbers than basketball reference. NBA.com seem more believable to me.
It is, I still use basketball reference a bunch, just not for tracking stats.
Yea, there is individual ORtg on BB-ref which is computed using box score stats and then doing a regression on team efficiency, which is very confusing because they compute DRtg purely by the team DRtg when the player is on the floor. I remember having this conversation a lot when Kyrie's DRtg was one of the best in the league his first year on the C's, just because he was on a good defensive team.
They've clearly been making more of a focus on that lately. Frankly, it was the reason why they pulled out the Knicks game.
I know he is not perfect and may never be a top X player but he is already elite at scoring. And he still has a bunch of upside.
He was a top 15 guy last year, and he's been just as good, if not better this year, in a really weird year.
Yeah, I’d like to know what Tatum’s expectations are to be criticized this season. Not coming out every night like it’s a Game 7 isn’t reason to be critical especially in a condensed season. There is also a direct relation to the period when he was sluggish/struggled with his return from Covid.
I think COVID sapped a lot out of Tatum (and he may have rushed back).
Coin toss for 3rd team? After Giannis, LeBron and Kawhi I have the second F slot on the 2nd Team going to either Tatum or Randle. Who else would be in play for 2nd Team?
Durant, Zion, and Paul George seem like contenders, though Durant may lose votes for missing too many games.
Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Tatum, Zion. Impressive as Randle has been I don't see him as a serious competitor for 2nd team. The guard spots will get crowded - Doncic, Harden, Lillard, Curry, Paul, Kyrie. It wouldn't be the greatest shock to see five of those guys make 1st/2nd team (and Embiid/Jokic are locks for the center spots), leaving just 3 slots for forwards.
Its always tricky to figure how they comprise these teams by position but Jokic, Giannis, Bron Kawhi, Luka take 1st team
Tatum finished well ahead of George and Butler last year so I don’t view them as fsctors. Durant hasn’t played much: I did forget about Zion along with Tatum and Randle so yeah, 2nd Team may be right but I can’t see him falling outside the 3rd.
Yeah I didn't mention Durant, he's missed way too much time to be considered for any of this. George/Butler are both quite a bit older so we don't think about them as improving, but they've both had much better seasons. George went from averaging 21.5/5.7/3.9 with a TS% of .589 to averaging 22.8/6.3/5.3 with a TS% of .615. Butler is averaging 21.6/7.4/7.2 (all improvements) while leading the league in steals and has a TS% of .601.
I wouldn't be surprised if they use the classic PG/SG format and they are casual with defining guards.
In one of those two games by McHale, McHale set the team record with 56 points in a game. Bird said afterwards that McHale "should have gone for 60". Bird then broke the new record by dropping 60 points
29/8/4 in that span on 50/39/94 splits, TS of 63. What I like is that it’s not him being in some burner from deep, he is doing it in a pretty sustainable way.
Good stuff.
Yeah that's...not great from MPJ. When I watch him I can see what gets people so excited - on offense he occasionally looks like a taller Tatum, but his defense will hold him back. A fully realized version of Denver has to include both Gordon and Porter playing well above average wing defense to cover up for Jokic and Murray. For better or worse Denver likely won't be a legit title contender until 2023 (when Murray is 100%), so MPJ has time to improve.
That'll never happen for Porter. He's ghastly at everything on defense and can't pass like at all. He's a much better shooting Kuzma.
I mean, sure in the way that Steph Curry is a better shooting Dana Barros. MPJ is 22 and already an elite scorer, he's more current Jayson Tatum than Kuzma on that end. The passing needs work (true of most young scorers, his rookie AST% was basically the same as Tatum's and better than Jaylen's), but beyond that he's an incredible offensive talent, especially for a guy in his 2nd year. His defense is bad, and it looks bad because a lot of it is not knowing where to be... it's not ghastly, he's a better defensive producer than a lot of bad defending stars (Lillard, Young, etc.).
It's not just that MPJ doesn't know where to be, it is also that he doesn't give any effort. Like the play below, where he first has a half-hearted double team and JT could have easily thrown it to TL for a dunk over the guard but then he watches JT beat Gordon and takes only one slow shuffle step to help.
That's an interesting take. He's 6'10 and mobile. That's a pretty good start. He could stand to get both stronger and more flexible, but he's no Jokic.
Yeah I think Porter’s body is ideal for an NBA wing/forward. Bol Bol is what I would call a bad body, not Porter.
