I saw that…I mean Jokic is putting up 27 points and 8 assists a game on 67% true shooting - who isn’t he schooling?
Len held him to “only” 30 more points after Mo got yanked.
True, but there were back-to-back possessions where Wagner got embarrassed defensively. Once on a bad flop and then on a spin move in the post I believe. It was apparent Moe couldn’t even put up a fight defensively. He also took a bad 3 point attempt. Hopefully it was a teaching moment.
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Duncan and the Heat hang on to beat the Lakers, 96-94. Dunc is in a bit of a slump over his last 10, only hitting 33% from deep and 38% overall. He was 1/5 from three and 3/8 overall in this one.
That foul on Duncan was rough. I thought for sure they would call that the other way around
Hardaway with 20 at half on 5-7 from 3
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OMG, that is so far from the basket. Try to shot a ball from there.
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I’ll pass, thanks. I’m already trying to salvage the bits of my ego hurting from what my own personal game has become in middle age. (It’s a serious impairment to your finishing ability when your vertical is slashed in half from 4 inches to 2)
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My horizontal has shot up, though, so there’s that.
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Gotta get that Old Man Game.
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There needs to be old-man-adjusted analytics to guide us here. Apart from the guys who come out to dominate to warm themselves up for the better games they play in, if the rest of us limited ourselves to layups or 3s that would actually be kinda funny.
Seeing shots like that or when Curry or Lillard do the same makes you wonder if there will be a “4-point shot” someday on the court. It was a novelty in those celebrity games over the years, but I wonder if there’s an evolution there since the 3-point shot has become so common place. Probably not…but you never know. Or maybe eventually they’ll widen the court and extend the line.
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Or raise the rim?
So, another two weeks down…
I will not attempt to explain the team dynamic of the Westchester Knicks to you, but Ignas Brazdeikis is averaging 21 points a game and 11 rebounds on 18 shots a game. The efficiency isn’t that great, and the G-League tends to play at hamster-on-crack tempos, so all numbers tend to look BIGGER there. He’s only taking 2 free throws a game for all those shots, and his three is only falling 29% of the time through 6 games. There definitely are a tranche of players who are too good for the G-League but can’t find footing in the NBA - thus far, that has been Ignas.
Joining him the G-League bubble is Jordan Poole. Poole is putting a 22/4/4 in 8 games in the bubble, and his shooting overall looks a bit better than his former team-mate, and way better than his big-league experience - the three is going down 36% of the time - but you’d like to see a bit better. Right now, these two feel like “AAAA guys” - too good for the minors, not ready for the majors.
Mo Wagner is back in the rotation! The Wizards have been running out a bizarre starting lineup with Wagner at the 5, Rui Hachimura at the 4, and Garrison Brooks as the… compact (opposite of stretch) 3. Wagner is mostly getting a “Keith Bogans” (he starts each half and doesn’t return), but its better than not playing. His three still isn’t going down (1/9 since this change happened), but has scored ok. He’s committed 11 fouls in about 75 minutes, which is quite a bit. It’s hard to say he is doing much to help them - he’s carrying a pretty negative +/- in this stretch, but they are 5-0 since the change (wins over LA, Boston, Portland, Denver) to this structure, so I assume they will keep it going for the foreseeable future.
DJ hasn’t played since the last update.
There hasn’t been much new on Caris Levert’s status. He is travelling with the team now, and it seems there is hope he’ll play again this year.
Glenn Robinson III is now away from the Kings tending to a “personal issue”, and with Covid protocols, that means he will awhile. Prior to that, he was mired, along with the rest of the team, in a pretty rough slump - making 7 of the 21 shots he attempted since the last update. It’s all within context though, he’s one of the lowest-usage players in basketball. The Kings are just awful, by the way.
Trey Burke’s minutes continue to be winnowed - he’s now consistently under 9 minutes per game since our last update, but he his playing nightly. His shooting splits have been ok, but it seems as if the Mavericks prefer Jalen Brunson as their second point guard, and Trey has struggled to do much without the ball in his hands. As I said - the stats seem to be ok, but there is obviously something here Carlisle doesn’t like particularly much. Regardless, he has failed to deliver the punch he did in the bubble.
Tim Hardaway continues to keep doing what he does - he’s averaged 16 points a game in the 4 they have played since the last update, including 26 points on 7/11 three-point shooting last night. Last year was Tim’s first as a pro with above average (>56%) true shooting, and he’s poised to better than mark this year - Carlisle has clearly convinced him to turn a number of his 2-point jumpers into threes, and he’s reaping the efficiency rewards.
In aggregate, Duncan Robinson isn’t quite where he was last year, but as defenses shift to account for him, his attempts have been harder this season, while not greater in volume. With the myriad injuries and covid absences that the Heat have gone through, Duncan has rarely been playing with the full compliment of teammates, and both he and Herro aren’t hitting the same levels of efficiencies. That said, his recent “slump” was really a two-game stretch where he went 6/21. Since then, he 12/29 over three game from 3 (41%).
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Thanks for these - love them. A couple of thoughts:
- Definitely agree on the AAAA players for Iggy and Poole. I wonder if they just need more time since they both left before they had maybe figured out their full potential in college. Hopefully they get a chance. (Insert joke about Knicks already being a AAAA team here)
- Moe needs to hit his 3s and then I think he’s found a role. They like his energy, he’s part of the rotation, but being a sub 30% shooter when that’s your differentiating skill is going to limit your minutes.
- I hope Burke’s issue in the rotation isn’t off-the-court related. He himself cited that last year as a benefit of the bubble. I do think Brunson has earned his minutes but hoping Burke finds a role.
- DJ may be joining the AAAA group soon enough. Hard to know what his future is when he literally never plays.
grabbing and holding?
The NBA should absolutely expand the court.
That might get Antoine Walker back in shape.
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Yeah, Burke was pretty forthcoming about the fact that not having the opportunity to party helped him out.
That said, I think it has more to do with externalities than with him. Jalen Brunson, as we said, has been quite good, and given the comparative youth, deserves a larger role on the team. They’ve tried to play Burke as essentially a 2, but he’s seemed a little unmoored without the ball.
Hey, if I can’t play above the rim, no one gets to.
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