I've been working on some new defensive statistics which I need to introduce to the public.
Some of this builds on work developed by Dean Oliver. The rest I came up with on my own.
One of my biggest problems with statistics in general is that they are extremely biased in favor of offense. And advanced basketball statistics are no different.
I've been on a mission to create a statistic for everything a basketball player does to help his team win, or lose, and credit it accurately to improve player and team evaluation.
And these defensive statistics are another step in that direction.
I must again tell you that this article is about to get really nerdy right now, talking about the minute details of various basketball scenarios, so consider yourself warned.
INDIVIDUAL STATS
The first defensive concept is the stall.
A stall is mainly when an offensive player tries to score on a defensive player, but the defensive player prevents the scoring attempt, usually forcing the offensive player to pass the basketball.
It is a stall and not a stop because there was no shot attempt; the defender didn't prevent a score; he only delayed a scoring opportunity due to the possession being still alive with the ball in the hands of the offense.
Like almost everything else, some of these will be judgment calls; but you can usually tell when an offensive player is trying to score.
I'll stick with Oliver's language on this next one and go with forced miss.
A forced miss is when a defensive player forces an offensive player to miss a shot. He can do this by either contesting the shot or by blocking the path of the offensive player and forcing him shoot farther away from the basket than he could have without the path block.
Forced misses which are not contested and don't involve a path block will be credited to the team.
A forced miss plus a rebound equals a stop.
When the same player who forced the miss gets the rebound, he will be credited with a full stop.
A stop can also be defined more broadly as anything a defensive player or team does to create a change of possession without any points being scored by the offense.
So drawing charges, getting steals, forcing shot-clock violations and a wide variety of other things will be counted as stops as well.
And as Dean Oliver pointed out, fouling a player who goes to the line and misses both free throws will be counted as a stop, assuming the defense secures the rebound after the second free-throw miss.
½ Stops. When one player forces a miss and a different player gets the rebound, the stop will be divided into two equal halves, the forced miss half and the rebound half.
And each player will be given ½ stop.
¼ Stops. When two players force a miss or two players combine for a rebound, the ½ stop for the forced miss or rebound will be split in half and each player given ¼ stop.
Let's say two defensive players double-team a player in the post and force him to miss a shot, and a third defensive player gets the rebound.
The forced-miss half of the stop will be divided in two, and the two players will be given ¼ stop each for forcing the miss.
Since only one player got the rebound, he will be credited with his regular ½ stop.
¼ stops for the rebound half are for plays when one defensive player deflects the rebound, and a second recovers it.
Let's get really complicated and look at one more scenario.
A player dribbles the ball across half court and is immediately double-teamed.
The ball pressure from the trap forces him into a bad pass which is deflected by a third defender and recovered by a fourth for a steal.
This stop would be split into two equal halves, the ball-pressure half and the steal half.
The two trapping players would be given ¼ stop each for the ball-pressure half, and the players who got the steal would be given ¼ stop each for their combined play on the steal half.
Because these fractions can get out of hand, whenever more than two players combine for ½ of a stop, it will be credited to the team.
TEAM STATS
Now let's move over and look at some team defensive statistics.
The best way to stop a team from scoring is to not let them shoot the basketball.
You can't score without shooting, right?
So one of the things which will be tracked is the percentage of no-shot stops a defensive team gets, meaning they did something to change possession and get the ball back from the offense before the offense had the opportunity to attempt a field goal.
For a team which can't get a no-shot stop, a one-shot stop is the next best thing. That obviously means that the offense came down and missed one shot, and the defense got the rebound and ended the possession.
And the percentage of times a defense does that will be logged as well.
No-shot stops may be called "none-and-dones" and one-shot stops "one-and-dones."
Another thing is that not all stops are created equally.
Live-ball stops are the best because they give the team the opportunity to get fast-break points. So teams will be measured on their field goal percentages after live-ball stops, dead-ball stops and after made baskets for comparison.
These statistics can also be used for offense.
One of the biggest problems for Golden State is that they have too many no-shot possessions on offense. It absolutely killed them in road games at the Lakers and at Oklahoma City this year.
Finally, I'll be looking at dunks and layups.
I'm sure we can all agree that the two easiest shots to make in basketball are an uncontested dunk and an uncontested layup.
Field goals allowed will be looked at to see what percentage were uncontested dunks and layups and what impact this had on the field goal percentage allowed by the defense.
As I wrote before, I don't have nearly the resources or the manpower to track this information on a large scale but will do some games from time to time.
UPDATE: 1/31/2011
Here are some other situations where a player will be credited with a stall: (1) when he deflects a ball out of bounds, (2) when he deflects a ball which gets recovered by the offense, (3) when the offense is trying to pass to his man but his ball denial doesn't allow the pass attempt, (4) when his ball pressure on the passer forces the offense away from who it was trying to pass the ball to, (5) when he forces a jump ball and the offense maintains possession, (6*) when he bumps or blocks off an offensive player moving without the ball and disrupts the play, (7*) when he blocks the path of a dribbler not attempting to score and disrupts the play.
*UPDATE: 5/26/2011, 5:00 AM
It should also be noted that stalls can and will be divided into ½ stalls and ¼ stalls just like stops, and when more than two players combine for ½ of a stall it will be credited to the team.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
Tweet
Showing posts with label defensive statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label defensive statistics. Show all posts
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
More NBA Advanced Statistics
Before we begin, I have to first introduce a NBA floor chart which I have been working on.
Everything that will be talked about when it comes to advanced statistics revolves around this floor chart.
Here is the mid-court area of the chart. Notice how the chart flips and reverses itself once the half-court line is crossed.
This was going to be called a "shot chart," but it hit me that this chart can track much more than shooting.
I use it mostly for defense. It can show where a player gets most of his blocks, his rebounds and where he gives up the most points.
Although it is free for anyone to use, for convenience it will be called the "High Basketball IQ Floor Chart."
It is not perfect and not accurate to the exact dimensions of a NBA court; it was created to the best of my limited engineering abilities just to have a visual representation of what I am writing about.
Also, a player a step or two outside of the high post, for example, may be labeled as being in the high post; it won't be an accurate description of where the player is to the exact inch, but you'll get my point.
Another great use of the floor chart is to show players who do or don't get rebounds outside of their area.
You can look at where the players are when the ball goes in the air, where they are when it hits the rim and where they are when the rebound is secured.
Who moved? And who didn't? And how far did they move? It's great for hustle stats.
Ideally, I would like to use this floor chart to track the movement of the ball and every player for every minute of every game.
But since I don't have anywhere near the resources or the manpower to pull that off, I'll do what I can from in front of my computer.
It should be noted that this article is about to get really nerdy right now, talking about the minute details of various NBA games, so consider yourself warned.
Deflections will be covered first.
A deflection is when a player tips the ball, usually sending it in a different direction.
There are all kinds of deflections, pass deflections, rebound deflections, dribble deflections, you name it.
This is a hustle stat which needs to be accurately tracked because it is a play which a player makes to help his team.
In short, that is what we are shooting for here, the tracking of anything (anything!) which a player does on a basketball court to help his team win.
Sister to the deflection is the recovery.
Either the player who deflected the ball or another player recovers it.
When one player deflects the ball and another player recovers it, each must be given credit for the part they contributed to the play in order to accurately determine the value of each player and the overall ability of the team.
Like deflections, there are many types of recoveries.
There are blocked shot recoveries, saved ball recoveries, rebound deflection recoveries, pass deflection recoveries and many more.
And all should be tracked and recorded so that each player's value to the team can be accurately measured and because every possession counts.
Let's look at a play from the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat game from last season (3:50).
There are 21.9 seconds left in the game. Kobe Bryant drives and misses a layup.
Although what follows looks like nothing more than a wild scrum with no identifiable parts, that is the furthest thing from the truth.
The play's individual parts are actually highly identifiable.
Here is how I would score the play; the best angle is at 4:14:
Missed Layup: Kobe Bryant
Rebound Deflection: Kobe Bryant (O) & Pau Gasol (O) & Udonis Haslem (D)
Missed Rebound: Kobe Bryant
Rebound: Dwyane Wade (D)
Baseline Save: Dwyane Wade
Saved Ball Deflection: Mario Chalmers
Saved Ball Recovery: Pau Gasol
Foul: Quentin Richardson on Pau Gasol.
The scoring format comes from the "Play-By-Play" section of the box scores on NBA.com.
Also, this is being scored as best I can on a computer screen. More details would be seen on a full television screen and might change the scoring some.
Pau Gasol went to the foul line and made both free throws.
The Lakers won the game by one point on a running three-pointer by Kobe Bryant.
Without the hustle and deflections of Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant saving this possession for the Lakers, they might have lost the game; but we would never know that because there are no statistics for plays like this.
Steals also need to be more specific.
Against the New York Knicks, Kobe Bryant deflects the ball away from Chris Duhon (1:04); and Ron Artest recovers it.
Although both players combined for the steal, Ron Artest got no credit for his contribution to the play.
Is this fair?
Is it an accurate reflection of each player's contribution to the team?
Without Artest picking up the ball, a Knick could have gotten it; then there wouldn't have been any steal at all. What Artest did was very important.
Add up all of these uncredited plays over the course of a season, and it becomes extremely significant. And what about over the course of a career?
When two players combine like this on a steal, they should be given ½ steal (the deflection ½ and the recovery ½) each.
Here is how it should look:
STEALS: K. Bryant: FULL (0); DFL ½ (1); RCR ½ (0); TOTAL (½)
R. Artest: FULL (0); DFL ½ (0); RCR ½ (1); TOTAL (½)
"DFL" is short for deflection, "RCR" short for recovery. A "FULL" steal is when one player completes the entire steal by himself.
Now it is time to get really technical.
Steals would also be divided into type.
There are three types of steals: passed ball steals, dribbled ball steals and held ball steals.
Wouldn't it be important to know going into a game against a team which uses its small forward to bring the ball up the court that you have a point guard who can steal dribbles but not passes?
You think his steals might be down that night?
Let's throw in the floor chart and look at one more play, a steal by Jordan Farmar against the Orlando Magic (2:49).
Here is how I would score the play:
Pass Steal: Jordan Farmar, straightaway three-point line (ORL) deflection and right mid-court (LAL) recovery of Jameer Nelson pass from top-right three-point area (ORL) to Ryan Anderson at top-left three-point area (ORL).
Deep Right Paint (LAL) Foul: Ryan Anderson on Jordan Farmar.
The ORL and LAL tell on which offensive half of the court the play takes place.
This scoring method is technical and highly-detailed, but it gives credit where credit is due and gives an accurate accounting of every player's contribution to the team's success, or failure.
In a prior post I wrote that the NBA was in the Stone Ages when it comes to advanced statistics. It looks like that may not be entirely true.
Some of this information is being tracked; it is just not publicly available.
Bill Simmons tried to get some details and wrote a great story on what he would like to know and his journey to find out. Some of the things he asks about are the very same things I am trying to log and account for: winning plays.
Note: I got the idea to use numbers instead of words on my floor chart from this chart on 82games.com. When I went to add the names to the areas of my chart, the names were too long to fit into those tiny little spaces.
Floor chart updated September 2012.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
Tweet
Everything that will be talked about when it comes to advanced statistics revolves around this floor chart.
Here is the mid-court area of the chart. Notice how the chart flips and reverses itself once the half-court line is crossed.
This was going to be called a "shot chart," but it hit me that this chart can track much more than shooting.
I use it mostly for defense. It can show where a player gets most of his blocks, his rebounds and where he gives up the most points.
Although it is free for anyone to use, for convenience it will be called the "High Basketball IQ Floor Chart."
It is not perfect and not accurate to the exact dimensions of a NBA court; it was created to the best of my limited engineering abilities just to have a visual representation of what I am writing about.
Also, a player a step or two outside of the high post, for example, may be labeled as being in the high post; it won't be an accurate description of where the player is to the exact inch, but you'll get my point.
Another great use of the floor chart is to show players who do or don't get rebounds outside of their area.
You can look at where the players are when the ball goes in the air, where they are when it hits the rim and where they are when the rebound is secured.
Who moved? And who didn't? And how far did they move? It's great for hustle stats.
Ideally, I would like to use this floor chart to track the movement of the ball and every player for every minute of every game.
But since I don't have anywhere near the resources or the manpower to pull that off, I'll do what I can from in front of my computer.
It should be noted that this article is about to get really nerdy right now, talking about the minute details of various NBA games, so consider yourself warned.
Deflections will be covered first.
A deflection is when a player tips the ball, usually sending it in a different direction.
There are all kinds of deflections, pass deflections, rebound deflections, dribble deflections, you name it.
This is a hustle stat which needs to be accurately tracked because it is a play which a player makes to help his team.
In short, that is what we are shooting for here, the tracking of anything (anything!) which a player does on a basketball court to help his team win.
Sister to the deflection is the recovery.
Either the player who deflected the ball or another player recovers it.
When one player deflects the ball and another player recovers it, each must be given credit for the part they contributed to the play in order to accurately determine the value of each player and the overall ability of the team.
Like deflections, there are many types of recoveries.
There are blocked shot recoveries, saved ball recoveries, rebound deflection recoveries, pass deflection recoveries and many more.
And all should be tracked and recorded so that each player's value to the team can be accurately measured and because every possession counts.
Let's look at a play from the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat game from last season (3:50).
There are 21.9 seconds left in the game. Kobe Bryant drives and misses a layup.
Although what follows looks like nothing more than a wild scrum with no identifiable parts, that is the furthest thing from the truth.
The play's individual parts are actually highly identifiable.
Here is how I would score the play; the best angle is at 4:14:
Missed Layup: Kobe Bryant
Rebound Deflection: Kobe Bryant (O) & Pau Gasol (O) & Udonis Haslem (D)
Missed Rebound: Kobe Bryant
Rebound: Dwyane Wade (D)
Baseline Save: Dwyane Wade
Saved Ball Deflection: Mario Chalmers
Saved Ball Recovery: Pau Gasol
Foul: Quentin Richardson on Pau Gasol.
The scoring format comes from the "Play-By-Play" section of the box scores on NBA.com.
Also, this is being scored as best I can on a computer screen. More details would be seen on a full television screen and might change the scoring some.
Pau Gasol went to the foul line and made both free throws.
The Lakers won the game by one point on a running three-pointer by Kobe Bryant.
Without the hustle and deflections of Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant saving this possession for the Lakers, they might have lost the game; but we would never know that because there are no statistics for plays like this.
Steals also need to be more specific.
Against the New York Knicks, Kobe Bryant deflects the ball away from Chris Duhon (1:04); and Ron Artest recovers it.
Although both players combined for the steal, Ron Artest got no credit for his contribution to the play.
Is this fair?
Is it an accurate reflection of each player's contribution to the team?
Without Artest picking up the ball, a Knick could have gotten it; then there wouldn't have been any steal at all. What Artest did was very important.
Add up all of these uncredited plays over the course of a season, and it becomes extremely significant. And what about over the course of a career?
When two players combine like this on a steal, they should be given ½ steal (the deflection ½ and the recovery ½) each.
Here is how it should look:
STEALS: K. Bryant: FULL (0); DFL ½ (1); RCR ½ (0); TOTAL (½)
R. Artest: FULL (0); DFL ½ (0); RCR ½ (1); TOTAL (½)
"DFL" is short for deflection, "RCR" short for recovery. A "FULL" steal is when one player completes the entire steal by himself.
Now it is time to get really technical.
Steals would also be divided into type.
There are three types of steals: passed ball steals, dribbled ball steals and held ball steals.
Wouldn't it be important to know going into a game against a team which uses its small forward to bring the ball up the court that you have a point guard who can steal dribbles but not passes?
You think his steals might be down that night?
Let's throw in the floor chart and look at one more play, a steal by Jordan Farmar against the Orlando Magic (2:49).
Here is how I would score the play:
Pass Steal: Jordan Farmar, straightaway three-point line (ORL) deflection and right mid-court (LAL) recovery of Jameer Nelson pass from top-right three-point area (ORL) to Ryan Anderson at top-left three-point area (ORL).
Deep Right Paint (LAL) Foul: Ryan Anderson on Jordan Farmar.
The ORL and LAL tell on which offensive half of the court the play takes place.
This scoring method is technical and highly-detailed, but it gives credit where credit is due and gives an accurate accounting of every player's contribution to the team's success, or failure.
In a prior post I wrote that the NBA was in the Stone Ages when it comes to advanced statistics. It looks like that may not be entirely true.
Some of this information is being tracked; it is just not publicly available.
Bill Simmons tried to get some details and wrote a great story on what he would like to know and his journey to find out. Some of the things he asks about are the very same things I am trying to log and account for: winning plays.
Note: I got the idea to use numbers instead of words on my floor chart from this chart on 82games.com. When I went to add the names to the areas of my chart, the names were too long to fit into those tiny little spaces.
Floor chart updated September 2012.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
Tweet
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Dissecting Pacers vs Lakers And Darren Collison
The Indiana Pacers acquired point guard Darren Collison from the New Orleans Hornets this week.
There have been so many things written this off-season about the Pacers and their need for a point guard that I almost started to believe it.
Then I went back and looked at the game tape.
Since the Los Angeles Lakers have been the best team in the NBA for the past two seasons, and there isn't much video of other teams available, why not start there?
What better way to measure yourself than against the best, right?
The Pacers played the Lakers in Los Angeles on March 2, 2010, and were crushed 122-99. They were also punished at home on January 27, 118-96.
Only the game at Los Angeles will be used, but for those who want to continue dissecting on their own, here is the game at Indiana.
THE FUN BEGINS (:38 on the video player)
UPDATE: 6/10/2011, 12:35 PM
The original video used for this analysis has been removed by the user. You can still see many of the same plays described below but at different times on the video player.
Looking at Dahntay Jones' box score, you would think he had a pretty good game. Looking at the game, you would know otherwise. At :38, the Pacers are ahead 24-20.
Jones allows Kobe Bryant to beat him off the dribble. This forces Troy Murphy to have to come over and help, which leaves Murphy's man Pau Gasol in position to tip in the offensive rebound.
Jones then drives to the basket against Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol and gets his shot blocked. This leads to a transition three-pointer by Jordan Farmar.
After that, while paying too much attention to Bryant being defended by Earl Watson, Jones loses track of his man Farmar, who cuts to the basket and gets a bucket off of a Bryant pass.
Not done yet, Jones then allows Lakers guard Shannon Brown to beat him off the dribble for a runner off the glass. Bryant beating Jones off the dribble could be written off as the best player in the NBA, but how do you explain this?
At 1:12, Jones has the ball taken from him by Shannon Brown. This leads to a fast-break layup by Adam Morrison. The score is now 33-30, Los Angeles.
So the Lakers went on a 13-6 run, and 11 of the 13 points Indiana allowed were directly caused by Dahntay Jones' mistakes. Dahntay Jones does not play point guard.
NEXT UP: COACH JIM O'BRIEN (1:44)
Indiana coach Jim O'Brien foolishly tries to defend Andrew Bynum with Troy Murphy. The result? A catch-and-finish reverse-layup and a back-down dunk. Don't mean to laugh, but this is really funny, literally a comedy of errors.
BRANDON RUSH TAKES HIS TURN (2:04)
Determined to get in on the act, Pacer Brandon Rush gets backed into the paint by Bryant for a left-handed jump-hook. He then commits a turnover which leads to a transition three-pointer by Derek Fisher. At 2:43, Rush again allows Bryant to take him to the basket for two.
DANNY GRANGER TOO (2:49)
Team star Danny Granger actually started his mistakes a while ago. At :20, he gets beaten for a dunk by Ron Artest on a cut to the basket and runs into Earl Watson, who came over to double Pau Gasol, in the process. Again, I don't mean to laugh.
Granger's series of mistakes starts at 2:49. He gets beaten off the dribble by Ron Artest for a layup. At 3:07, Granger holds the ball in front of Artest like Artest hasn't been the best perimeter defender in the NBA for the past decade or more.
As expected, Artest swipes the ball from him. On the play, Kobe Bryant is fouled on a fast-break dunk attempt and makes both free throws. In between the prior two plays, Josh McRoberts proves he can't guard Andrew Bynum either and gets dunked on just like Troy Murphy did.
At 3:28, Dahntay Jones is back again, allowing a turn-around by Ron Artest before Shannon Brown hits a three-pointer on him at 3:46. Danny Granger then again forgets who Ron Artest is and has the ball taken from him and passed to Farmar for an open-court dunk.
DIDIER ILUNGA-MBENGA (4:11)
To put the icing on the cake, Roy Hibbert allows Didier Ilunga-Mbenga to hit a turn-around jumper on him, not Pau Gasol, not Andrew Bynum, not Lamar Odom, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga.
There have been so many things written this off-season about the Pacers and their need for a point guard that I almost started to believe it.
Then I went back and looked at the game tape.
Since the Los Angeles Lakers have been the best team in the NBA for the past two seasons, and there isn't much video of other teams available, why not start there?
What better way to measure yourself than against the best, right?
The Pacers played the Lakers in Los Angeles on March 2, 2010, and were crushed 122-99. They were also punished at home on January 27, 118-96.
Only the game at Los Angeles will be used, but for those who want to continue dissecting on their own, here is the game at Indiana.
THE FUN BEGINS (:38 on the video player)
UPDATE: 6/10/2011, 12:35 PM
The original video used for this analysis has been removed by the user. You can still see many of the same plays described below but at different times on the video player.
Looking at Dahntay Jones' box score, you would think he had a pretty good game. Looking at the game, you would know otherwise. At :38, the Pacers are ahead 24-20.
Jones allows Kobe Bryant to beat him off the dribble. This forces Troy Murphy to have to come over and help, which leaves Murphy's man Pau Gasol in position to tip in the offensive rebound.
Jones then drives to the basket against Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol and gets his shot blocked. This leads to a transition three-pointer by Jordan Farmar.
After that, while paying too much attention to Bryant being defended by Earl Watson, Jones loses track of his man Farmar, who cuts to the basket and gets a bucket off of a Bryant pass.
Not done yet, Jones then allows Lakers guard Shannon Brown to beat him off the dribble for a runner off the glass. Bryant beating Jones off the dribble could be written off as the best player in the NBA, but how do you explain this?
At 1:12, Jones has the ball taken from him by Shannon Brown. This leads to a fast-break layup by Adam Morrison. The score is now 33-30, Los Angeles.
So the Lakers went on a 13-6 run, and 11 of the 13 points Indiana allowed were directly caused by Dahntay Jones' mistakes. Dahntay Jones does not play point guard.
NEXT UP: COACH JIM O'BRIEN (1:44)
Indiana coach Jim O'Brien foolishly tries to defend Andrew Bynum with Troy Murphy. The result? A catch-and-finish reverse-layup and a back-down dunk. Don't mean to laugh, but this is really funny, literally a comedy of errors.
BRANDON RUSH TAKES HIS TURN (2:04)
Determined to get in on the act, Pacer Brandon Rush gets backed into the paint by Bryant for a left-handed jump-hook. He then commits a turnover which leads to a transition three-pointer by Derek Fisher. At 2:43, Rush again allows Bryant to take him to the basket for two.
DANNY GRANGER TOO (2:49)
Team star Danny Granger actually started his mistakes a while ago. At :20, he gets beaten for a dunk by Ron Artest on a cut to the basket and runs into Earl Watson, who came over to double Pau Gasol, in the process. Again, I don't mean to laugh.
Granger's series of mistakes starts at 2:49. He gets beaten off the dribble by Ron Artest for a layup. At 3:07, Granger holds the ball in front of Artest like Artest hasn't been the best perimeter defender in the NBA for the past decade or more.
As expected, Artest swipes the ball from him. On the play, Kobe Bryant is fouled on a fast-break dunk attempt and makes both free throws. In between the prior two plays, Josh McRoberts proves he can't guard Andrew Bynum either and gets dunked on just like Troy Murphy did.
At 3:28, Dahntay Jones is back again, allowing a turn-around by Ron Artest before Shannon Brown hits a three-pointer on him at 3:46. Danny Granger then again forgets who Ron Artest is and has the ball taken from him and passed to Farmar for an open-court dunk.
DIDIER ILUNGA-MBENGA (4:11)
To put the icing on the cake, Roy Hibbert allows Didier Ilunga-Mbenga to hit a turn-around jumper on him, not Pau Gasol, not Andrew Bynum, not Lamar Odom, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga.
INDIVIDUAL PLUS/MINUS OR IPM
The Pacers lost this game by 23 points. Let's add up the individual plus/minuses and see what happens.
Dahntay Jones, -16: Gasol offensive rebound (-2); Farmar three-pointer (-3); Farmar cut to basket (-2); Shannon Brown runner (-2); Morrison layup (-2); Artest turn-around (-2); Brown three-pointer (-3).
Troy Murphy, -4; Josh McRoberts, -2; or Jim O'Brien and/or Larry Bird, -6: Bynum reverse-layup (-2); Bynum dunk (-2); Bynum dunk (-2).
It looks like coach O'Brien didn't have a choice but to defend Bynum with Murphy and McRoberts with Hibbert in foul trouble. The Pacers don't have the big men to defend the Lakers, blame who you want.
Brandon Rush, -7: Bryant jump-hook (-2); Fisher three-pointer (-3); Bryant drive (-2).
Danny Granger, -8: Artest dunk (-2); Artest layup (-2); Artest steal leading to Bryant free throws (-2); Artest steal leading to Farmar dunk (-2).
Roy Hibbert, -2: Mbenga turn-around (-2).
As you can plainly see, not one of the errors in this comedy of errors was committed by a point guard, although I am certain they made their fair share of mistakes too.
You have to win with the team you have, so the fact that the Pacers don't have the big men to match up with the Lakers is no excuse. Miami and Charlotte didn't have the big men either, but they went 2-2 against Los Angeles.
Indiana could have won this game by simply eliminating mistakes. Dahntay Jones alone accounts for almost the entire point differential (-16 for him to -23 for the game).
So instead of blaming the point guard or blaming the big men, the Pacers could (1) play better defense, (2) play Jones fewer minutes or cut him, (3) make sure Danny Granger gets and/or pays attention to and/or remembers a good scouting report and (4) take better care of the basketball.
This also is the perfect example of why I support plus/minus based on individual and not five-man-unit performance when evaluating individual players.*
It is not the fault of the other Pacers on the court with Dahntay Jones that he made so many mistakes. Why should they have their ratings dragged down by his play?
And why should anyone other than Danny Granger lose two plus/minus points because he had the ball stolen from him by Ron Artest? Contrary to what the Indiana Pacers bloggers and sportswriters will tell you, it wasn't Earl Watson's fault; he was all the way on the other side of the court.
So all of you Pacers fans and others celebrating the trade for Darren Collison, you better wake up and smell the coffee. When Larry Bird says he's note done, he means it! And he better not be done, not with this team.
I picked Indiana to be one of the most improved teams this year and will stick to it. This was before they got Darren Collison. Collison helps because every good team needs two point guards, but he is no savior.
The Pacers' only hope right now is No. 10 pick Paul George. The Pacers better hope and pray he is as good as advertised, otherwise ... more Shakespearean (writer of The Comedy of Errors) theater.
Note: It is understood that these are Lakers highlights and don't tell the full story of the game. It is also fully understood that scoring games is subjective; one man's base hit is another man's error. But as the old saying goes, I call them like I see them. Finally, I tried to include only the most obvious errors and mistakes; so you may see something which I didn't include.
Tweet
The Pacers lost this game by 23 points. Let's add up the individual plus/minuses and see what happens.
Dahntay Jones, -16: Gasol offensive rebound (-2); Farmar three-pointer (-3); Farmar cut to basket (-2); Shannon Brown runner (-2); Morrison layup (-2); Artest turn-around (-2); Brown three-pointer (-3).
Troy Murphy, -4; Josh McRoberts, -2; or Jim O'Brien and/or Larry Bird, -6: Bynum reverse-layup (-2); Bynum dunk (-2); Bynum dunk (-2).
It looks like coach O'Brien didn't have a choice but to defend Bynum with Murphy and McRoberts with Hibbert in foul trouble. The Pacers don't have the big men to defend the Lakers, blame who you want.
Brandon Rush, -7: Bryant jump-hook (-2); Fisher three-pointer (-3); Bryant drive (-2).
Danny Granger, -8: Artest dunk (-2); Artest layup (-2); Artest steal leading to Bryant free throws (-2); Artest steal leading to Farmar dunk (-2).
Roy Hibbert, -2: Mbenga turn-around (-2).
As you can plainly see, not one of the errors in this comedy of errors was committed by a point guard, although I am certain they made their fair share of mistakes too.
You have to win with the team you have, so the fact that the Pacers don't have the big men to match up with the Lakers is no excuse. Miami and Charlotte didn't have the big men either, but they went 2-2 against Los Angeles.
Indiana could have won this game by simply eliminating mistakes. Dahntay Jones alone accounts for almost the entire point differential (-16 for him to -23 for the game).
So instead of blaming the point guard or blaming the big men, the Pacers could (1) play better defense, (2) play Jones fewer minutes or cut him, (3) make sure Danny Granger gets and/or pays attention to and/or remembers a good scouting report and (4) take better care of the basketball.
This also is the perfect example of why I support plus/minus based on individual and not five-man-unit performance when evaluating individual players.*
It is not the fault of the other Pacers on the court with Dahntay Jones that he made so many mistakes. Why should they have their ratings dragged down by his play?
And why should anyone other than Danny Granger lose two plus/minus points because he had the ball stolen from him by Ron Artest? Contrary to what the Indiana Pacers bloggers and sportswriters will tell you, it wasn't Earl Watson's fault; he was all the way on the other side of the court.
So all of you Pacers fans and others celebrating the trade for Darren Collison, you better wake up and smell the coffee. When Larry Bird says he's note done, he means it! And he better not be done, not with this team.
I picked Indiana to be one of the most improved teams this year and will stick to it. This was before they got Darren Collison. Collison helps because every good team needs two point guards, but he is no savior.
The Pacers' only hope right now is No. 10 pick Paul George. The Pacers better hope and pray he is as good as advertised, otherwise ... more Shakespearean (writer of The Comedy of Errors) theater.
Note: It is understood that these are Lakers highlights and don't tell the full story of the game. It is also fully understood that scoring games is subjective; one man's base hit is another man's error. But as the old saying goes, I call them like I see them. Finally, I tried to include only the most obvious errors and mistakes; so you may see something which I didn't include.
*Updated 2-16-2012, 8:40 AM to add the words "when evaluating individual players."
Tweet
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)