MM's all important summer league game 1 grades

So what? He wasn't drafted for his defense.

 

I'd be perfectly fine if he had 1 great skill (3 pt shooting) and an even slightly below average skill in defense.It's not like I'm asking for him to be on the all defensive team.

 

I'm just saying that playing loose didn't exactly translate into wins.

I'm 100% opposed to Canales as the head coach for next year, btw. A team this young needs somebody who has been around the league for a while, if not as a head coach, then as a lead assistant in a winning organization.

 

I meant in terms of all-around game and being multi-faceted instead of just a one or two-tool player.

Seems odd to me to bash a guy who was drafted as a shooter for not being good on defense. Unfair, almost.

 

Or it's because Austin Rivers slowly tried to start doing way too much (reverted to his scoring ways) and single handedly dropped NOH shooting percentage from like 50%+ to low 40's (I believe is what they said at the end of the game). Or because NOH didn't have a true PG to run an offense.

Meyers Leonard was a -3, wasn't he? No way we win without him... +/- is a flawed statistic.

 

I am not of the opinion that he was drafted only to be able to shoot threes.

 

You don't draft someone in the mid teens to just 3's. You draft someone like that in the 20's, I.E. John Jenkins, in my opinion.

 

I agree with you buddy. I just wanted to put all the cards on the table.

 

And Jenkins is much more dynamic than Babbitt already as well.

 

I'm happy to make fun of players - it's just fun, sometimes. I won't rip a guy for his natural limitations, though. BUT, I will rip a dude for terrible mistakes at crunch time (i.e. Blake and Felton with bad ball handling in late-game situations) and for a bad atttitude.

 

I know +/- is a flawed statistic, but when you're posting that Babbitt's defense was killing the team, well, turns out they must have also been better offensively as well with him on the floor.

You offer a lot of opinions and interpretations, which is always great for conversation, but I've seen very little from you in terms of actual raw substance and hard data.

 

Yes, we're certainly getting a lot of your opinions, aren't we?

 

Based on what, exactly?

His 19/3/1 stat line from Vanderbilt?

 

4 times thus far. I'm honestly trying to learn Lillard/Meyers as players and to see what I like about their games and what will hopefully translate once they play in a legitimate game.

Sigh, you act as if he only gave up 12 points in 33 minutes. Once again, he wasn't ONLY matched up with Lance Thomas, as he played some 3/4 and he not all of Lance's points came against him.

His defensive rotations are poor, he fouls, he gets beat off the dribble, gave up offensive rebound putbacks, put his teams defense in jeopardy which directly led to other players fouls, which in total led to more than 12 points for the other team.

Honestly, there is one elite offensive player on that team - Austin Rivers - all the rest are shitty offensive players. Lance Thomas averaged about 5 points per game at Duke (which may be an overestimation, but I love all my Dukies), and probably averages around that for NOH. There is honestly no way Babbitt should look that poor defensively against those offensive players. His rotations were sloppy, slow and not NBA quality.

 

Alright, if you want statistics here are some for you.

Babbitt's PER - http://www.82games.com/1112/11POR9.HTM

SF - 6
PF - 16

Opponents PER

SF - 16
PF - 26

Of course we were better offensively with him on the floor - in a summer league game. That's undeniable. The guy can flat out shoot, he scores. But we don't make that comeback if they have a team with a PG that identifies mismatches and exploits them. Lance Thomas on the block against Babbitt would have gotten BUCKETS upon BUCKETS. The fact is, Austin Rivers is a shooting guard and started looking for his own shot, and missing. We got back into the game because of that. If he sets up an actual offense, Babbitt would have been targeted and they would have kept the lead, most likely.

The NBA data supports that he is awful defensively. He should be happy that he was up against non-nba quality players, as when we play HOU I think you'll have a much clearer picture on Babbitt's defense.

If there was data for summer league, I'm sure it would support that his D is bad. But the lack of sets actual benefits Babbitt as they don't try to find weak links like him. For now, I'll have to trust my eyes and the fact that I've repeatedly seen Babbitt get smashed.

 

What the fuck are you talking about man?!?!?!?! Babbit is the next Bird! He just didn't get the green light from Nate!

 

Yup, exactly.

 

Babbitt was very slow to rotate on defense. There were several plays where Leonard rotated to stop penetration, and Babbitt stood flat footed out of the play while the man he was supposed to cover got an uncontested dunk or layup. Something for him to work on.

 

God damnit, PapaG, why is that piece of shit on your avatar?