Around the NBA: February 2020

Right. It's a measure of "being a good teammate" so of course it's going to be relative to the role one is put in on one's team (and also one's teammates). But that's okay, because IT'S A FUCKING TEAM SPORT.

 

Now we're bound to lose to the Knicks...

 

Sometimes stats can be deceiving.

 

Or more accurately, there are stats that are CRAP & some that hold more value. The ones used in this analysis are not that great & have lots of noise in them...

 

my thinking is that no single type of stat will convey a consistently accurate story. If BPM, RPM, & RAPM all show the same thing about a player, and that is supported by PER, TS%, winshare, VORP, and other metrics, as a whole those numbers have some solid meaning. Even then, there could be noise. When one stat shows a player is near the top, and everything else shows he's mediocre, you have to distrust the single stat. This is why if I post some stat comparisons here, I usually post a large range of numbers

and it needs to be more apples to apples too. There is going to be skew when you try and gauge a player that averages less than 20 minutes to a player that averages over 30 minutes. And more skew when it's a 2nd unit player compared to a starter

 

You don't have to distrust the single stat, but you have to at least take it with a grain of salt. Sometimes a stat like RPM is telling you something real that other stats, that measure things differently, aren't telling you. That was the point of the famous Shane Batter "no-stats All Star" article that (in the mainstream basketball consciousness) kicked off the awareness of "Moneyball"-like advanced numbers that capture things not recorded as points, assists, rebounds, blocks or steals (or even scoring efficiency).

Of course, sometimes the single stat is just giving you a nonsense result. You do always have to keep both possibilities in mind.

 

I’m just here waiting for the Clippers to sign another player

 

Right again. Funny that last year we got rid of +/- stars with weak other stats in Aminu and Curry (and to a lesser extent Harkless) and acquired a PER God in Whiteside, and yet we're considerably worse.

 

Talking of which - isn't Harkless about to be waived by the Knicks? I wonder if Dame would root for him to come back.

 

there are a lot of variables that go into the records of last year's and this year's teams, not just +/- or PER. Like injuries for instance. And there's little doubt this year's supporting cast is worse than last year's, maybe by a mile or two. And keep in mind that with Aminu, Harkless, and Meyers, there had been at least 4 years of developing mesh and chemistry
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we were having a discussion in another thread about rebuilds, retools, and core players

I do believe that PER, winshares/48, and BPM can give a decent indication of who should be considered a core player. They aren't the only gauges but if they consistently show the same thing they are revealing

 

Kyrie is now out for the season.

 

I love Joakim Noah

 

Too bad he didn't love the Blazers.

Things might have been different earlier on this season if we had a healthy Joakim upfront.

 

Nets paid almost $70 million to KD and Kyrie this year for 20 combined games.

 

@Darkwebs can we get a game thread at some point?

 

Quit stomping your feet Elephant.

 

Where's HCP when you need him?

 

Let’s Go Kings!

 

I doubt it. He’s not that good. In the last 6 months 3 teams didn’t want him.