Around the NBA - the 2020 Playoff Edition!

And ppl hate on Cj smh

 

Yeah, I hate the guys defense but his offense is top notch. He is one of the best bucket getters in the game, being able to score from anywhere inside 26 feet. His handle is serious. When he sees himself as the facilitator he's a really good passer. The other thing I like about CJ is just that he seems like a good guy. I don't think him and Dame are the best complement to each other because both guys are scoring guards (Dame is a much better and more willing passer) and both guys aren't great defenders (Dame is average and CJ is shitty). I think CJ would be a great complement on a team that had great defense around him and whose number one scorer was an inside presence, so CJ could be their number two scorer and really let loose on the perimeter offensively.

 

Do we credit the coach? I don't know anymore?

 

I'll let others make that determination as long as they use the same criteria to coaches across the league.

I don't know how anyone could look back at our playoff roster last year and think that's a WCF team though, truly amazing run!

 

Uh oh...... Giannis just unfollowed the Bucks official Instagram account and all his teammates...... only 1 thing you can take from this.......

 

For those of you not into the whole “social media” thing, at these kid’s age, that’s kind of a big deal.

 

What kind of a jerk can be a fan of a team that owes its trophies to stealing players from other franchises?

Oh, sorry (not sorry) @THE HCP.

 

Not sure if this got posted anywhere. Kinda cool.

 

Replace it with a different Cali team and yeah......I agree.

 

I guess what we have learned is that having ML on the roster means conference finals. Who knew...

 

Players on those team want to keep him off the court so the play harder????

 

I apologize for this long post making points I've made before but I'm held hostage right now by smoke so nothing else to do...

I disagree with what you said, at least in terms of context. Now, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "bucket getter" so maybe there's definition in that term I'm missing that would make it accurate

but in terms of scoring and shooting, CJ is quite a ways from being "top notch" if top notch = elite

IMO, TS% is a pretty good gauge of scoring and shooting. CJ's career mark is .550, and last season, his mark was .541. And here are the league averages over the last few seasons:



https://aminoapps.com/c/nba/page/it...verage-ts/wKgr_EQQspIBPl0l71boaZNMVpbqLvabKb0

no elite or top-notch scorer and shooter should be averaging worse than the NBA average in TS%, but CJ is. Now, an obvious explanation for that is that CJ is absolutely terrible at getting to the FT line. His career FTRate is an anemic .167 and over the last 4 seasons, his regression in his FTRate has been

.204 --> .166 --> .154 --> .136

that's going the opposite direction of what it needs to be considering his FGA/game has increased by 18.0 --> 19.4 over the same span

Even if you use the flawed metric of eFG%, which disregards FT's and only gauges 2pt and 3pt FG's CJ is still average. His career eFG% is .522 and over the last 4 seasons, the NBA average has been .514 --> .521 --> .524 --> .529
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now, the go-to defense of CJ in this, the often used mitigation is that CJ creates most of his own offense himself. OK, that has some valid logic behind that argument, at least it does generally

to test it then, I'd think we need to look at specific play type stats that appear to rely on 'create-your-own-offense' factors

* isolation: 13.3% of CJ's possessions. He averages .88 ppp and that only ranks in the 56th percentile (44% of the league is better). For comparison, 18% of Dame's possessions are isolation; he scores 1.07 ppp and that ranks in the 87th percentile

* PnR ball handler: 36.3% of CJ's possessions are. He averages 0.93 ppp and that ranks in the 71st percentile. 52% of Dame's possessions are PnR and he ranks midway in the 95th percentile. That's 'top-notch'

without doing the math of weighting those two categories, those are the two that appear most ball-handle heavy, and it looks like CJ isn't even in the top third in the league for 50% of his possessions

some other categories:

* hand-off: 6% of CJ's possessions ranking in the 65th percentile
* transition: 14.5% of CJ's possessions ranking in the 45th percentile (one reason Portland sucks at fast break)

that accounts for 70% of CJ's possessions, and there's no way to look at those 4 categories and conclude CJ is Elite or top-notch at creating his own offense. Above average? OK...but not nearly good enough to justify his dribbles, shot-clock dominance, or usage

* off screen: 8.3% of CJ's possessions and he ranks in the 75th percentile
* spot-up: 14% of CJ's possessions and he ranks in the 83rd percentile, his best showing (but Trent, Hood, Ariza, Dame, and Melo were all better)

* catch and shoot: CJ posted a 67.4% eFG on catch and shoot possessions. Of perimeter players that averaged more than 20 minutes a game, only Rodney Hood, George Hill, Seth Curry, Trae Young, JJ Redick, Duncan Robinson, and Terry Rozier were better. In other words, among perimeter players, CJ ranked 9th in catch and shoot efficiency
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the takeaway is obvious and has been for years now: CJ is not nearly as good at creating his own offense as people believe. There's simply no way to justify that assertion. Yes, he's a very clever ball-handler and that can distract from his average results and efficiency. But his 'oh-my-that-was-dope-crossovers-and-shake-n-bake-dribble-fests' just don't yield elite results, at all

he is however much much better when his team is creating his shots rather than him creating them. His catch and shoot is elite, and he's very good at spot-up. But those possessions don't involve dribbling, and they don't involve him playing like Dame or Harden or Lebron with the ball in his hands. They involve him playing like Klay Thomson on offense which has long been how CJ should play. His assisted FG rate should be in the 65-75% range instead of the 35% range. That would be playing him to his strengths, but the Blazers have played him to his flaws and his weaknesses. He's been poorly coached IMO
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Olshey has created this conundrum. He's essentially given CJ too much usage, too much dribbling opportunity, and too much salary cap by clearing the roster of players that would fill roles better, which in turn, locks Stotts into using him in a role he's unsuited for. IMO, CJ could never be a good #2 on a contending team as a primary ball-handler. He's much more suited to a Klay or Ray Allen role, than a Curry or DWade role

yikes....I have to give up caffenaited coffee

 

POST REPORTED

 

Ouch Dame lol

 

Are the Lakers playing tonight..... oh my bad.... up 13-2 two minutes in.

 

In case anybody was wondering......

 

Houston will win because of this post huh?

 

Westbrook is playing like he has money on the Lakers.

 

We should try and sign Jeff Green for off the bench next year