Here's a link to an 82games.com article defending Marc Cuban and the Mavs on the switching pick and roll defense comment the bozos at TNT made. A little stat research provides more meaning to comments.. http://www.82games.com/pelton10.htm
Great find. It was an interesting read. I would like to see more data being used to track these type of stats and draw a conclusion, but he was right about the way the Pistons defend the pick n roll. I paid particular attention to it tonight against the Clippers, since Cassell and Brand rely heavily on the play. The Pistons not only switch, they sometimes double switch on the play and rotate flawlessly on defense. Tayshaun Prince who wasn't even involved in the play, ended up rotating onto Cassell quite a few times and the rest of the defense rotated to the open man. It was effective, because Cassell was forced to take a tough shot over the arms of Prince and he usually missed. The Pistons also used a lot of trapping if the other Clipper players don't cut to the basket. They just swarmed Elton Brand and forced him to give up the open look, and eventually pass out of the double team.
Here's another +/- stat from that site. Diop has been the 2nd most important player for the mavs so far when he steps on and off the court, which seems to be no surprise the way he's been helping the Mavs win recent games. Diop and Griffin have been excellent additions to this year's team. Player On +/- Off +/- Net +/- Nowitzki +8.8 -8.0 +16.8 Diop +12.2 +0.9 +11.3 Daniels +7.3 -0.5 +7.8 Griffin +8.4 +4.3 +4.1 Armstrong +7.6 +4.6 +3.0 Howard +5.6 +4.7 +1.0 Harris +4.9 +5.3 -0.4 Terry +4.4 +6.1 -1.7 Van Horn +0.5 +9.1 -8.6 Christie -3.4 +7.1 -10.4 Mbenga -5.4 +5.2 -10.5 Dampier -0.3 +10.5 -10.8 Powell -8.6 +5.8 -14.4 Marshall -53.1 +5.7 -58.7 http://www.82games.com/0506/0506DAL.HTM
Just out of curiosity, how much stock does every put into +/- ratings? I personally find them interesting when your looking at matchup battles which are close (Diop v Dampier, Terry v Harris). It's quite interesting looking at them, I'm the most surprised by Josh Howard (I figured he'd be second) and Erick Dampier (-10, thats terrible)
i think they are important but not nearly as important as sports like hockey, there are too many factors like if you're playing garbage minutes u're going to be playing lesser opponnents and if you're a star you might be left in the game with not many good players for support, while other starters get to rest. btw, great find on the article
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Maverick:</div><div class="quote_post">Just out of curiosity, how much stock does every put into +/- ratings? I personally find them interesting when your looking at matchup battles which are close (Diop v Dampier, Terry v Harris). It's quite interesting looking at them, I'm the most surprised by Josh Howard (I figured he'd be second) and Erick Dampier (-10, thats terrible)</div> For the +/- to be really useful as a guage for a how valuable a player is to the club, there needs to be plenty of minutes of him on the court as well as off the court. And the competition level for both needs to be roughly the same. There are some who adjust +/- for competition level to get a better understanding of a player's value. The statistical methods for doing so are way over my head.
