So Bayless is what he is, a slashing, scoring point point guard that will play well off a SG like Roy. Will he get better at dishing the ball? Sure. With that said and understanding that both Bayless and Roy would play a role in getting the offense initiated, how many assists would Bayless have to average for people to stop worrying about him not being a "true" PG??? If Roy is going to get his 6 or so a game then would Bayless only need 4-5 like Blake or would he need more to make people happy? Or do you not even care about about his assists as long as he is driving and getting to the hoop? For example he had 3 assists last night. Is that enough from our starting PG? Probably not (although it was tonight). But if his court vision still needs some work and he can get 3 assists then getting up to 4-5 a night shouldnt be too hard. Then the only thing Blake would have on him besides experience (which is big dont get me wrong) would be that killer 3 Blake can deliver. Bayless is supposed to have a great outside shot that we havent seen so far. If he can get that going how far is that gap between him and Blake?
IMO, sometimes assists (or lack thereof) can be deceptive. As an example, what if Bayless "initiated" the offense by driving, drew defenders, then dished to Roy who immediately dished to Rudy for a wide-open trey? Roy gets the "Assist", right? But, then again, should he? Catch my drift? In fact, kind of reminds me of hockey, whereas more than one player can potentially get an assist on any giving scoring play. So then, given the fact that Bayless is seemingly fearless in taking it to the cup is good enough for me. Good things will happen from that. IMO, this team really needs that "instigation" factor.
I agree. You were a step ahead of me. People get so wrapped up in numbers sometimes. If youve noticed (and I know you have ABM) when the Blazers move and rotate the ball crisp and with speed they are almost ALMOST unstoppable. And what starts that?? Penetration. And who excels at that (besides Roy)? Bayless.
Bayless will never be a "true" point guard in the mold of Steve Nash, but he certainly could be a Chauncey Billups type of point. My guess is that at the height of his game he'll average 4-5 assists per contest as long as he's running with Roy.
I think a good measure (and I'm not sure if this assist "exists") would be to see that a high percentage of field goal attempts came from what would be "assists." (It's easy to know how many field goals came from assists, but I think it's also good to know how many passes led to good chances, but those shots didn't go in, or resulted in free throws.) In short, I wouldn't mind if the Blazers' starting PG only got a couple of assists a night, so long as the team as a whole was getting 20+. Most of the time, though, that means the guards have to combine for at least ten of them.
Great points by ABM. It would be interesting if the NBA kept some informal assist numbers that mimiced hockey assists. Not only does the pass that leads to the basket count, but also the pass before. To me Bayless is already a PG, but I think he makes the jump for most people when he not only drives and scores, but when he is able to create for other players on his drives. He has done it a couple of times already. I think it was GS where he had a good game recently and took the ball into the key and found Aldridge for a dunk. Those things are key for him. Per 48 minutes Jerryd averages 2 assists less per game than Blake. Jerryd has played less than 10 menaingful games in the NBA.
I think it depends on how many minutes the PG gets. I'd say about 4apg is fine... the ball is in Roys hands A LOT.
It isn't necessarily how many assists, but how he runs the team. With Bayless as PG we're not going to be a run first team, but more of a plodding type team- which is fine as a team wins titles with defense and a superior half court offense. So he has to master the half court game. Effeciently run pick & rolls from various angles, setting up players and getting them the ball where they shoot best at, driving and making good decisions as to either shooting at the basket or dishing, protecting the ball well by keeping turnovers to a minimum... All that takes time. For him, probably 3 years. If he can master that stuff, terrific. If he can't, we'll be a good team but not a great team.
sweet! billups carrer numbers: 15 ppg, 5.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds .416 fg % year pistons won the championship, and chauncy got finals mvp: 16.9/5.7 assists/3.5 boards/ .394 fg% so next year or so? cant wait!
Another example was on the Bayless dunk last night. NJ brought two guys up to double the ball out of Roy's hands, Roy passed to LMA on the deep wing, and LMA immediately passed that ball to Bayless in the corner, who drove and threw it down. Roy didn't get credit for anything on the play, but the double thrown at him and his decision to pass initiated the entire sequence. I was almost as excited about the ball movement on that play as I was about the dunk. It was efficient offense, and it showed how both Roy and LMA are growing as players. Roy could have forced the issue and split the double (it was late in the 4th), LMA could have shot an open 21' jumper, yet he rotated the ball to the proper position, and to a player who finally was able to give a glimpse of what he will bring to the offense. I feel as good about the win last night as I have all year about any win.
I've been waiting to bust out this "stat", but now sounds like the time. When we have "crisp passing", we play better. When we Iso, dribble out the clock, etc, we don't. It's not necessarily that we don't pass or get assists, but the frequency with which we do so. http://www.82games.com/dribbles.htm Scroll down to the "touches per second". When we're swing the ball around the perimeter to the open guy, we (and others) are generally unstoppable. When we have the ball in someone's hands for long periods of time, it's not that great or "efficient". I think a lot of this is masked by good 3pt shooting, which is why the strongest correlation in all of our losses is a 3pt% that is 8% lower than in our wins.
Assists won't matter to me from Bayless. What I'd like to see out of him is a player who can draw/collapse the defense and then pass it to an open scoring option. That may lead to an assist, or it just may lead to another pass. The point is, he'll have put the defense into scramble mode for the rest of the possession, raising the likelihood of Portland scoring.
seriously our only real problem that i see on offense is that we dont get a whole lot of points in the paint.... bayless and roy together can fix that and once oden is on a consistant basis its like yeah game over...
If our two guards can combine for 10-11 assists per night, I'll be happy. Whether that's Roy getting 5 and Bayless getting 6 or vice versa.
