To this point Dame hasn't been anywhere close to the play-maker that Wall has been. You (Nate) say that their stats from last season were pretty much the same, but I don't think that 6 APG is anywhere near the same as 10 APG. Wall was only .2 APG behind league-leading CP3 last season - Dame was #16. That's a pretty big difference. Hopefully Dame can close the gap this season now that he doesn't have a pass to a mediocre shooter for half the game.
Jeff Teague will be trade bait soon. Dennis Schröder is coming for his job. Maybe then people will learn that it's not pronounced "Shrooder".
Not really - he scored 4 fewer points on 2 fewer shot attempts, while shooting a slightly better percentage, and generating 8+ more points via passing.
He's a career 8.7 assist per game player, and he's currently at 8.3 assists per game. How do you know that one year wasn't an aberration? He's also a career 43% FG shooter, and a 30% three point shooter. Dame is quite a bit better offensively. One good year out of five does not make him a significantly better play-maker.
Lillard has exceeded expectations. Wall hasn't lived up to his yet, but he's made huge progress the past several seasons. It's not hard to see why Wall is rated so highly. The Wizards used to be garbage, now they're a very tough team. Wall is a huge part of that change.
Lillard has exceeded expectations in the same way that Steph Curry has exceeded expectations. They were small school players who were relatively unknown, Lillard even more so than Curry. Wall was a high school phenom. He went to Kentucky. He came into the league at the age of 20. He was the #1 overall pick. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to be rated highly, but right now I think Lillard is the better player.
Who would have thunk this: (besides us) 19. Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls 20. Deron Williams, Dallas Mavericks 21. Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs 22. Rajon Rondo, Sacramento Kings
Rose is the next Brandon Roy. It's sad. Williams' tanked as soon as he ran Jerry Sloan out of town. Serves him right. Parker got old. So much of his game was predicated on speed. That speed is gone. Rondo..... isn't playing with three HOF caliber players.
Hey @Natebishop3 being top 5 is a great accomplishment in a field of extremely talented PGs. I would say the PG position is the deepest it has been in a long while.
Yes, but our team DRtg is 99.9; Dame is still a bit below average in the system, and maybe benefitting from better team defense overall.
Well, I don't think the difference between 3-6 is all that great. You can adjust and swap them around and no one would really complain, IMO. Being in the top 5 is an achievement and I don't think arguing that he should be 4 instead of 5 is such a big deal.
Doesn't everybody benefit from better team defense? I think LA demonstrated pretty well yesterday that he's horrible at team defense. He doesn't know how to switch on a screen. I think he's going to drive Pop nuts.
The difference between 3 and 6 is actually pretty massive. Curry/Westbrook/Paul are on a tier above the rest. Guys like Wall and Dame still haven't quite reached that level. With that said, I honestly wouldn't take Westbrook over Dame. I can't stand the guy. I think he's a horrible teammate. He shot the Thunder out of the game yesterday against Toronto. Regardless, the guy is just an insane talent.
Yeah, comparing two players based on a number like O/DRtg or PER seems viable but basketball is such a fluid team sport, where every player has to do a bunch of things, that I think individual stats really don't compare well like they do in other sports with more regimented positions. Stotts has a system, and all we see is how well people do in the context of the team. Dame is a slightly below-average defender on a slightly above-average defensive team. Maybe that means he's average, but on a bad defensive team he might be horrendous.
Westbrook is #1, and I don't think Curry or CP3 are that close to him honestly. Curry #2 Wall, CP3, Lillard are all interchangeable IMO. If CP3 still had knees he'd be #2, imo.
