By 1.4 ppg. Losing Aldridge made us better. Those of you who thought we only had one starter level player this year, it's time to eat crow.
How does the assists and rebound numbers and shooting% look like ? Also it would be interesting to compare the numbers ouf our full PF/C rotation from last year and this year.
LMA +/-: +6.4 Spurs +/-: 12.4 So, in the 29.4 mpg he's in the game, they're +6.4 (+7.73/36) In the 18.6 mpg he's not in the game, they're +6.0 (+11.6/36) The Spurs seem to do a lot better when LMA is not in the game. The Spurs in general are struggling against the elite teams, and I've noticed that LMA is particularly struggling against top competition:
I really want to play either the Spurs or the Thunder in the 1st round of the playoffs. No other teams please!
I was interested so I pulled some numbers. Had difficulty determining who to use as back-up C and PF... This year: Plumlee/Vonleh/Davis/Meyers PPG: 27.9 RPG: 24 APG: 5.9 FG%: 49.82% MPG: 85.2 Last year: Rolo/LMA/Kaman/Meyers PPG: 47.5 RPG: 27.9 APG: 4.1 FG%: 50.65% MPG: 97.5 Last year's rotation certainly scored more, due entirely to the difference between LMA and Noah. But aside from scoring more, they weren't better in any of these categories. Also, I suspect the numbers would skew better if I were to use Aminu or Harkless
Put together (I think) a fascinating little snapshot of our past 28 games, going back to when Dame first went out with his plantar fascia injury. Basically, while Dame was out, CJ thrived. He had his first taste of running the team solo, and made the most of it. His FGA went up, his assists went up, and his overall efficiency and production went way up too. Then, Dame came back, and CJ struggled for a couple weeks. He was basically taking as many shots as Dame, posting his lowest FG%'s of the season, and basically just looking uncomfortable out there. This culminated in the Philly game, arguably our worst performance of the year. Then, they figured it out, and they've been firing on all cylinders ever since. CJ's lower FGA and AST totals suggest that he's re-accepted a more off-the-ball role, and that may have helped fuel their improved cohesion.
Amazing how when given more time to play together...... the results improved. Not saying they won't go through more growing pains, but I certainly did not want to see the Blazers offering CJ up at the All Star break. As I said a few months ago, time is on our side. His trade value is not going to diminish (unless of course he gets hurt.) in the next year or two, so there is no reason to rush into any changes until we know for sure what we have with these two.
Really fun stuff. It would be cool (and time consuming) to add other significant events and see how things played out. For example, the Rise of Mo Harkless: Since getting put back into the rotation after being kicked out, we've won EVERY game. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/6591/maurice-harkless Which suggests another question. Can Mo Harkless become our Draymon Green?
They've often had these struggles in many seasons. I think it's Pops pacing the squad for 82games. How many of those 5 games did they play all their starters?
IDK, but it'll be interesting to see how LMA does come playoff time. It's not obvious he's even in shape right now.
It's funny, LMA might have been unhappy and sulky the last few years he was in PDX, but he never let it effect his game. He always had something to prove. Then he moves home and gets all fat and happy, and he starts becoming inconsistent..... well, at least till he turned off Twitter. Y'Know.
