He doesn't have the game for triple doubles, guys like Lonzo/Russ are what I call chasers, they chase stats.
I feel like we're living through the equivalent of Baseball's steroid era. The pace of the league this year is just so much faster than previous years that it's possible to pad your stats. It's kind of like NBA assists vs. Euro assists.
In the long-term history of the NBA, the low pace era was the abberation... I'm personally happy to be back in the 110-120 point range again.
I don't really get the importance of rebounding in point guards. Unless it's Simmons, they are usually the shortest players on the court and are supposed to be guarding the players who can take long shots, for most of the time. Plenty of time they get into positions to get rebounds because they are neglecting their defensive duties, in order to get the mythical triple double. It helps a lot on the fastbreak but I just don't see the value for most of the time. It's different when it's Simmons who has incredible speed, great vision and passing ability and is very tall so can win rebounds against pretty much everyone, or someone like Giannis. They can both win rebounds against tall players AND start a fastbreak.
When guards rebound it allows bigs to rim run. Which can force mismatches on that end, because the offensive bigs are near the hoop attempting to get an offensive rebound. Jason Kidd was amazing at finding mismatches because of his defensive rebounding.
We are getting pretty close to that 20 game mark that a lot of people use as a measuring stick of who teams really are. So looking at the standings which teams are who they are and who isn't?
Oh my god!!!!! Oh my god!!!!!! The Celtics BARELY beat the Mavs!!!!!! They are “trash. They won’t make the playoffs! Kyrie’s Just riding the coattails of the rookies....He’s trash! Lucky if they win 30 games!!!! Mavs would have beat Golden State because they suck too!
Detroit has surprised me. I wish it was a comparison to the bad boy pistons, but our Trailblazers are about as talented as this 2017 team. As far as who isn't, I'd say the previous two creators of the "Around the NBA ... " threads.
So yeah, basically it helps in transition but is not absolutely essential, and doesn't require your guards to get 10+ rebounds very often. With Westbrook in particular, a lot of his rebounds last season were the result of him hanging around the basket waiting for missed shots, while the players he were supposed to be guarding would take free shots at the basket. I don't appreciate stuff like this to be honest.
Ball is shooting 31% from the field. His PER is 10.2. If he manages to shoot 42% from the field and continues his rebounds and assists, I'd join his bandwagon. Until then, not so much. That being said, the Lakers do appear to be a better team this year, and Ball may have a hand in that.
