Is that adjusted for Pace-of-Play? Since the Blazers don't run at all, the pace is very slow so other teams get less possessions leading to less points.
That is exactly what it is. Points per 100 possessions. The concerning stat is assist percentage being worst in the league.
If I added it up right, our opponent's average offensive efficiency (as of today, not when we played the) is 15.9, or slightly below average. However, if you account for playing Phoenix and Sacto twice each, that drops to 17.3. I'm not sure that says a whole lot about strength of schedule in terms of ranking #2 defensively... More telling is probably that we got spanked by #3 Toronto and faced [surprisingly] highly ranked #5 Indiana and #6 Denver, which IMO deflates such an average. Take those three out and the average drops to 21.5, which is nearly impossible to sustain as the schedule evens out for everyone. TLDR: We haven't really played any good offenses.
I'm not as concerned; it comes with a shift in our offensive focus from three-point bombers to slashers and rollers. There's ten shots a game going to Jusuf Nurkic where he's in the post; those are unassisted. There's a lot more pick and roll action that ends with the roller driving rather than popping and shooting. Those assists are often subjective in nature. If we were 5-11 with that stat, I'd be really concerned.
NBA keep track of passes per game and what could be a potential assist. We're 20th in passes per game, and still 30th in adjusted assists per game (takes into account free throw assists and secondary assists) . https://stats.nba.com/teams/passing/?sort=AST_ADJ&dir=1
NBA stats is really awesome, if you guys haven't noticed. https://stats.nba.com/teams/touches/?sort=AVG_SEC_PER_TOUCH&dir=1 here's a telling stat that reflects our clunky offense: Average seconds per touch. Each touch of the ball lasts nearly 3.5 seconds before passing or shooting. Worst in the league. GS and Philly are nearly a full second lower. And another stat is dribbles per touch, second worst in the league. GS and Philly again, leading the league in fewest. They're getting the ball and moving it/shooting. No time wasted pounding the ball into the floor. I think if we fix this, we fix our pace, we get more possessions, we score easier and more efficiently.
The defensive progress this team has shown this season even without their best defender playing in a long time is impressive....it's something folks have complained about for years and now we're seeing it start to click...the price is fresh legs on offense...more shots fall short it seems.
How is this even possible to track this humanly? And on top of that, how is a computer or camera doing it? It's insane to me.
And this isn't all on Dame and CJ. They play a part, but cramped spacing and too many timid/unskilled role players also have a huge affect on this.
See what happens when you are good on defense but less than average on offense.... Still gotta score the rock to win.
