Honest question Does SA win share look better because of Duncan? Like Parker and Ginobili were great players, but their win shares would be lower without Duncan.......right?
he was their fourth leading scorer and averaged 9/6 in the tournament And he didn't even start a single time in their 39 games while playing only 18 mpg. Not sure about your idea of "almost led to a National Championship."
Very good question. How Win-Share is calculated is addressed at this link. In short, yes. If a player is surrounded by other great players, they have more of an opportunity to split those wins. But on the flip side, if they aren't contributing significantly to the win, they get a very small slice. One reason I like this stat is because if gives some weight to teams/players that are winning, and discounts a bit those player that are amazing big individual stats, but their teams are always loosing. Also keep in mind that the metric I have show above does not distinguish between what team the player gained that Win-Share. A GM might draft a great player, only to quickly cut or trade that player away. Anthony Mason for example got most of his WS with NYK and CHH, although Portland/Buckwalter technically was the the GM that got credit for that spectacular late draft find.
All that said, I don't hate Zach. Neil whiffed on that draft big time, but if healthy Collins can be a very serviceable big. Not much you can do about his rock hands but he can be really good defensively once the refs stop giving him the absolute worst whistle. The problem I see is that he clearly fits better as a straight Center. He can't shoot well enough to space as a PF, nor can he keep up with the wing players defensively who are all playing a spot up. He needs to take over that backup 5 position full time next season and I'd think he'd be a lot more useful. aka, we better not bring back whiteside unless it's for a S&T.
the 2017 draft was one of Olshey's worst days as GM. It could have really altered Portland's trajectory Olshey is great at 2nd round picks, but he doesn't value them very highly. His 1st round performance hasn't been very good though (I'm crediting previous management for Dame). But that's par for the course for Olshey. He's a master at the bargain bin when there's little to no competition for available assets. When the stakes get higher, his rate of fuck-ups go way up. Doesn't matter if it's drafting or if it's trades or if it's offering & signing free agents using cap-space. When the competition is more intense and the stake are higher, he's a chump
For that year his offense rating was 125.3 his defense rating was 79.5 per 100. I think that pretty damn good.
In the semi in that tournament against south Carolina he had 14 points 13 rebounds and 6 blocks for Gonzaga to get to the finals. I believe that he help them to get to the finals.
Oden was the consensus #1 pick over Durant. I think Orlando GM or such was the only one who in informal inteviews ranked Durant higher because they had Dwight at the time.
That's the whole problem. It's way too soon BECAUSE HE'S A MASSIVE PROJECT. We didn't need a project. We needed a rotation player.
I know first hand, not via anyone, that Oden’s knees were a mess. It has also been documented since that KP knew the risks of Oden........and Roy, for that matter