I'll look for the link but last night during their game vs the Bucksdown the stretch Ty Lawson was begging Coach Karl to put Koufos back in and take McGee out! Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5...FAMS!
Did you miss this quote from the article I referenced: "When Koufos is on the floor for Denver, the Nuggets have the most prolific offense in the league — ahead of even the Oklahoma City Thunder — scoring 113.0 points per 100-possessions. Nearly as impressive, the Nuggets also hold the league’s ninth-best defense with him on the floor, allowing only 103.7 points per 100-possessions. #1 offense. #9 defense. With Koufos off the floor, Denver sports the league’s eighth-ranked offense (scoring 108.2 points per 100-possessions) and 20th-ranked defense (allowing 106.7 points per 100-possessions). #8 offense. #20 defense. With Kosta Koufos on the floor: #1 offense. #9 defense. With Kosta Koufos off the floor: #8 offense. #20 defense. Kosta Koufos improves Denver by 7.7 points per 100-possessions. Some of that definitely has to do with the quality of his backup at center. JaVale McGee is just that bad, essentially rendering everything Koufos does in his time on the court before him moot. Still, there aren’t many players in the league who have that kind of impact on their team’s performance. All that for just $9 million over three years. JaVale McGee is a terrible basketball player that makes his team worse at both ends of the floor. When McGee apologists mention his phenomenal production as justification for increased playing time, they only hurt their own reputation." Those are all individual stats. Basketball is a team sport. You need to look at the impact the two players have on their team's performance. Like McGee, J.J. Hickson has great individual stats, but you, and several others want him gone because he doesn't help his team as much as those great individual stats would seem to indicate. McGee is the same type of player, only worse - great individual stats, but hurts his team at both ends when he's on the floor. The difference is Hickson is an undersized player, playing out of position that makes $4 million. McGee is an athletic freak with ZERO basketball IQ who will make $34 million over the next three seasons. That's a LOT of money for a guy who plays 18 mpg and hurts his team at both ends of the court. Not sure why anyone thinks he's an upgrade over Hickson. If you look at the team stats, Koufos makes them better at BOTH ends of the court. Or, perhaps more accurately, McGee makes them worse at both ends. Even without the gross disparity in salaries, I know which guy I'd want. The same one George Karl chose. BNM
Unfortunately, McGee is inept at defense. And, he's due to make $34 million over the next 3 seasons. I REALLY don't want that kind of money tied up in a guy who hurts his team at both ends of the court. Denver made a HUGE mistake giving him that contract and immediately began suffering severe buyer's remorse. At least the guy who beat him out only makes $3 million a year. That probably makes it more tolerable. Combined, their starting and back-up centers make about $14 - $15 million per year. They are just paying the back-up WAY too much, and that's why they'd LOVE to unload him on some other team. I just hope the Blazers aren't that other team. BNM
Compelling. However, you're using the stats to suggest that KK played with the same players as JM was. This is possible, but probably unlikely as JM was coming off of the bench. For example, if KK was coming off of the bench for us and playing with our crappy bench, then it is very likely that Hickson would seem superior. I'm not saying you're wrong, because I think you're right, but your point deserves a bit of muting.
Of course the other way to look at it is: McGee got to play against our crappy bench while Koufos had to play against our superior starters. Someone with McGgee's size and athleticism should totally dominate other teams second stringers, but he doesn't. In fact, just the opposite. And, for the record, Denver's bench is MUCH better than ours - especially before Gallinari went down. BNM
