Yeah, while I'm thankful that Stotts is coaching instead of McMillan, the one thing that really made me cringe was when he talked about using LMA like he used Dirk. You just can't do that - other than being very tall and having a proclivity for taking jump shots they have nothing in common. Dirk is one of the best shooting bigs to ever play the game - despite the fact that everyone SAYS that LMA is a terrific shooting big, he just isn't...he's certainly nowhere near the ability of Dirk. LMA's career best percentage from his "sweet" spot is 43% - Dirk's career WORST from that range is 46% (topping out at 52%)! And something that probably helps Dirk's jumper is his ability to put the ball on the floor if you try to play up on him. That and his ability to hit a cutter with an on-target pass. I think Olshey needs to trade LMA just so that Stotts doesn't continue trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole.
As much as I disagree with you about lma I completely agree that using him like he is being used is a bad idea and if we dont change how we use him then trading him is something that needs to be strongly considered Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
I would be interested to see how efficient the Blazers are at rebounding the long LMA shots as well as getting back on defense. Anyone have a good site for.that info?
Food for thought: LMA shot the ball from greater than 15 ft 12 times last night. One of those was an end of quarter heave and should be thrown out IMO. The three times he hit, the shot clock was at 12, 13, and 17. The eight he missed were far later at 16, 20, 22, 21, 15, 24, 17, and 23. Two of the eight misses we were able to get the offensive board. Of the six misses, all allowed the defense time to set and no quick baskets for the Pistons.
vs Minn 2 shots made vs 5 shots missed from greater than 15 ft No offensive boards Three times the defense got set, two resulted in scoring opportunities within 9 sec for T Wolves vs Pho 2 for 11 from greater than 15 ft three of which resulted in offensive rebounds Shot clock was at 8, 11, 11, 15, 15, 16, 18, 18, 19, 23 and 24 Defense was able twice to get set, once because of a foul. Phoenix ran down at 6, 8, and 8 seconds to shoot a three and hit. They ran once more, shooting at 7 seconds and missing. vs Chicago 3 of 8 from greater than 15 ft Shot clock at 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 23, and 24 one offensive rebound vs four defensive with no fast breaks
Thought there might be some method to Stotts madness of having LMA shoot 10 times a game from distance by accepting a lower FG percentage for an increased offensive rebounding rate or less fast breaks. However, the numbers above fall in line with most of the studies I could find. http://courtvisionanalytics.com/where-do-rebounds-go/ The mid range jump shot is the least efficient scoring method, is less likely to result in an offensive rebound, and we are shooting them with LMA at a close to average percentage.
Wow. Thanks. Nowadays we have more advanced statistics, but your analysis is a glimpse of how much improvement is yet to come. Imagine if player PER included that stuff. Imagine if PER were tracked for each head coach, quantifying his system.
Hey, Blue. It's nice to see you made it to S2. I agree with you about LA. He prefers to be a jump shooting PF with the most inefficient shot out there. Heck, I would take his attempts and transfer them to Damian, Batum, and Matthews in that order. Their Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%) and True Shooting Percentage (TS%) are higher than LA. Refer to the following link for the stats: http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2013.html The team should look at decreasing LA's shot attempts per game and ask him to increase his hustle/intensity on the defensive end. If they aren't going to trade him, then they should at least use one of the tallest players with an incredible long wing span to play defense and grab boards.
Agreed. He's proven to be incapable of leading the team to wins by scoring. I would love to see him used as an ancillary player who focuses on defense, rebounding, setting picks, etc. My concern is that he doesn't possess the skills necessary to play the position. Sure - rebounding is largely about desire, but it's also about positioning and timing...neither of which he's displayed. It should be easy to teach him - or anyone - how to set a proper pick, but I just haven't seen him do it...it could stem from his fear of contact. And "hustle" has just never been part of his game. The only thing he has going for him is his length. But he's not coordinated or agile enough to be an "all over the court" player causing havoc for the opposing team. If you watch Hickson cover the P&R on defense, and then watch LMA try it it's like night and day - Hickson jumps the screen to prevent the PG from quickly diving towards the hoop, but then immediately falls back to cover his man who has rolled to the hoop. He's quick, coordinated, knows where to go and when to go there. LMA...if he doesn't just switch and try to guard a PG at the 3-point line, will just barely peek out on the side of the screen and then quickly loses his man and doesn't show any hustle to cover ground. I don't understand why everyone says he's one of the quickest/smoothest bigs in the league - he's kinda slow and very uncoordinated. He looks kinda smooth as he jogs down court...but he also kinda runs like a girl. Maybe he has speed over distance, but he doesn't have acceleration.
He's better at defending the P&R, yes. And probably overall - though I need to watch Hickson more, and watch him play defense from the PF position, before I come to that conclusion. I don't have a problem with LMA guarding HIS MAN in the post - he does an adequate job there. But he is one of the worst team-defenders I've ever seen - absolutely clueless there.
Who cares what he promised. He should see what he can get for LA. LaMarcus 43% outside shooting and marshmellow defense are not helping this team at all.
A no-trade promise by an NBA GM to a player isn't worth the stained bar napkin it's illegibly scribbled on.
