Believe it or not, Felton was +6 (best on the team) in 30 minutes. In comparison, Wesley was -11 in the same time. So, who you gonna believe? The +/- or your lying eyes?
Totally, Mike and Mike were saying the same last night. And Mark Jackson is the man. That said, last night was a good indication of where the Blazers are at and where they need to go.
It's about as useful as any stat. Single game scoring isn't useful either - a bucket could be mistakenly credited to you or credited to you because it was accidentally tipped in by a player on the other team and you were nearest. However, it is a 100% accurate indicator of how much the scores varied when you were on the court. Now, if you have exactly the same +/- as every other starter, then you could be the weak link. But if you have a better +/- than ANYONE ELSE, then it's a bit of a mystery how you could be the weak link. So: the most you could say about Felton is that he stopped the Blazers from outscoring the Warriors by more than six while he was on the court. What you can't say is that the Blazers collapsed every time he took the court.
+/- is too dependent on team play to be useful in a single game. Scoring, on the other hand (to take Rasta's alternate stat) is much more indicative of how a single player played. Not be-all, end-all, of course, but much more meaningful. Ed O.
"More meaningful"? "Ah yes, from the fact that Kobe scored 35 tonight, I understand that the meaning of life is to be good to our friends and get closer to God." And scoring has nothing to do with team play? Funny, I thought that players have to have, y'know, plays run for them, which involves OTHER PLAYERS setting picks and giving them the ball, 'n shit. But no, the rest of the team is basically irrelevant, yeah. So Andrew Bynum's and Kobe Bryant's scoring spikes, combined with Pau Gasol's fall in scoring has nothing to do with a new coach and new plays. It just means Gasol's suddenly got crap.
Shooting % is a much better single game stat then an individual players +/-. There are 10 players on the court at all times equally affecting the +/-, looking at any one players contribution is 10% their own doing and 90% statistical noise from teammates and opponents. But an individuals effectiveness at making their own shot attempts is much more then 10% attributable to their own play.
Okay even tonight, we blew Phoenix out and Felton still sucked. At least crawford has some good games. Man I gotta say it's really hard to watch Felton these days. I don't ever remember him being this bad ever!
Based on the season so far, I'd rather re-sign Crawford and play him at PG than Felton. Felton has been atrocious in his decision making, he's just not running the team very well at all, and shooting below 20% from 3 and under 35% from the field is down right pathetic for a starting PG. What will we do next year?
If I were Nate, I'd really start thinking about starting Crawford at PG and bringing Felton off the bench to play backup minutes. Felton has been that horrible. If Felton still can't improve, let him rot on the bench the rest of the year and give minutes to Elliot Williams and Nolan Smith.
I'm not Nate, but I'd do that. Start Crawford at PG, and forbid him from shooting the ball unless there is less than 5 seconds on the shot clock, or he is wide open, or out front on a fast break. I'd consider starting Nico at SG while we're at it. I generally enjoy it when Nico and Crash are in the game at the same time.
