Creationism: Which Kings Need Help Getting Shots Off?

I disagree with Coach Westphal in that I believe Casspi would be the right wing choice to play alongside Evans. However, if Casspi and Greene both go down, I don’t know who’d be left. Wing players are awesome.

Also, do you think Top Hat drinks tea? Party goer, that he is, I bet he does—quite liberally.

True, it is a wonderful article. But, it’s existence shows Ziller’s creation of it was designed from the the beginning. He was gifted with certain abilities that provide us with what was just read.

Just kidding folks. I’d feel better with a dedicated Statistics Analyst on the team too, even if he/she were part-time.

hahaha I believe you mean “and it was good”.

I personally would actually prefer it if Landry played with more guys who made their shots

that I think is more pertinent to the above table:

Carl has the ability to catch the ball in the post, pivot, face up a defender and make a scoring move. He also has the ability to catch in the post, back in a defender, turn and score. These are two of his primary moves, and in both cases assists are not rewarded. JT and Sammy D do not possess as polished of high/low post game. So the above table comes as no surprise.

JT probably gets more put backs than Carl, and he would get even more if he had a soft touch. but he rushes his moves under the basket, lacks a pump fake, and just struggles in general to establish anything. This preseason for him is yet further proof.

Tyreke is nothing special. Considering nobody ever shoots 100% it’s going to happen.

And 6 each other quarter.

but I don’t believe that he needs to always beat his man on his own or penetrate all the way to the basket every time. To create mismatches and open shots for others, he needs to draw the defense out to him. And not always give them the opportunity to slide back deep into the paint and wait for him.

Use the pick & roll to get the defenders to switch so the big has a smaller defender on him. Use the short jumper to pull defenders out to you after you beat your man, leaving someone else undefended.

As TZ pointed out, the ability to create more than one shot (drive to the rim) makes the player more valuable.

Looking at the numbers from last years says more to me about the style of offense we played that about the players.

Your logic is backwards. All a player can do is move the ball to the open man. You seem to want to assign blame to the passer for making the right play. Here’s an example to clarify my point:

If a shooter is spotted up in the corner waiting to receive a pass when in fact he could jab fake his defender and dive to the hoop when he sees space, he needs to do it. If he is standing in the corner twiddling his thumbs, only a threat to catch and shoot, he is less of a weapon to the passer or creator with the ball than a player who continuously works to get open.

This comes to down a question of skill sets. A guy like Omri has more ways to beat you offensively than Donte. A guy like Landry has more ways to beat you than JT. The fact that these players can keep defenses off balance with a myriad of ways to score opens up passing lanes more so than a one dimensional player. This is how high percentage passing opportunities are created, when the man off the ball (Carl or Omri or DMC) can be as much of a threat to score as the man with the ball (Beno or Tyreke).

When 9K1NGS6 brought up Tyreke’s assumed high (un-realized ?) assists totals he was directing it at the teams lack of efficient scorers and not placement of Reke’s passes although I agree it is factor.

Yes the math breaks down pretty simply. A three point shot is going to be hit (40%) compared to shot around layup range (60%), thus more assists if those passes are directed at layup attempts.

Yet his original comment is insinuating the Kings did not have efficient scorers meaning guys who shoot less than 40% from the three point line or cannot convert short range attempts at a 60% rate. I think the person who brought Nash into the argument brought up a good distinction (although he used Nash to discredit Reke’s assist ability), Reke doesn’t have Amare Stoudemire finishing his passes inside and the Kings certainly don’t have a roster full of outside shooters the Suns put around Nash. Reke isn’t going to be Nash in the assist column but agree Reke’s un-realized assists will be converted to real assists with better/improved teammates which seemed to be more a problem than pass selection this past season.

Or maybe this conversation is deeper than my understanding and should have stuck with original instinct of staying out of it.