Debunking the ridiculous myth that Tyreke Evans doesn’t pass

Tyrekes assist rate will go up signicantly playing with Marcus, Cisco and DMC. Point guard… shooting guard? Dont know, dont care. I would not be surprised to see Tyrekes assist avg over 8+ next season.

then we have sammy JT and cousins…we just need time to develop

One thing I noticed is that of the teams you listed there tends to be at least one other player with an assist rate above 20%. So while some of the stars you listed may be “ball hogs” they tend to have high assist rates and also tend to play with another player who has a pretty decent assist rate as well. This leads me to two conclusions. 1) DeMarcus could be that second passer. He’s got the passing skill to have a high assist rate. If he and Tyreke were used more effectively together they’d be flat out deadly. 2) We do need another PG, but not a true PG that needs to rack up 10+ assists a game and take the ball out of Reke’s hands. We have this already in Beno. He scores and makes plays for others. We could definitely use an upgrade over him, preferably a better defender.

That’s all. He has the ball handling and passing skills to play the position. He just doesn’t like to pass if he feels he can score. And he is repeatedly willing to settle for a low percentage shot than not shoot. I think that’s pretty apparent to anyone who has watched this season. And its glaringly apparent that the team has been playing much more unselfish brand of basketball in his absence.

There’s been more exciting fast breaks in the last two weeks than all season!!!

I like to use stats to confirm what my eyes tell me, not vice versa. And my eyes tell me that 3 to 4 times a game, sometimes in a half, Tyreke holds the ball unnecessarily, delays initiating play sets, does not reward a teammate for running a wing, does not swing the ball side-to-side, does not kick out to open man on stifled drive. There’s time to take over game and get selfish offensively. When you get on a roll and continuously beat your man. But when you are not hot, play unselfish ball and do not settle for anything but good to high percentage look. It is really pretty simple.

The name of the game is quality shots. And unselfish play leads to quality shots.

I think if you are going to compare Tyreke to other guards, you have to compare him statistically to other PGs. Because he is the Kings primary ball handler. It does not matter that he is not a prototypical PG or can play SG, our bigs still look to Tyreke first on the outlet pass. He runs the break and he initiates the offense in the half-court, most of the time. That’s the role of a PG.

As far as stats to show that he has ball hog tendencies that need to improve, Tyreke’s assist rate among PGs playing over 30 minutes is worst in the NBA. (Assist rate is a measure of assists made relative to shots taken + TO committed.) And his AR is not just so-so bad. It is really bad, a fact you excluded from your analysis.

(True his supporting cast is not the equivalent of the Bulls, but IMO Tyreke underutilized Omri, Cousins, and Carl Landry when he was here. He did not find these players often enough to rack assists.)

It does not make sense to me to compare Tyreke’s assist rate to SGs or Joe Johnson, Wade and Kobe types. These guys do not have the opportunity to initiate plays in the open court and half court like Tyreke does. In addition usage rate just a measure of shots taken per possession. It does not reflect how often a player has the ball in his hands. Tyreke has the ball in his hands with frequency of a PG, not a SG.

I don’t want to sound like I am bashing Tyreke, because I am not. I am just recognizing his room for growth. (Look at players in the middle of the pack on the above link. This should be Tyreke’s target AR zone: 30% to 40%) And I am not ready to give up on Tyreke as PG, either. I think he can succeed. He is talented enough to find his way.

I do hope before the season ends, Reke shows he can thrive with MT23 on the floor, and build chemistry with Cousins too, that in my opinion has been too slow to develop. That will be a step or two in the right direction.

The last 6 games have been awesome now that they are gelling. DMC avg 20/11 with 4 assists… Thornton 20 with 3.6 assists. Beno’s assist were up dramatically while Reke has sat out. It will be interesting to see what happens to their stats and Tyreke’s if he returns this year. Next year won’t matter to me if they are in OC.

Tyreke, Sessions & Baron Davis all average 5.5 assists per game. Sessions has an AR or 40%, Davis has a AR of 34% and Evans has an AR of 24%, so how can you make any type of evaluation based on AR.

They have 3 different games so how can you say one way or another what type of players should be in the backcourt with them. Davis’ USG is 27 and Session is 23. So, does that mean that since they both have a higher AR rate and almost the same USG as Tyreke both Davis and Sessions would be better at running our offense than Tyreke?

I’m not deminishing all your work which is quite impressive. But, I think Assist rate only tells you what percentage of assists you get compared to how many FGA’s, FTA’s and turnovers you have. I doesn’t necessary describe how well you run the offense. and, since it’s based on shot attempts and not Made baskets, neither USG or AR speak to how well you score while you’re running the offense.

And, lastly none of this speaks to how well you handle the ball, how well you can dribble out of a press or double team or how well you defend quicker PG’s who continually create problems for the Kings by their penetration.

I’m just not sure that using USG and AR as your primary arguement as to who should be your PBH and that a playermaker isn’t a valuable asset in the backcourt if your PBH is a SG, is valid . I do agree that Tyreke has been our PBH since he arrived, but his ball handling and passing skills need to improve if he is to become an elite playmaker in this league. If they don’t or until they do, we need someone who can. Because right now the inability to run Screen and Rolls or dribble out of the presser instead of giving up the ball to a big out high, will continue to stifle our offense.

Like myself, some people believe that what the team needs right now might not be what the team will need when Tyreke fully develops his game. Until then what’s best for the team, is to find someone who does well what we don’t right now.

I think the other main problem is when the ball is passed among teammates, shot selection for those teammates is not the best in the world, or they like to dribble out of the assist and therefore doesn’t end up and assist (Looking at you JT). I would love to see more above the rim passes, more kick outs to Omri in the corner for the long 2/3.

 I really honestly can’t wait for Reke and lil Buckets to play together and/or Reke and JT2. I think honestly Reke is starting to notice more and more, while he can be our leading scorer, that if he tries too much he is alienating his teammates, and i think you are starting to see more and more that less bad shots need to take place and more good passing needs to be done.

So between PG, SG and SF you generally can have 1 high, 1 mid and 1 low usage starter.

I love you wrote that up. Even if I’m the only one, it’s nice to know I’m not the only out there who understands this point.

On a side note, I’ve recently figured out workable tables and the xhtml for them. If you want them, look in my profile and I’ll send you the email with the html. If you need any other help, I’ll gladly help. You have a lot of table data that is built for this post and it will make it a lot easier to read and make sense of what your point is.

Again, well done.

I wouldn’t mind the fact that he can’t or won’t pass.

I don’t think Reke needs to necessarily become a better passer for him to work as the ‘PG’ of the future. Greater scoring efficiency will also due the trick. If he can learn to pull up in the paint when the lane collapses instead of jumping into defenders, thereby kicking it out under control, we would save a lot more possessions. Better spot up shooters would be a great improvement as well. MT23 might go along way, so will a healthy Cisco.

Take a look at the 2002 Kings AR, both accumulatively and individually.

             AR USG
Bibby 23.0 19.7
Webber 21.9 29.0
Vlade 17.9 18.4
Christie 17.2 15.6
Peja 10.6 23.2

Reke 24.4 25.7
MT23 15.7 24.2
Beno 21.4 17.1
DMC 12.9 28.0
Dally 5.9 16.7
Casspi 6.1 17.0
Cisco 7.8 16.9

I got more 2011 Kings because I think the starting lineup of the future could be any of these guys. My point is that more efficient basketball is needed, which could come in the form of any number of maturations. The 2002 squad was a talented bunch but most importantly they all had very high BB IQs which led to a high assist rate. They didn’t need Nash, but they were all above average passers save Peja. The system they ran also had an impact. And I don’t think Reke would work in that system either because he can’t shoot (yet), but he does need shooters around him which the 2002 Kings had in spades.

Comparing the assist rate and USG of Reke against other NBA players I think is a bit flawed. The context in which those others players play are completely different. The proper comparison can’t actually be made. You would have to put Reke on the [redacted] to compare him to Kobe with the same level of meaning. I know we are all giving our opinions from our armchairs, but I think we need to understand the team surrounding Reke is pretty shitty.