Tuesday Bolts – 12.29.15
Anthony Slater on Cam Payne: “For a Thunder team with plenty of scoring options but not many
great passers, Payne’s most useful skill is his court vision. In college, he averaged 5.8 assists per game, 20th most in the country. This season, he’s played 77 minutes. He has 15 assists. Extremely small sample size, but that’s one every 5.1 minutes. Augustin is averaging one every 8.1 minutes. Against the Nuggets, Payne had two assists but four nice passes in his brief stints. ”
Kevin Pelton of ESPN Insider on top players of 2015: “Third in WARP in 2014-15 after Jan. 1, second in WARP thus far in 2015-16. Given that the Golden Basketball is designed to reward both regular-season and playoff performance, it’s hard to finish in the top five without making the postseason. Westbrook deserves to be the exception to the rule based on his superhuman performance in Kevin Durant’s absence last season, which he has mostly kept up while playing alongside Durant so far in 2015-16. Westbrook even leads the NBA in RPM this season, ahead of Curry.”
Jonathan Tjarks on the Bucks starters: “The first problem is that Middleton is their only starter who can shoot 3’s. Even a team full of old slow guys like the Mavs can defend you if everyone can just back up and hang out right outside of the paint every time you have the ball. There’s no room for Giannis to get to the rim or for Monroe to post up or for anyone to do much of anything. It’s almost as if the Bucks were constructed under the idea that the illegal defense still exists and everyone has to stay connected to their man. The second problem is that Greg Monroe and Jabari Parker might be the worst front-court in the league in terms of being able to defend in space and protect the rim. They aren’t exactly the fleetest of foot guys to begin with and Jabari is still coming back from an ACL injury while Monroe has been dealing with a knee issue. The result is two guys who can’t really hedge on the perimeter and can’t provide much of an impediment at the front of the rim and it’s almost impossible to play defense if you are playing 0’s at the 4 and the 5 position.”
Randy Wittman sides with KD, which is not the strongest endorsement: “Hey, listen, it’s part of the game,” Wittman said Sunday. “I know it’s a debate and everybody on TV says to get rid of it. But, you know what, now you’re rewarding people for having faults. If you can’t shoot the three-point shot, are we not allowed to guard you anymore? Because you’re not a very good three-point shooter so now we can’t close out on you? You can bleed this down to everything so, you know what, someone said it the other day. Kevin Durant or somebody. Get in the gym and improve your free throws if you don’t want to get fouled.”
