Decided to add a picture of one of my old Basketball Cards featuring a player wearing a jersey number corresponding to the week's thread...This might become a weekly thing.
Welcome to the Week 20 Thread. Can you name the player shown above?...Answer at the end of this post.
The Doofus Asks
A lot of questions get thrown about in the Weekly Threads and unfortunately many of them get overlooked.
One poster in particular asked a slew of questions last week and I thought I'd take some time to answer his queries:
Question 1
The Bulls snapped a 4 game losing streak and their record currently stands at
You're right, they've had some heavy losses...if you check the Efficiency Graph the last couple of weeks, they've been steadily going backwards defensively.
Will the Bulls make the Playoffs? They've got a good chance with Butler returning and Rose currently playing at a level that no longer draws vitriol from Bulls fans.
Check out Derrick's pre and post all star shot charts, and the huge difference in finishing at the basket:
But a Playoff spot is seemingly irrelevant...open up the Bulls thread and you'll find disgruntled posters not looking towards the Playoffs but instead thinking about how to avoid a future of ongoing mediocrity.
Question 2
Hmm, good question...let's see how the BigFooty community votes.
Question 3
579 Days (or 1 Year, 7 Months and 1 Day).
Here's what he did on Day 577.
Question 4
Duncan played 2 games last week, firstly against the Pistons and then against the Pelicans.
Here's how the first play of that Detroit game went:
OK, so it's painfully obvious that Duncan can no longer match it athletically with the league's young big men.
We joke about Dirk's lack of leaping ability, but Duncan barely get off the ground either. So Timmy usually has to instead rely on outsmarting defenders via pivots and pump fakes to get his shots off.
Sometimes it works.
...And sometimes it doesn't.
But these direct post ups are a rarity for Duncan these days. He's the 4th offensive option (if that) in the Spurs' starting lineup and is mainly used as a passer or screener; a typical Spurs possession starts like this:
Duncan catches the 1st pass of the play at the top of the ley, looks for a wing player coming off a baseline screen, then goes to set a screen on the weakside. Meanwhile Parker/Kawhi/Aldridge initiate the strong side action.
This is all reflected in Duncan's 2015/16 stats. He's having career lows in Usage% (by far), shots per 36 mins (by far) and points per 36 mins (by far).
Comparing his heat map from last season to this season also tells a story:
Duncan this season is more confined within the key area; with Aldridge taking more of the possessions on Duncan's favoured left block, Tim has spent a lot time of stalking the baseline, looking for either the drop off pass or the offensive rebound (and at times even stealthily tugging onto to his defender's arm to stop them from doubling Aldridge).
As an aside, the high-low action between Duncan and Aldridge that everyone was anticipating coming into the season can still be quite awkward at times.
As for the top of the key area, well, remember those pin-downs to free Duncan for jumpshots at the left elbow?...San Antonio ran that play a lot in the previous 3-4 seasons. It's all but disappeared now.
What's left on the heat map are two prominent dots on the right elbow. It seems some of that may be attributed to the 2-man hand off action that the Spurs like to run on the right wing between Leonard and Duncan.
Kawhi attracts so much attention nowadays that Duncan gets a lot of open looks out of it:
About a month ago, Charles Barkley said in a podcast that Duncan was having a worse season than Kobe Bryant.
Sure, Tim's raw numbers have dropped off but I disagree with Barkley's statement. Unlike Kobe, Tim doesn't take anything away from his team.
Sure he's no longer at the forefront of his team's offense (I haven't mentioned his defense, which he still performs adequately), but that is by design.
His declining athleticism and the emergence of teammates has seen Duncan simply become a role-playing cog within the Spurs system, and that's fine because the system functions smoothly with him in that role.
It's easy to see this being Duncan's last season and his willingness to step back in acknowledgement of his age and the ability of others is the antithesis of Kobe's farewell tour.
As a side note, here's LaMarcus Aldridge's heat map:
A lot more evenly spread his Portland days right? It shows that Aldridge, not Duncan, has been the one who has had to make the most offensive adjustments this season.
The map is not as left-side heavy not only because of Duncan but also because of Kawhi, who likes to work in the post from time to time.
Non-Doofus Questions
Don't think I forgot about the rest of you...here are some other questions from last week's thread.
Definitely not. The Heat are now 4-0 with Iso Joe and Johnson is shooting an entirely sustainable 62% from the field.Miami 1-0 with Iso Joe. Coincidence? I think not...
In fact, 2016 Joe Johnson reminds me of 2004 Rasheed Wallace: A late season addition and catalyst towards Miami's inevitable 2016 Championship..
When Erik Spoelstra started giving him minutes.
Can't entirely fault Spoelstra though - Stoudemire is easy to overlook since he's not a jealous limelight seeker like recently outed Lin-ophobe Carmelo Anthony.
Is there supposed to be a punchline here somewhere?
Championship experience and blog writing skills.
Model Of Efficiency
The graph below plots Adjusted Offensive and Defensive Efficiency (points scored and allowed per 100 possessions, adjusted for League Average) for the last 4 weeks. Basically the further in the top right corner you are, the better you are.
Once again, credit for the original idea goes to Bigfooty User Final Siren, who created the concept in the thread: The Race for the Flag in Squiggly Lines).
A Silver Lining
The most memorable game from last week was OKC's collapse against the Clippers.
The Thunder only scored 13 points in that final quarter but I'm not going to talk about their offense woes in the loss (after all, they've still got the 2nd best offense in the league).
And I'm not gonna talk about how they gave up 35 points in that same quarter (Short story: Chris Paul is a pick and roll Wizard and a backpedalling Kanter isn't a good way to stop Paul in such situations).
Instead I'm gonna talk the glass half full approach and talk about the one late-game positive for Oklahoma City.
The Clippers ran this Redick/Jordan bunched up play late in the game against OKC. It's something they run quite often and it's pretty successful since teams usually defend it the way the Thunder do here:
It's tough to cover because you've gotta stick to Redick but this gives DeAndre to curl towards the basket.
And what should Westbrook do? Fight harder over the screen (something he doesn't do enough of IMO)? Switch onto Jordan?...In the end he does neither and is in no mans land when the pass is thrown.
One possession later the Clippers run the same play but the Thunder switch their defensive strategy:
I like the idea of Redick's man (Roberson) switching onto Paul (with a helping hand from the ever aware Ibaka) and stopping the pick and roll action in its tracks.
It's a smart solution to a difficult problem.
...Didn't stop the Thunder from choking though.
Quiz Questions Of The Week
How many times has Tim Duncan scored over 20 points this season?
Zero
The best regular season home record in NBA history is 40-1. Which team holds that record?
The 1985-86 Boston Celtics.
The Spurs are currently 30-0 at home while the Warriors are 26-0.
The Spurs are currently 30-0 at home while the Warriors are 26-0.
Dunk Of The Week
Quick Hitters
- A fantastic couple of weeks for new Milwaukee Point Forward Giannis Antentokounmpo.
- The highlight package of last week's triple double against the Rockets shows the variety of ways he racks up assists (in transition with running mate Jabari Parker, out of the post, quick snappy one-handed passes off the dribble, looking to the corners when the help D is leaning).
- Giannis' ability to keep his head up and find players amidst the havoc that his frantic play inflicts on the defense is impressive.
- Jabari is averaging 21.8 ppg @ 51.4% since the All-Star break and the cutting dunk is quickly becoming a signature move.
- So Kevin Martin is gonna sign with the Spurs. Does this mean it's the end of the Bonner era in San Antonio? It'd be a bit ironic since the shooting big man is in vogue but then the Spurs have never been ones to follow trends.
- I don't even want to think about the kind of pain would necessitate testicular surgery, but welcome back to Manu Ginobili who dropped an easy 20 points in his return yesterday.
- So Prince attended a Warriors game last week. Quite apt that he would watch a team that is on course to be one of the greatest of all time given that, IMO, he put out one of the greatest albums of all time.
- Congrats to the Hobart Devils for winning the 2016 NBL Championship...or to whoever won it, I wasn't really paying attention.
- But seriously, Channel 9 have been showing games every Sunday afternoon throughout the season on Go! But now, in a Champhionship-deciding Game 3, they instead show it on delay at 11:00pm???
- Saw a guy wearing a Steve Nash Lakers jersey the other day. What an era that was.
- Anyone think Toronto will grab the top seed in the East?
- The player on the Basketball Card is Alvin Robertson.
What To Watch For This Week
Mon: Portland @ Detroit. Playing for the Steve Blake Cup.
Tue: Memphis @ Cleveland. The Grizzlies have plenty of enforcers. The Cavs have Kevin Love.
Wed: New York @ Denver. Carmelo returns to the place where he was the envy of all his peers.
Thu: Clippers @ OKC. Just who is the true choker?
Fri: Atlanta @ Toronto. Because who doesn't like watching DeMar DeRozan shoot 20+ free throws?
Sat: Portland @ Golden State. Lillard and Curry take turns at shooting 30-footers.
Sun: OKC @ San Antonio. Get your Tim Duncan Heat Maps ready, this should be a good one.
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