RaptorsHQ Lunchbox Links for February 22, 2012
by Adam Francis on Feb 22, 2012 12:45 PM EST
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A few links on a Wednesday for a change as the Raptors prepare to take on the Detroit Pistons tonight in Toronto.
First, the Pistons side of things via SB Nation Detroit.
Next, the Raptors, with previews from CBC Sports, TSN.ca, and even the Bradenton Herald!
Tonight's game versus the Pistons marks the final match for Toronto until next Tuesday, giving the club a much-needed near-week off. The Toronto Sun's Ryan Wolstat notes that this time should serve not only as a mental break from basketball, but even post All-Star game, the team needs to use these "off days" to work on poor starts and weak finishes.
This coming on the heels of course of the loss to the Charlotte Bobcats last Friday night, a loss that was bad, but as Raptors Republic's James Herbert notes, is not the end of the world.
In fact despite the loss, coach Dwane Casey apparently sees progress and some good signs in the team's play.
But are the baby steps enough?
Perhaps not as Tim Chisholm doles out some harsh but fair grades in his mid-point assessment of the club for TSN.ca...
How do some of these players pull up their marks?
Work on their games, something apparently Ed Davis is doing via a revamped offensive game.
Let's hope we see some of the progress tonight against Detroit.
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thought those grades were pretty generous
2 in the A’s
4 in the B’s
1 C+
thats half the team that is, above average……
in fairness those are grades based on expectations, which in some ways is understandable, but really gives no insight on how effective those players actually have been so far.
by Not so Friendly Stranger on Feb 22, 2012 1:04 PM EST reply actions
Davis's Problem Is Not So Much His Offense
It is his pathetic overall defense.
Yea he grabs some rebounds and occasionally blocks his shot but beyond that his defense sucks.
his defense rating is one of the best on the team (at 100 only behind JJ and Gray at 99) and his DWS is 2nd only to James Johnson.
I don’t really think those numbers are telling the whole story, but I also don’t think his D is as bad as you are trying to make it out to be
by Not so Friendly Stranger on Feb 22, 2012 2:17 PM EST up reply actions
I Guess Jay Forgot to Tell Casey The Raptors Played Zone Defense Last Season
"Defensively, they picked up the zone quicker than I thought," Casey said.
And more seriously, didn’t Casey go on and on about how his zone defense is much different than what they were running before?
by dhackett1565 on Feb 22, 2012 2:17 PM EST up reply actions
Bargnani Ranks In The Top Ten
Of all players in the NBA who have taken at least 50 shots from one foot of less Bargnani has the eighth highest FG% Ed and the Other Johnson aren’t even close to him.
Nope
Look at the list.
If it included dunks Collison wouldn’t be #1 and D12 and BG would not be missing.
Not even a discussion worth having.
Blaspheme! Kobe is no way near as great a player as MJ!
Raptors Shooting Percentages In The Fourth Quarter and Overtime
Raptors players 4th quarter and overtime shooting stats, 25 or more FGAs sorted by eFG% highest to lowest.
Ranking Player—————FGM———FGA———FG%——-eFG%——-Ast’d————% Ast’d
-—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
1 Ed Davis——————26—————43———-.605———-.605—————19————-0.731
2 Jose Calderon———-27—————55———-.491———-.564—————-7————-0.259
3 Jerryd Bayless———-12————-30————.400———-.533—————-7————-0.583
4 Amir Johnson————18————-34————.529———-.529—————10————0.556
5 DeMar DeRozan———43————90————-.478———-.500—————24————0.558
6 Linas Kleiza—————28————-70————-.400———-479—————20————0.714
7 Leandro Barbosa——-43————-107————.402———.444—————24————-0.558
8 Rasual Butler————-9—————25————-.360———-.440—————6 -————0.667
9 Andrea Bargnani———20————52————-.385———-433—————16————-0.800
10 James Johnson——-15————-38————-.395———-.395—————11————0.733
11 Gary Forbes—————11————45————-.244———-.256—————5————-0.455
A couple of things stand out.
1. Bargnani ranks 9th in eFG% yet 1st in Ast’d FG%. Which means that he is not creating many shots for himself that actually go in the basket.
2. Discounting Forbes Jose and Amir have the two lowest Ast’d % but the second and third highest eFG% in the fourth quarter. My guess is most of Amir’s FGs in the 4th quarter and overtime come on unassisted put backs.
3. James Johnson can not make his shots in the 4th quarter and overtime.
4. Not on my chart but on the link: Only Jose and Bayless are shooting over 33% on their 3FGA in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Conclusions
1. While Bargnani can get his own shot off it appears that he needs to it to be an assisted play for him to make the shot
2. Raptors have only two players and one has been out most of the season, that can make 3FGA in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Conclusions above point out two significant reasons why the Raptors lose a lot of close games.
P.S.
1. DeMar is fair in shooting and scoring effectively in the 4th quarter and overtime.
2. Bargnani, Babosa, Kleiza and James Johnson are all terrible shooters in the fourth quarter and ovetime.
Interesting break down
So based on this, do you still think the Raps are a playoff team and that “Tank Nation” is a “fallacy”?
tank nation has a better flow
by Not so Friendly Stranger on Feb 22, 2012 6:18 PM EST up reply actions
I Never Said This Year's Team Was A Playoff Team
What I once said is that with Bargnani in the lineup the Raptors are close to a .500 team. Then someone got the idea to look at the standings and say well if @Buddahfan says that the Raptors are close to a .500 team with Bargnani and the current 8th seed in the EC is playing below .500 he must be saying that the Raptors are playoff team.
That conclusion is illogical because I said it well after Bargnani was injured the fist time.
So I never said that this year’s Raptors team was a playoff team. What I said on several occasions was, the Raptors could get the seventh or eighth draft pick. It certainly doesn’t look that way at this time. LOL
The thing you are ignoring is free throws, which are crucial down the stretch.
According to 82games.com, besides Kleiza (who has played in only 37 clutch minutes), Bargnani is leading the team in FTA/48 in clutch time, with 10.8. Barbosa is next at 4.5.
by dhackett1565 on Feb 22, 2012 3:59 PM EST up reply actions
Wrong Again Sort Of
TS% is not included in the “Shot Finder” Check it yourself if you don’t believe me.
While it is accurate to say that I did exclude it from my analysis, I only excluded it because it was already excluded beforehand and not available.
The reason it is not included is because FTs are not shots. Any playground kid can tell you that. Scouts exclude FTs when they talk about a player’s shooting ability. They mention FT’s separately.
FTs are FTs
Shooting well and getting to the FT line are two different subjects.
I checked – that’s why I quoted 82games.com.
by dhackett1565 on Feb 23, 2012 8:19 AM EST up reply actions
Now If You Want To Change The Subject
and talk about which Raptors player is good at getting to the FT line in the fourth quarter and in overtime that is your prerogative but that has no impact on a player’s fourth quarter shooting.
If you want to talk about PPS, what percentage of that is due to an assist and how many points are scored by a player in the fourth quarter I can go along with that. I just don’t happen to have a link with those numbers and I am not about to look for one. Be my guest. I would be interested to see what those numbers look like.
Lets Play Your Little Game
Bargnani is the Raptors #1 option on offense.
He gets to the FT line 45th best in the NBA. That alone is terrible especially when you have a dimes guy like Jose. That means that a number of teams have two or more players that get to the FT line more often during crunch time than Bargnani. That is bad really bad for your number #1 option on offense.
Now Bargnani gets to the FT line an average of 1.1 times per game in crunch time. On the average he makes less than one FT per game in crunch time. How wonderful, wonderful.
Geez that could really make a difference if he ever made a game winning or game tying FT sending a game into OT, which I don’t recall him every making
Absolutely – he needs to get to the free throw line more. But he really is the only one doing it – he gets to the free throw line 10.8 times per 48 minutes in clutch time. Keep in mind that 82 games defines clutch time as the last 5 minutes of play IF neither team is up by more than 5. So to compare directly to your shot finder for the 4th quarter (we’ll ignore OT) requires an extrapolation over 12 minutes (conservatively comparing to 5 minutes). He takes 2.7 FTA per Q at that rate, versus his 4.7 FGA per Q (in the 4th Q). That’s not great, but it’s not terrible.
Especially if you look at the rest of the team. In the clutch, Barbosa is the next best with 1.1 FTA/Q.
by dhackett1565 on Feb 23, 2012 8:28 AM EST up reply actions
Oh, and…
On the average he makes less than one FT per game in crunch time. How wonderful, wonderful.
He takes 1.125 FTA and makes 0.93 in the clutch.
Might want to consider that in the entire league, the list of players attempting 2 or more free throws per game in the clutch is…
Lebron James
Rodney Stuckey
Tyreke Evans
John Wall
Lou Williams
Hedo Turkoglu
The list of players making 2 free throws a game are as follow:
Not a single NBA player.
So when you say things like:
On the average he makes less than one FT per game in crunch time. How wonderful, wonderful.
You might want to consider the context.
by dhackett1565 on Feb 23, 2012 8:34 AM EST up reply actions
Absolute Must Read For All Raptors Fans
This article is kind of inspirational for a fan of a team who is neck deep in what may prove to be a lengthy rebuild: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7599274/nba-oklahoma-city-thunder-become-legit-nba-contender-thanks-analytics-espn-magazine
If only Sam Presti was running the Raptor rebuild…
Anyone who is not in Ping Pong Nation needs to read this article.
Kidd-Gilchrist
Anybody see Kidd-Gilchrist save Kentucky’s butt from an upset last night with a strong 2nd half? Love to get him. A strong all-around game and seems to be a winner
We may need to add a “like MKG” button on the site…
Adam Francis - Publisher - RaptorsHQ.com
by Adam Francis on Feb 22, 2012 5:21 PM EST up reply actions
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