Current team rankings and things to work on

[ElNono]

Good stuff, ElNono. I track these stats as the season progresses, but I'm too lazy to put them all together for easy consumption. So, thanks.

One suggestion, if you plan on maintaining this thread. Given the team's emphasis on defensive boards, consider separating the rebounding #s into offensive and defensive rebounding.

Suggestion noted. I might do an update during the allstar week or pre-playoffs, we'll see. I just noticed we were exactly midway through the season and figured it was a good time to check how we were doing.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

The Spurs had a similar, although not as bad, period last season in January, not December, where they had Kawhi, Danny and Parker missing a lot of games and the results predictably suffered. As someone already mentioned the Spurs have hardly had their top 8 guys for a game so far. If they're healthy they could easily finish strong, with a record of something like 30-10 and end up 3rd or so, which would be quite an achievement considering the disastrous cir stances so far. Tough to win 3 series in a row without home court advantage, however, a healthy and in form Spurs team, playing on the level of last season't playoffs, could do it.

[pgardn]

The return of Leonard should help most of the categories if you are a stats freak.

What KL will do is completely change our D being that he is the most athletic player on the team.

1. Easy baskets off of his steals.
2. Free up bigs underneath as long rebounds are now taken care of more efficiently. No more moans and grounds as long misses will be gathered more readily. Also this leads to more fast break opportunities. In effect, KL makes long misses turn into dangerous transition opportunities.
3. Tim, Manu, and Danny are really aided defensively. Think about the styles of each. Parker can now get help at the end of games on D as he does not necessarily have to cover the opponents PG. KL will also free Tiago to play further away from the basket without the incessant fear of the blowby. We must have Tim and Leonard on D during crunch time. We can now cover a variety of opposition lineups by switching our D lineup around the pillars.

Offensively, we know what he can do. Let's see if his game shows expands as Pop loosens the leash. Does the face up blow by really exist as a part of his game? ( yes, ISO can be useful in certain game situations) Will he ever command a double team while not posting up? Will teams ever really want to see the ball out of his hands on the offensive end?

[mudyez]

Never realized that a team just gets about half of the possible defensive rebounds. A few not become offensive rebounds and end up out of bounds, but I always thought the defensive team would get about 2/3 of the amounted rebounds.

Or am I missing something?

As a coach I'm pissed really easily about my players, if the other team gets 2nd and 3rd shots. This may change my whole point of view...especially if you account for NBA-Teams often not even crashing the boards in favor of transition defense.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

Never realized that a team just gets about half of the possible defensive rebounds. A few not become offensive rebounds and end up out of bounds, but I always thought the defensive team would get about 2/3 of the amounted rebounds.

Or am I missing something?

As a coach I'm pissed really easily about my players, if the other team gets 2nd and 3rd shots. This may change my whole point of view...especially if you account for NBA-Teams often not even crashing the boards in favor of transition defense.

This isn't about defensive rebounds only, but total rebounds, so around 50% will always be the case. Good defensive rebounding rate is about 70%, 75% is elite.

[Phenomanul]

Thanks for taking the time to pull this together ElNono.... reasons to be optimistic indeed.

[mudyez]

This isn't about defensive rebounds only, but total rebounds, so around 50% will always be the case. Good defensive rebounding rate is about 70%, 75% is elite.

Uh thanks, thats what I was missing

[therealtruth]

I don't think any team can match up with us. Even the Warriors, all we need to do is shutdown Curry and Thompson with Green and Kawhi and we have the advantage.