-Kevin Durant’s assist totals have remained pretty low throughout these FIBA games. OKC’s offense actually wasn’t all that good last year, and Durant’s low assist ratio was a reason why — should we be concerned?
-I say this as somebody who follows maybe 3 NBA players on twitter — Mo Williams’ twitter is kind of delightful. There’s something about posting a picture of baking chicken with the caption “yup” that I just find endearing.
-HONESTLY, NOTHING HAPPENED TODAY. AT ALL.
-Saw an advance screening of “Jack Goes Boating.” Spoiler alert: Jack goes boating. In all seriousness, it’s a pretty decent movie — it’s adapted from a play, and you can tell, but there are worse things. Funny, weird, sweet at times. Amy Ryan continues to prove she can be a convincing romantic partner for any character imaginable. It’s Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut and adapted from a play, so naturally it’s overdirected at times, but I didn’t really mind at all.
-Are there people who don’t like Boise State? I ask this as someone who doesn’t really get college football at all, despite the fact I go to USC and never miss a game. And got told not to make the “all proceeds go to Joe McKnight’s car payments joke” at a football-themed fundraising raffle the other day. I’m a self-loathing USC student. I swear.
-Good night, and good Joe Smith rap single:
I miss Joe Smith.
This is why I so often hate stats. All players have a job, and statistical achievement on something that is not their job is not always good. Durant’s job on the team is to be the primary person to put the ball in the basket, in fact there is no other elite scorer on the team. I’d be much more concerned if his asst levels were high, because that is not his role either with USA or OKC. I don’t care if Iggy and Westbrook are making jump shots, I don’t want Durant passing to them.
Let’s look at his eFG%, fouls drawn, etc. on the offensive end. That’s how you evaluate a scorer!
Hey, I just saw this on DailyThunder, thought you might like to know who’s quoting you:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlesportsguy/archives/220476.asp?from=blog_last3
When any player has the ball in their hands as much as Durant, you would think his assist numbers would be greater. Jordan was considered a selfish one-man show his early years and still average around 5 asst per his first three years in the league (with less talent on his team as Durrant has). Even Kobe in the post-Shaq era (when he was considered at the height of his selfishness) had averaged 4.5-6 apg.
So yes, it is concerning that Durrant is averageing just a little over 2.5 apg. However if they keep on winning then maybe that’s o.k. Intersting thing about Kobe is that during his first three years in the league his apg average was right around 2.8 which is pretty much on par with KD. System may have a lot to do with it though. I really like KD’s game and I think that IF they win more by him passing more, then I hope he’ll adjust for it. Scoring titles are great and all, but he needs to balance it out if he wants to be truly great.
Don’t read too much into KD’s assist totals – early in the tournament, Durant was distributing a whole lot more, displaying some previously unappreciated court vision until Coach K took him aside and specifically ordered him to get back to aggressively scoring and focusing on creating his own shots because it works better with Team USA’s lineups and overall game plan.
For example: Coach K is putting him out there with a veteran-heavy, defense-first starting lineup because his scoring game can make up for the relatively poor shooting of guys like Iggy, Rose, and Odom. If Coach K wanted to focus more on scoring and less on D, he could easily surround KD with shooters by putting in Gordon, Granger, and Love.
I expect that KD will move the ball a lot more on the 2012 Team USA when he’s got Lebron (who shoots MUCH better than Iggy from FIBA 3 range) and Kobe in the lineup with him. But maybe not, since he’s clearly a better shooter than Lebron, who passes better… Well, either way, one of the early revelations of this tournament was that KD does a great job in traffic finding guys cutting to the basket and spotting up from 3.
Similarly, don’t let his high turnover rate confuse you – a LOT of that is from traveling call nuances of FIBA rules.
Turnovers is one stat that just can’t be explained or otherwise looked at different because of system or whatever. It’s an individual stat that stands on it’s own. His turnovers is a concern, calling it a nuance or not, as a USA basketball fan or as a OKC fan, I’d be worried about this stat.
Joe Smith = Charlie Murphy
Hello, I just saw this posting on JJ Hickson. It talks about why he really isn’t like Amare (his jumpshot), but more like Gerald Wallace in some sense – as an athletic guy who attacks the rim relentlessly. The only problem being – it doesn’t seem like he puts up the defensive numbers that Wallace did early on …. Interesting read … what do u think?
http://3gotgame.com/kshiz/archives/627
Why does anyone compare JJ Hickson to Amare (or Gerald Wallace)??? He’ll never be as good as either.