Why is Kerr so high on Bogut compared to Jackson?

[Mylie10]

http://www.rotoworld.com/playernews/nba/basketball-player-news

Shaun Livingston (toe) is making steady progress and is now doing everything but running on the court. He is recovering from toe surgery and is not expected to be available for the start of the season. Livingston will provide the Warriors with solid depth at the PG position.

This site does an excellent job with health/status reports on all players, of all sports, from most imaginable sources for Rotiserie/Fantasy Leagues.

Heard him say, he's ahead of schedule recently, but until he actually plays, then it doesn't mean much. I have watched him in shooting drills and hes moving well. I think they are being super cautious with him, and rightfully so, because his impact will be huge.

[Mylie10]

http://www.rotoworld.com/playernews/nba/basketball-player-news

Shaun Livingston (toe) is making steady progress and is now doing everything but running on the court. He is recovering from toe surgery and is not expected to be available for the start of the season. Livingston will provide the Warriors with solid depth at the PG position.

This site does an excellent job with health/status reports on all players, of all sports, from most imaginable sources for Rotiserie/Fantasy Leagues.

Does this mean that both Craft and Nedo likely start the season?

With Barbosa on the roster, I'm guessing Craft won't make the team, and will end up in Santa Cruz to work on his shot, to be brought up in case of injury... unless Kerr's mostly using Barbosa at SG, in which case maybe. Who knows?

I agree with this, because its doubtful that other teams are waiting for Aaron to be cut, so they can scoop him up. He hasn't got much run so far, so it looks like they might be leaning towards leaving that last spot open. Which makes sense really. Going to Santa Cruz and working on things makes a lot of sense, plus he'll get a lot of playing time.

[RoyalMajesty]

He needs to significantly improve on his ft shooting if e wants to be part of this offense scoring wise. That's a must.

Agreed. The left handed free throw shots looked good the other night. I hope he continues to work on it and get more comfortable shooting free throws with his left hand.

[Sleepy51]

Wilt was a sub 500 FT% is half of his career. FT shooting for big men is overrated by coaches today as part of the "purist" backlash that started as the face and attitude of the game changed in the 90's. People need to get over it. Big men clank FTs and always have. Getting opposing bigs in FT trouble has value even if you don't convert the FTs. It changes the dynamic of the game. Bogut can go out there and fart the ball out of his ass from the FT line as far as I'm concerned as long as he is health and willing to take shots he's supposed to be taking. If he's getting to the FT line, the battle is already being won.

[lars_rosenberg]

There was no hack-a-Wilt and the game was different. I don't think you can compare Bogut to Chamberlain.

[Boomerfan]

There was no hack-a-Wilt and the game was different. I don't think you can compare Bogut to Chamberlain.

The way I look at it if they are hacking Bogut then someone is getting into foul trouble on the opposition. Bogut only has to hit 3 of 4 and they'll stop doing it pretty quickly.

[Sleepy51]

There was no hack-a-Wilt and the game was different. I don't think you can compare Bogut to Chamberlain.

Bogut's not Wilt? When did that happen??!?!

C'mon. don't be obtuse. The point is how burning opponent fouls impacts the game. I encourage opponent hack-a strategy and I discourage us from using it. Wasting fouls gets us into the penalty quicker which gives our wings an advantage attacking the paint and down the stretch.

Never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake.

[Mylie10]

Every foul the other team commits gets you closer to the bonus....when that happens is when you really try to keep the ball in Curry's hands as the teams best free throw shooter.....now there will be times when the other team is willing to foul Bogut over allowing us to score from deep or in our normal offense, but you need Bogut in there for other purposes, which to me outweigh the negative ft shooting.

[turk3d]

Even Wilt shot 51% fts for his career (Bogut 34% last year) Shaq shot 52.7% and D Howard so far 57.4%. Also, just getting the opposition in foul trouble definitely is a plus, but if he wants to score in double digits at a high efficiency (which I think he's capable of), he needs to improve on those fts and I don't see why he can't.

With his passing ability out of the post and beyod, his ability to hit fts at a higher rate would discourage teams from fouling him so readily. Anyone in the NBA should be able to hit at least 50% imo. His 34% is down there with Biedrins numbers. If Dwight could hit his fts on a more consistent basis he'd be unstoppable (and at just 57% almost still is).

[Sleepy51]

Yes, wilt shot 51% for his career, but for half of those years he shot under 50%. He was a horrible FT shooter. Most big men historically have been bad FT shooters. It's matters, but it's not a dealbreaker like people make it out to be when they are trying to out-purist each other.

[turk3d]

Bottom line is that Bogut is no Wilt or DHoward and even those two HOFers saw it necessary to improve their ft shooting. He should be able to improve from just 34%. And as far as offense/defense substitution during crunch time, well that can backfire on you depending on how the ball bounces. If your offense misses when you have Bogut out of the game, what happens when the opposition gets multiple rebounds on misses (which we saw quite a bit last season)? What happens is likely a loss.

[Boomerfan]

Bottom line is that Bogut is no Wilt or DHoward and even those two HOFers saw it necessary to improve their ft shooting. He should be able to improve from just 34%. And as far as offense/defense substitution during crunch time, well that can backfire on you depending on how the ball bounces. If your offense misses when you have Bogut out of the game, what happens when the opposition gets multiple rebounds on misses (which we saw quite a bit last season)? What happens is likely a loss.

He has already made the right start by shooting left handed. There is no use shooting right handed when on days you can't even feel your elbow. I think his free throw shooting will improve the longer he goes throughout the year.

He was in the 57% to 63% range prior to his elbow injury... which I would happily take... but he was getting to the line a lot more.

You can say last year was awful shooting 34% but he was only shooting an average of 1.0 free throw per game. That's quite amazing given the amount of times "Hack a Bogut" that was used. It shows how criminally underused he was on offense and how the ball was hardly ever in his hand in the post.

Compare that to the years he was part of the offense at Milwaukee when his free throw % was up... he was getting around 3-4 free throws per game... and shooting ok % from the line. There is definitely a correlation between how many shots he gets on offense and how his FT % goes.

I think the more he is part of the offense this year the better his free throw shooting will be.

[turk3d]

Bottom line is that Bogut is no Wilt or DHoward and even those two HOFers saw it necessary to improve their ft shooting. He should be able to improve from just 34%. And as far as offense/defense substitution during crunch time, well that can backfire on you depending on how the ball bounces. If your offense misses when you have Bogut out of the game, what happens when the opposition gets multiple rebounds on misses (which we saw quite a bit last season)? What happens is likely a loss.

He has already made the right start by shooting left handed. There is no use shooting right handed when on days you can't even feel your elbow. I think his free throw shooting will improve the longer he goes throughout the year.

He was in the 57% to 63% range prior to his elbow injury... which I would happily take... but he was getting to the line a lot more.

You can say last year was awful shooting 34% but he was only shooting an average of 1.0 free throw per game. That's quite amazing given the amount of times "Hack a Bogut" that was used. It shows how criminally underused he was on offense and how the ball was hardly ever in his hand in the post.

Compare that to the years he was part of the offense at Milwaukee when his free throw % was up... he was getting around 3-4 free throws per game... and shooting ok % from the line. There is definitely a correlation between how many shots he gets on offense and how his FT % goes.

I think the more he is part of the offense this year the better his free throw shooting will be.

I don't care how he shoots his free throws (left handed, right handed or both hands, lol). I just want him to do a better job shooting them. This will not only help him to get more integrated into the offense, but will help the rest of the players as it will result in less "Hack-a-Bogey" and allow him to do more kick outs to Curry and Klay resulting in more 3s for us.

I also really don't want him coming out in crunch time (offense/defense substitutions) so we don't get clobbered on the defensive boards when it matter most which happened to us quite a bit last year and into the playoffs.

[Boomerfan]

I don't care how he shoots his free throws (left handed, right handed or both hands, lol). I just want him to do a better job shooting them. This will not only help him to get more integrated into the offense, but will help the rest of the players as it will result in less "Hack-a-Bogey" and allow him to do more kick outs to Curry and Klay resulting in more 3s for us.

I also really don't want him coming out in crunch time (offense/defense substitutions) so we don't get clobbered on the defensive boards when it matter most which happened to us quite a bit last year and into the playoffs.

Agree there. I still think he could have come in at the end of games. Not like teams could do hack a Bogut in the last 2 minutes so there was no excuse to have him sitting on the pine in a lot of those games.

The other thing that used to piss me off no end was Bogut wouldn't start last quarters. Have Bogut in there... teams aren't going to start doing Hack-a-Bogut 30 seconds into the last quarter. They'll be in a team foul situation within 3 mins of the last quarter.

The problem was Jackson would sit Bogut out the first 6 mins of the last quarter, bring him in and then have to yank him without 1 or 2 mins. Just bad coaching in my opinion.

[Sleepy51]

Bottom line is that Bogut is no Wilt or DHoward and even those two HOFers saw it necessary to improve their ft shooting. He should be able to improve from just 34%. And as far as offense/defense substitution during crunch time, well that can backfire on you depending on how the ball bounces. If your offense misses when you have Bogut out of the game, what happens when the opposition gets multiple rebounds on misses (which we saw
quite a bit last season)? What happens is likely a loss.

You are confusing your arguments.

I'm arguing in favor of keeping Bogut on the floor regardless of hack-a OR regardless of offense defense subs ... specifically to address things like protecting against conceding offensive rebounds. Jackson was afraid of missed Ft's so he was afraid of the hack-a. Jackosn favored a guard friendly pick and roll coverage so he pulled bogut even when the hack-a was off the table. He never considered offense/defense because he was afraid of being exploited on PnR.

Big men getting fouled prior to 2 minutes in the 4th is not something that scares me and asking guards to fight over screens doesn't scare me. Hack-a is a losing strategy that gives our team a big advantage going into those last 2 minutes. Fighting over screens is VITAL if you don't have a super-agile big man like a Noah or a Gibson or Blake or Deandre who can play the hard show coverage effectively.

As far as improving above 34% he would likely improve just by taking more FT's. He shot 38 FT's in 32 games in 12-13 at 50%. He took fewer FT's per game in more games in 13-14 at a lower %. He has limited the sample size to the point where it is all noise and no signal. I would expect him to return to being near 50% FT shooting with no special adjustements just by going to the line more. If there's a special adjustment that works beyond that it's all gravy to me. Having him on the court is more valuable than the missed FT's is the important point.

[East Bay Sports]

Remember when Mark Jackson used to pull Bogut out of games when teams were trying to "hack-a-Bogut".... BEFORE we were even in the bonus? I'll miss that evil genius Preacher

[Mylie10]

Remember 2 years ago when Jackson played hack-a-Dwight? Dwight was so pissed about that. It was definitely something Jackson allowed to become a huge negative for and against us. Hopefully Kerr has thicker skin about it.

[Sleepy51]

Shaq was on the TNT postmortem show this week as they were embarrassing themselves misunderestimating advanced analytics. Of all the players on the panel, only Shaq seemed to have a modest grasp of the concept, pointing out that analytics would have significant value in understanding and comparing role players. The rest couldn't seem to grasp that the whole point of analytics was to negate the overinflation of PPG and other boxscore stats that don't correlate to winning. They just though it was about using boxscores to make game plans. Can't believe Reggie was a UCLA man, he should be smarter than that.

Anyway, on the defense issue, Shaq specifically talked about the hard show PnR coverage and in his opinion it really is all about protecting guards that can't defend. It's asking a big man to venture out of the rebounding and rim protection zone, all the way out to and above the 3 point arc to relive the small player of the burden of working hard enough on D to take an option away from the ballhandler. I think Shaq's feeling probably echoes all big men, or at least the non-freak agility big men, and certainly most of them as they age. It's a coverage predicated on the big man doing 2 things a once while the small basically does nothing except wait for the play to reset.

It's a coverage that works really well in smallball,or with HOF teams that play multi-position 6'9 guys all over the floor. It can work if you have a big traditionalish big man with uncommon agility or if you have freakish big wings who can play the 4 and cover the rebounding and interior defensive responsibility while the true big man goes adventuring out of the perimeter. The entire league has gone toward that coverage because it works well for the best teams. What they forget is that the best teams have the best players and most of those best players include guys with a-positional physicial abilities that give them uncommon options.

The Spurs still ask their guards to fight over most screens. They mostly use the hard show farther down on the wings where the sidline becomes an extra defender. But they try to let Tim and Splitter stay in their lane where they have the most impact.

[Mylie10]

Your whole post reminded me of Nellie and how he'd have Biedrins chasing way out beyond the 3 point line.

[Sleepy51]

Biedrins WAS agile enough to do it and was an excellent pick and roll defender in that scheme until Nellie goaded him into trying to play with his balls hanging out of his ass.