Prokorov wrote:So we didnt have our most success as a team without lopez in 13-14?
Well, we still finished with a worse record in 13-14 than we did in 12-13. We did have a higher winning percentage after Lopez went down than during the previous year, although I am sure you can cherry-pick other win streaks over the years.
Sure, we made it to the second round. Big whoop. The Bulls were a far worse matchup for us than the Raptors were. Thibs understood defense and he basically exploited our greatest weakness - floor-spacing. Hard to win when you're giving huge minutes to Wallace/Evans. During the 14-15 season, we stole two wins from the Hawks, despite having a terrible team outside of Lopez/Dwill/Thad. I was probably most impressed with that to be honest.
I think you are missing the point though - you are committing the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Even if we establish we played the best basketball we ever did after Lopez went down is that because of Lopez going down?
There are many competing explanations of why we improved, which you have done a poor job of eliminating. The 17 games with Lopez is a small, small sample size, first of all. Players could have simply improved as the season went along and they got more comfortable with each other. Indeed, this team had no chemistry in the early going. We also had a new coach who changed his system as the season went along. You also fail to mention confounding variables like early season injuries. Our defensive rating was stellar the first 7 games Lopez played that year. It took a nose dive during the period he missed and when he returned from an ankle injury. Lopez played multiple games were Pierce was injured with a hand injury, Deron with an ankle injury, and KG for rest/injury. All this occurred when he himself was playing banged up. In a small sample size, injuries like that will definitely have a distorting effect.
You also fail to mention that going "small,' and inserting Livingston, arguably our best defender, into the starting lineup and sliding Joe/Pierce to the 4 helped the team immensely. This was a massive change to the offensive and defense system. Yet, this could have happened while Lopez was still on the team, and may well have in a hypothetical universe where he never got injured. IMO, KG should have come off the bench, with Livingston in the starting lineup and PP at the 4.
You also fail to speak of these confounding variables when making year-to-year comparisons. That 13-14 season had so much more depth than the 12-13 team. Outside of Lopez, Dwill, Blatche, and Joe that 12-13 was dreadful. Wallace/Evans were replacement level players getting massive minutes. No one on our bench could shoot or defend. We had zero floor-spacing.
In that 13-14 season we added Livingston, Plumlee, KG, Pierce, Alan Anderson, Teletovic (who barely played the prior year), Terry, and AK. That is a drastically different team with far more talent and depth. Reggie Evans, our previous starter, couldn't even crack the rotation! You fail to mention any of this.
Anyway, since after Lopez went down we had more success that means it is because of Lopez, is hardly a compelling argument, especially without doing any of the legwork necessary to make a fair comparison. And with that early season sample being so microscopic, I think it's very hard to make a compelling argument even with controlling for variables since that kind of sample is so prone to variance.