SOTD: All Stats from Philly game

[BorisDK1]

Here is the link to the .pdf presentation for the efficiency stats for last night's game. As usual, the download is free, fast and secure.

[raptorforlife88]

I like Bargnani's stats in this game. Just polar opposites. Godawful offensively with a 67.7 ORTG And absolutely solid defensively with a 88.7 ORTG. 10 Forced misses and only 2 FG's allowed is a really good day by anyone's standards.

Also Jose was shockingly solid defensively. 7.5 Forced misses? I can't remember if he ever did something like that last year when you posted the stats.

[Anatomize]

Just like I stated in the "struggling in preseason" thread, Bargnani had a great defensive game last night.

[Lionel Messi]

According to this, Bargnani was one of our best defensive players last night.

[BorisDK1]

I like Bargnani's stats in this game. Just polar opposites. Godawful offensively with a 67.7 ORTG And absolutely solid defensively with a 88.7 ORTG. 10 Forced misses and only 2 FG's allowed is a really good day by anyone's standards.

Also Jose was shockingly solid defensively. 7.5 Forced misses? I can't remember if he ever did something like that last year when you posted the stats.

I don't know if he managed 7.5 FM in an entire month, let alone a single game. But to give him credit, most of those forced misses were actually well-contested shots that he actually affected, as opposed to easy shots that just happened to miss. He played quite well, defensively.

There are still some concerns for him, such as random reaching after the ball and the tendency to get spun like a dreidel as he's pressuring the ball, by continually crossing his feet. But he's 100% better than last year - at least, he was last game.

As for Bargnani, I have to say that I'm quite happy with his defensive play so far (except his usual weakness on the boards). He's stepping out high on drivers, he's getting on their inside shoulder and forcing a change in angle, he's getting his hand on the shooting hand as well. In short, he's doing a really solid job helping on dribble drives. I see that in the opener he helped his teammates force 6 misses (as opposed to forcing misses individually, such as on his own man) and 4 in the last game and I'm pretty sure 2 of his blocked shots were on drives by players guarded by his teammates. He's shown improvement, obviously. Frankly, I'm not even sure I care about the offensive struggles, yet.

[J-Roc]

So who wants to start the Kleiza sucks thread??

Btw Boris, honestly we don't deserve this much effort.

[raptorforlife88]

According to this, Bargnani was one of our best defensive players last night.

You really can't believe that? He had four blocks and looked pretty solid all night (outside of his rebounding...again) Don't let his terrible offensive game blind you to that.

[Lionel Messi]

According to this, Bargnani was one of our best defensive players last night.

You really can't believe that? He had four blocks and looked pretty solid all night (outside of his rebounding...again) Don't let his terrible offensive game blind you to that.

I was just stating a fact. I definitely can believe it. I guess it sounded a bit cynical or something.

[raptorforlife88]

According to this, Bargnani was one of our best defensive players last night.

You really can't believe that? He had four blocks and looked pretty solid all night (outside of his rebounding...again) Don't let his terrible offensive game blind you to that.

I was just stating a fact. I definitely can believe it. I guess it sounded a bit cynical or something.

My bad for misreading that. I just thought the statement looked skeptical, and because of the general view of the board right now.

[dagger]

More troubling is Sonny's defensive game since he should be an absolute pillar. I like Barbosa so far on both sides of the ball. Even Calderon, while hopelessly slow laterally, is benefitting a little bit from the new defence which allows him to crowd the opposition point guard (although that doesn't work against the likes of a Derrick Rose).

[Zeno]

More troubling is Sonny's defensive game since he should be an absolute pillar. I like Barbosa so far on both sides of the ball. Even Calderon, while hopelessly slow laterally, is benefitting a little bit from the new defence which allows him to crowd the opposition point guard (although that doesn't work against the likes of a Derrick Rose).

They didn't crowd anyone during the Bulls game. They took the starting lineup Jay went with as a message that the game was to be mailed in.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Thanks for the work.

Weems is the player that concerns me the most.

[Clutch Carter]

Thank you very much Borris. You do great work.

[BorisDK1]

Thanks for the work.

Weems is the player that concerns me the most.

Weems was solid defensively last year, I wouldn't be that concerned about it. Besides, his DRat even in a subpar game for him was still 103.3 - roughly 10 points allowed / 100 possessions better than what the team averaged last year.

Some perspective: in three out of our four games to date, we've limited our opponents to less than a point per possession. I don't know if we did that more than three times total all of last season. To say we've been far more successful accomplishing what Jay's wanted to get done so far this season is a massive understatement.

[Lionel Messi]

You really can't believe that? He had four blocks and looked pretty solid all night (outside of his rebounding...again) Don't let his terrible offensive game blind you to that.

I was just stating a fact. I definitely can believe it. I guess it sounded a bit cynical or something.

My bad for misreading that. I just thought the statement looked skeptical, and because of the general view of the board right now.

I was skeptical last night, because I was at the game and didn't see his block totals on the boxscore. I personally saw him miss at least 3-5 rotations/help assignments but I can't be too harsh on him, no one gets them all and it's not like Reggie or Andersen were doing any better.

Seeing that he actually was probably our best defender in the game is certainly encouraging.

[JJWong17]

I was skeptical last night, because I was at the game and didn't see his block totals on the boxscore. I personally saw him miss at least 3-5 rotations/help assignments but I can't be too harsh on him, no one gets them all and it's not like Reggie or Andersen were doing any better.

Seeing that he actually was probably our best defender in the game is certainly encouraging.

Yeah I think it was in the PG thread that I saw you say he had a terrible defensive game? You were so adamant about it too that though I entered the thread wanting to say that I was very happy with his defensive game, you had me doubting whether I had actually seen what I'd seen or if it was just wishful thinking on my part. I'm not taking a shot at you, just saying that you were so certain that you made me uncertain.

Looking at the stats Boris has compiled (and a wonderful job he's done at it), I'm happy to see that I'm not totally clueless when it comes to watching basketball. I think his stop% was a lot higher than normal, even though normally that's the best part of his defensive game, because Brand just has a terrible time trying to score over him. It's like the worst match up for Elton and watching him try to post up and score over Bargnani almost made me feel sorry for him.

[Lionel Messi]

I was skeptical last night, because I was at the game and didn't see his block totals on the boxscore. I personally saw him miss at least 3-5 rotations/help assignments but I can't be too harsh on him, no one gets them all and it's not like Reggie or Andersen were doing any better.

Seeing that he actually was probably our best defender in the game is certainly encouraging.

Yeah I think it was in the PG thread that I saw you say he had a terrible defensive game? You were so adamant about it too

All I said was that I saw him miss a bunch of rotations and he was slow when providing help, which is still true, but compared to the rest of our bigs he was doing pretty well and then of course he had a good defensive game in a 1v1 matchup with Brand or something (which I would expect tbh).

He didn't impress me at all on the glass though.

[JJWong17]

Oh yeah, I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm saying you were so sure that I went from happy to sad and then wondered if I actually knew how to watch basketball.

And no, he didn't. That early moment, where he and 2 other Raptors players boxed out and the rebound bounced right in the middle of them? That was ridiculous. I know it wasn't a miss but really, who the hell does that? Just grab the damned thing, seriously. There were other moments of yelling and the stats here indicate that. He was 6th, behind Jack and Barbosa, in DRB%.

[Indeed]

I still have a few concern with Bargnani's defense, even it seems his defense is alright on paper.

- He seems not very understand what his opponent is doing (or his opponent's strength), and often watch his off-ball man to set picks instead of using his body or hands to feel his man with his head turning to the ball handler. He needs to keep his head looking around (just like driving, look at the mirror from time to time, instead of a noob driver, just look in front)

- Another thing is, he is not mobile and active enough. Watching Andersen, he shows he can help and recover on his man, while Bargnani doesn't understand he can help, and go back his own man with a lot of time to defend his man.

- Positioning is another problem, as he should be in the passing lane, and wait for others to recover. He needs to learn how to play as a team, and stop thinking one on one. He needs to switch back as soon as possible as well. If he is switched and standing next to an off ball player no where near the ball and -the paint, then he is wrong. He should go double team, and disallow others to attack from the paint.

[BorisDK1]

Yeah I think it was in the PG thread that I saw you say he had a terrible defensive game? You were so adamant about it too that though I entered the thread wanting to say that I was very happy with his defensive game, you had me doubting whether I had actually seen what I'd seen or if it was just wishful thinking on my part. I'm not taking a shot at you, just saying that you were so certain that you made me uncertain.

Looking at the stats Boris has compiled (and a wonderful job he's done at it), I'm happy to see that I'm not totally clueless when it comes to watching basketball. I think his stop% was a lot higher than normal, even though normally that's the best part of his defensive game, because Brand just has a terrible time trying to score over him. It's like the worst match up for Elton and watching him try to post up and score over Bargnani almost made me feel sorry for him.

A stop% of .827? Almost unheard-of. Bargnani's average last year was .552. Even with a much-improved focus on the defensive end, I'd be shocked if that pushes .600, let alone beyond. Although we only have estimates based on boxscore data and the estimated method, a .600 stop% puts you up into Scottie Pippen range, and suffice it to say I don't see that happening.