Current Usage Rates in the OKC-DAL series

[HotRocks34]

Luka's usage is way down through Game 2. That might be because he's hurt but perhaps this is the formula for Dallas?

If Washington can keep scoring that would be big for the Mavs.


DAL




OKC

[ChipotleWest]

There's nothing there it just says DAL and OKC there's no numbers.

[HotRocks34]

There's nothing there it just says DAL and OKC there's no numbers.

Must be a server issue. I see it.

Link for numbers:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2024-nba-western-conference-semifinals-mavericks-vs-thunder.html

[og15]

It's two games, so not much to say. Maybe? Who knows?

Of course teams always love if their role players give big contributions, but they likely won't expect Washington to keep scoring so much and for Kyrie to stay at 11 FGA/G either.

[The Servant]

I like the idea of Giddey more than I actually do on court. Give all his minutes to Cason and the 2nd William. At least with the other William you get a bit more size and they don't let him be a "self check".

[hagredionis]

In my opinion SGA should pass the ball more.

[HotRocks34]

Ok, we have our final stats for the series. Let's take a look.


OKC:

Shai.......31.9
Giddey...25.4
Jal Will..21.2
Chet.......19.0
Wiggins..18.4
Dort........16.3
Jay Will...15.2
Joe..........14.7
Wallace...12.1


DAL:

Luka.........28.0
Washg......19.6
Gafford.....19.2
Kyrie..........19.1
Hardwy......19.0
Lively.........17.1
Jones........16.9
Green........15.1


Was Shai's usage too high or was it what it should be given his strong shooting in the series? Are you surprised at the relatively low usage of Luka?

The balance of the Dallas numbers but for Luka is IMO pretty remarkable.

[CoP]

I'm not a huge fan of USG%. It just gives an idea of how much FGA+FTA+TOV a player has compared to his entire team. It's ok but not great imo

I'd prefer to look at touches per game and seconds per touch. I think that gives a truer sense of what one means when they say usage. You could also mix in some other variables like passes made, turnovers and offensive rebounds in addition to FGAs and FTAs vs. the whole team to get an even better sense of a player's offensive "usage" imo.

IDK if that is up or down for Luka compared to the 1st round, the regular season, or previous playoff runs.

[HotRocks34]

IDK if that is up or down for Luka compared to the 1st round, the regular season, or previous playoff runs.

In the 2022 WCF playoff run, for example, Luka's usage was 40%.

His number in this series was low, for him.

[Archx]

I guess OKC would have been done sooner if his USG% was higher and had functioning 2 good legs instead of just one lol.

Read on Twitter

[tsherkin]

I guess OKC would have been done sooner if his USG% was higher and had functioning 2 good legs instead of just one lol.

Read on Twitter

Kind of a misleading tweet, especially given that he was around 1.5% below league-average for efficiency (although actually +0.3% rTS for the playoffs). The rest of his performance was pretty damned good, though, and he shot a hair over 39% from 3 on the series and about 48.5% inside the arc (which was ass, and about 9% worse than his RS 2FG%). He was struggling to make shots the whole series to a rough extent, and that move from +3.7% rTS to +0.3% is a big shift in his utility as a volume scorer, so it's accurate to crack on him for his performance (albeit while recognizing the issues his knees are presenting), if only a little. He did a pile of other stuff while he was struggling, though, and it's worth noting how much he ramped down his shooting volume. 23.6 FGA/g in the RS, 25.5 in the first round, 19.0 FGA/g against the Thunder.

Looks to me like he recognized what was up and made an adjustment so he wasn't canning the team by chucking, which is nice to see. Very anti-Westbrook.

[Archx]

I guess OKC would have been done sooner if his USG% was higher and had functioning 2 good legs instead of just one lol.

Read on Twitter

Kind of a misleading tweet, especially given that he was around 1.5% below league-average for efficiency (although actually +0.3% rTS for the playoffs). The rest of his performance was pretty damned good, though, and he shot a hair over 39% from 3 on the series and about 48.5% inside the arc (which was ass, and about 9% worse than his RS 2FG%). He was struggling to make shots the whole series to a rough extent, and that move from +3.7% rTS to +0.3% is a big shift in his utility as a volume scorer, so it's accurate to crack on him for his performance (albeit while recognizing the issues his knees are presenting), if only a little. He did a pile of other stuff while he was struggling, though, and it's worth noting how much he ramped down his shooting volume. 23.6 FGA/g in the RS, 25.5 in the first round, 19.0 FGA/g against the Thunder.

Looks to me like he recognized what was up and made an adjustment so he wasn't canning the team by chucking, which is nice to see. Very anti-Westbrook.

We all know he struggled with his shooting due to various factors but he did other small things right. Specially on defensive end, he doesn't get enough credit because that's not popular around here.

[tsherkin]

We all know he struggled with his shooting due to various factors but he did other small things right. Specially on defensive end, he doesn't get enough credit because that's not popular around here.

Yeah, that was kind of my point at the end. He scaled back his shooting volume, did a whole pile of other stuff. And as you noted, his defense isn't spoken about enough for the series, for sure.