Rerisen wrote:The reason he's scoring better is largely he is being used better, not almost exclusively in the post where his skills are in natural decline due to aging.
And you will notice, we have not moved his usage back to high volume posting as would be the case if we just had to 'wait' for him to get in gear.
Well, I really think you should forget about your eye-test, which is not that accurate, and check the numbers before insisting on some arguments.
As I've said before regarding both Pau and the Bulls offense in general, mainly in some of those doom and gloom threads, it is common sense to know that when you have a number of new options on your team (Pau, Rose, 2014/15 Butler) it's going to take some time until things start clicking. Moreso with big guys as they're not the ones to bring the ball up the court and they need to be fed in order to get the ball where they can do more damage. And as someone who's followed Pau quite more closely and for way longer than you (there's no merit in that, but it gives you a different perspective and a bigger picture), I also know how he usually starts the season and how he gets better from there, especially during the last few years.
Yet instead of aknowleding that, you conformed a whole story that fit your predicaments about how Pau wasn't an efficient player, how he hadn't been efficient for years and how we should go away from him in the post, which you still mantain against the facts.
So, about those low-post touches and looks, I'm afraid the numbers show quite a different story:
- In November Pau took 66.7% of his shots within 9 feet from the basket, scoring with a 49.3 eFG% overall.
- In December he got the lowest usage rate of any month this season and at the same time he attempted just 58.1% from within 9 feet, while his eFG% fell to 45.8. So no, him getting too many touches down low wasn't the problem.
- In January his usage rate when up again and he also took 59.6% of his shots from within 9 feet, with a eFG% of 50.4%. So he shot *more* from the low block, not less, and his eFG% went *up*, not down.
And yet you keep repeating how we've gone away from feeding him so much in the post and how that's what's helped his efficiency.
Not sure why you are addressing this to me in specific either, a would bet a majority of Bulls fans agree with the position that its stupid to play him 12 straight minutes because often he is *obviously tired* by the end of it. His speed and effort are visibly less by the end of the quarter many nights. There is simply no need, we have 4 quality bigs.
Well, I'm addressing this to you because we've talked about it before and you won't move your stance one bit despite what's trully been happening on the court. No offense, but it seems like you *need* to be right and you've built that narrative around something that is just not there.
So it's not a matter of Pau 'naturally shoots better as the season goes' that is an entirely exclusive point quite separate from his minutes load. He could shoot better as the year goes on, and shoot even better yet, if we didn't over do his minute stints.
Pau's played 35 mpg each and every month of the season, and he still plays 12 minute stints, so that's not what's made his shooting % better, just like it's not been going away from him in the post.
Does it mean I want him playing 12-minutes stints game in and game out? Not at all. As a coach you have to go with what the game dictates, whether that's 8 minutes, 12 or 15 on a given night. But that's not the point here. My previous paragraph is.
Beyond that, the Bulls have changed their use of Pau in exactly the ways I was arguing for, and the team is way better for doing it.
Again, they haven't. And believe me it's fine if you're not right, there's just no point in going against the facts over and over again. You've said he's been no better than the rest of the Bulls main bigs, that he's just an average efficiency scorer (he's 9th in the league in TS% among big guys scoring at least 15 ppg), that he's not dominant in the low post anymore (that's why he keeps getting doubled, I guess), that Thibs was going away from him at the post and at the end of games showing who he trusts (it took you two games to formulate that argument, and you see how it's lasted), that they were reducing his post touches and for a good reason... And you've been wrong about all of it.
There's something else you once said on this topic too:
Both the media and fans love to build feel good narratives even if they don't mesh with reality.
Well, I think you've built a feel-bad narrative even though it doesn't mesh with reality, and I don't see the point in sustaining it. The team seems to be getting better step by step, it doesn't matter if it is for different reasons.
My honest advice, if you want to take it, would be to start watching the games from scratch, forget your prejudices, and get a new look on what's really happening on the court. It'll be refreshing, you'll see.
