MrSparkle wrote:MGB8 wrote:
Siakam is probably the best player in the series, but not by much, and the Celtics figured out that if you cover him with a 3 he loses his offensive edge.
And, even if Siakam is the best player by a small margin, players 2-4, at their current levels of play) would be Tatum, Kemba, and, yes, Brown, followed by old man Lowry, FVV, old man Gasol and at times old man Ibaka, then Marcus Smart and then OG. And speaking of OG old man Lowry... gutsy
What's your tool of measurement? Anecdotal?
In almost advanced category except shot-blocking, Tatum, Brown and Kemba are each individually better than Siakam. VORP, PER, TS Added, as well as PPG. Jaylen is about on par with PER.
Siakam IMO is the 4th best player in the series, and he's had a much worse post-season than last year.
By "in the series," just want to clarify that I didn't mean how he's playing in the series, but overall between the two teams based on their play this season.
Siakam put up 23, 7.5, 3.5 as the best player on the 2nd best team in the east with such weak wing play that they need to start two PGs. While his efficiency went down (from 63% TS last season to 55% this year), that was in conjunction with losing Kwahi and having his usage go up from 20.8 to 28.1%... He's the primary option, without a ton of help. And PER to me is a pretty meaningless "stat" - it's just an amalgamation of other stats weighted in a certain way, but I don't agree with that weighting. It's useful as a snapshot of general productivity - not as a comparison tool unless there are huge differences. Similar, and in fact greater, issue with VORP. As for TS - it means something - but Norm Powell was 62% TS... so what exactly does it mean?
Tatum has marginally better stats, both volume and per minute wise, but it's within the margin of error.... and Boston (1) wasn't as good, and (2) he had the benefit of Walker (who is significantly better than Lowry, particularly at this point in their respective careers), Jaylen Brown (who is significantly better than, say, FVV), Hayward when he was healthy (who is significantly better than OG or Powell, whomever you'd comp him too), etc. Siakam played with better bigs behind him in the declining but productive in limited minutes Gasol and Ibaka... but everything else favored Tatum - and that should mean better efficiency because of the pressure on the defense.
I guess the bottom line is that I give Siakam significant credit for relative "lack of help" and his role on offense in spite of that, while being the lynchpin to Toronto's defense as well - while none of Boston's guys are in that position. That said, you could argue between Tatum and Siakam. Maybe between Kemba and Siakam though Kemba has been the "unhelped guy" on other teams and they haven't been nearly as successful as Toronto was. But that's kind of the point - the Celtics have two "similar tiered" players in Tatum and Kemba, and one (now, two previously) just one level below in Brown (and Hayward)... and Siakam has 33 year old Lowry and wildly overrated FVV...
Finally in 2018! 16 year wait!
