the ultimates wrote:bearadonisdna wrote:More Jimmy talk.
Advanced stats arent that kind to wiggins. Wiggins is playing the 3 and jimmy the 2 mostly.(According to bball reference play by play)
Wouldnt it help their team if jimmy was the sf? A stouter player to play the position vs struggling player wiggins.
Then what do they do with Wiggins? It's already a really short rotation. Do you give more minutes to a 37-year-old Jamal Crawford?
Just from what I've noticed, B-R.com's "Position Played" (for lack of a better term) is basically just a guess, based on a player's listed position and size. For example:
Lauri - 82% PF, 18% C
Bobby - 49% PF, 51% C
Niko - 99% PF, 0% C (and 0% SF)
Obviously, whether Niko is on the floor with Portis or Markk, he's listed as the PF. Almost certainly, Bobby is the PF and Lauri the C when they are on the floor together, since we know Lauri plays nothing but PF with Lopez (and nothing but C with Niko), and that's who he shares most of his minutes with.
Whichever combo was out there, it's not like there was much difference at all saying who was the center. Generically, Lauri should be the PF and Bobby the C, since Lauri shoots more 3's. Who guarded the PF and who guarded the C is based on matchups with that night's opponent.
Nwaba has played 3% of his minutes at PG, I guess just because he's listed as a PG, and that gives him about 29-30 minutes at PG. He has been on the floor with Holiday/Valentine/2 bigs for 15 minutes, and almost certainly those 15 minutes would show Nwaba at PG on B-R.com, even though Denzel would be the de facto PG with those lineups on the floor.
But assuming he's out there with Holiday and Valentine for those "PG" minutes, Denzel is certainly the PG on offense. And Nwaba is guarding the best perimeter player on the other team, be it a PG, SG or SF.
The old adage is that your position is who you guard on the other, but that's going away more each year as more teams go to positionless basketball.
Back to Jimmy and Wiggins, Wiggins shoots more 3's, which generically would make him the SG on offense. Jimmy has many more assists, which generically would make him the SG on offense.
I'm assuming that during almost all of their shared minutes, Jimmy is guarding the opponent's best wing, whether said opponent is a SG or a SF.
Put Jamal out there with Jimmy or Wiggins and he's obviously the SG, as long as Tyus is on the floor.
But put him out there with Jimmy and Wiggins, and he seems to obviously be the PG, even though Jimmy gives MIN more assists. But I'm sure there have been lots of games that Jimmy guarded the PG when JB/JC/AW is their 1-2-3 combo.
That trio vs OKC, it's pretty safe to assume that Jimmy is guarding PG Westbrook and Jamal is guarding SG Roberson, since he has no offensive game to speak of.
I don't know if there's a point to all the crap I just typed, other than the NBA keeps going more positionless with each passing season. Guys who can play multiple positions on offense (and more importantly, can guard multiple positions on defense) are becoming more and more valuable all the time.
