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If this has already been posted, I apologize. This is a comparison of the team's league rankings in some of the key statistical categories between this season (Skiles) and 2014-15 (Vaughn/Borrego). They rose in the rankings in every one of these categories.

Defensive PPG
2014-15: 23rd
2015-16: 18th

Offensive PPG
2014-15: 25th
2015-16: 18th

Defensive FG%
2014-15: 28th
2015-16: 20th

Offensive FG%
2014-15: 14th
2015-16: 12th

Turnovers Forced
2014-15: 12th
2015-16: 10th

Turnovers Committed
2014-15: 23rd
2015-16: 15th

The two biggest jumps were Defensive FG% (8 spots) and Turnovers Committed (8 spots).

The two worst categories under JV were Defensive FG% (28th) and Offensive PPG (25th). They jumped 8 spots in the former, and 7 spots in the latter.

I've wondered before whether it's better to compare league rankings, or the actual stats themselves. Sometimes a league ranking could improve majorly with only a minor improvement, because it depends on the league standard at the time.

I guess it's best to compare both for an overall feel. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

Both are ideal. But the game evolves over time. Especially now, with the league having more accurate shooters.

TBH, the biggest improvement we made is we had a +11 (IIRC) in our win record. And thats bigger than any of these stats.

I'd say league rank is most important simply because any stat is only significant relative to the performance of the rest of the league at that time.

Magic_Kingdom wrote:Defensive PPG
2014-15: 23rd
2015-16: 18th

Defensive FG%
2014-15: 28th
2015-16: 20th

There is no way does this make Skiles happy.

Remember when we were in the Top 10 defensively at the start of the season (and even at one point I think Top 5)? Skiles will no doubt he stressing that this summer to the players and be stressing that the defense must get better if we want to make the playoffs.

I just can't believe we went from being Top 10 through the first 25-30 games and then just fell off a cliff.

Bensational wrote:I've wondered before whether it's better to compare league rankings, or the actual stats themselves. Sometimes a league ranking could improve majorly with only a minor improvement, because it depends on the league standard at the time.

I guess it's best to compare both for an overall feel. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

May Skiles have proved you wrong?

Bensational wrote:I've wondered before whether it's better to compare league rankings, or the actual stats themselves. Sometimes a league ranking could improve majorly with only a minor improvement, because it depends on the league standard at the time.

I guess it's best to compare both for an overall feel. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

While the raw numbers are interesting, it's performance against the rest of the league (against the "norm", if you will) that tell the story when making this sort of statistical comparison.

Looking at performance against a set criteria isn't particularly meaningful when that criteria really needs to be a moving target due to changes in team makeup (all teams), defensive and offensive trends, culture changes in how the league plays, rules changes, changes to how refs are calling games, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera.

UCFJayBird wrote:Remember when we were in the Top 10 defensively at the start of the season (and even at one point I think Top 5)? Skiles will no doubt he stressing that this summer to the players and be stressing that the defense must get better if we want to make the playoffs.

I just can't believe we went from being Top 10 through the first 25-30 games and then just fell off a cliff.

You could kind of see it coming early in the year. They rarely made in-game adjustments to how they would cover certain plays and players. They rarely ever hedged on pick n' roll coverage and they almost never switched on screens late in the shot clock when it would make for an advantageous match up (until later in the year when they started to employ it more with AG in the SL). And they were also late closing out on a lot of 3 point attempts in the corners early on; I think we benefitted from teams just not hitting them early on. As the season went on, the law of averages played out. Before 2016, we were 8th in opponents 3 point FG%. By the end of the season, we fell to 19th.

My unscientific observation is that the Magic's pick and roll defense was atrocious and, as you pointed out, didn't ever change through the course of the season. I can't understand why Skiles didn't change the team's approach during games or throughout the year. Is there a defensive metric for pick and roll defense to see where the Magic stacked up this year and last year?

The team did improve 10 spots from last year for opponents 3 point % (from 29th to 19th) by reducing effectiveness 9% points (from .368 to .359). But I wouldn't count being basically in the bottom third of the league in defensive 3pt % and overall defensive FG% for a team designed to be defensively strong and coached by a guy who's supposed to have defensive coaching as a strength.

I think the interpretation of that data is quite clear: Under JV we sucked pretty bad. Under Skiles we suck slightly less.

The thing is, I think we would've improved with any coach naturally. I didn't mind Skiles towards the end of the season but his decision making when trying to find fixes while we were floundering left a lot to be desired.

I credit Skiles with all these team improvements.

drsd wrote:

Magic_Kingdom wrote:Defensive PPG
2014-15: 23rd
2015-16: 18th

Defensive FG%
2014-15: 28th
2015-16: 20th

There is no way does this make Skiles happy.

And it shouldn't..... Do better.

I think the lack of in game adjustments had a lot to do with the players bad habits. Skiles routinely said the players pulled it off in practice and seemed to understand the defensive play book. So he didn't know why guys weren't executing during the games.

There's always a learning curve with a new coach which some fans didn't want to acknowledge or simply too impatient to understand.

BadMofoPimp wrote:I credit Skiles with all these team improvements.

I credit JV for setting the bar so low.