zaz102 wrote:Slacktard wrote:ProcessDoctor wrote:We need some coaching magic in game 6. Can't just play Embiid 48 minutes and cross your fingers.
Will Nurse have finally learned his lesson?
Keeping Embiid in the game tonight with a 5-point lead only for a hobbled and gassed Embiid to be on the court while the Knicks then go on a 8-0 run serves NO PURPOSE AT ALL.
If you're going to let teams go on a run *with* a gassed Embiid, then take him out so when you put him back in you have a better chance of making up for whatever you 'gave up' with him out, but fresher.
Problem is they get down quickly with BBall in. They tried a short time with a small ball lineup, but that didn't work great either. Only other real option is Bamba. I wouldn't be surprised to see him next game, but I'm skeptical that he'll fare any better.
I don't know how Bamba would fare in the playoffs, but statistically in the regular season Bamba is pretty much a league-average center, which is what we've been hoping for as a backup for Embiid! He looks bad to the eye maybe, but his length is almost as absurd as Wemby's. That length by itself seems to impact the game in invisible ways, because his stats are worlds better than the eye test. It seems like everyone talks down Mo Bamba, but the numbers...
.128 WS/48 is comparable to Naz Reid, Brook Lopez
17.8% TRB% is comparable to Bam Adebayo, Evan Mobley
39% 3pt% is better than Porzingis, Holmgren, or Brook Lopez
7.4% blk% is better than any qualified player not named Wembanyama
15.4 PER is basically league average. (The stat itself is designed so that 15.0 is average.)
.575 TS% is below league-average (if he qualified), but not by a ton
I'm not suggesting that he'd keep those numbers up if he played starter's minutes and always against the first string of a playoff team, but the narrative that Bamba is just terrible doesn't come from his stats. It comes from him looking like a bonehead on the court, and then add confirmation bias on top of it. But for every foul or turnover or missed assignment, there must be an opponent's missed shot or shot-not-taken that keeps his advanced stats looking okay. And his counting stats actually look good.
I assume since he's not playing that there's evidence that those stats are mostly piled up against weak benches, but as bad as things have gone it might be worth trying Bamba for 8 minutes or so. Paul Reed has decent stats, too - some better and some worse than Bamba's. But when he spells Embiid it hasn't translated to good stretches. It's a different look, though, when you put someone in who is even longer than Embiid.
