JMac1 wrote:jcsunsfan wrote:AtheJ415 wrote:
It's certainly better, but really we average 20.5 on the season, so we've hit 22 assists plenty times before with our shoot first PGs, and our guards took the bulk of our shots again. It's the system we run. You look at the team assist numbers across the league and most make sense based on how they play. Utah is last, because they post up a ton, for instance.
Archie was 7-17 with 4 assists (although he deserved more imo) and 1 TO. Booker was 6-19 with 1 assist and 3 TOs. Let's be real, we'd crucify both if Bledsoe and Knight put up those lines. It's a system thing, and Booker and Archie played tonight just like our previous guards. Our guards have always been our shot takers and the team overall doesn't get assists because that's how our system is set up. It tries to create a mismatch and then tries to exploit that mismatch 1 on 1. Assists don't come from those scenarios.
On the plus side, Archie hit 8-9 FTs and the game winner, and Len and Chandler had 39 rebounds between them, while Len was 6-10 from the field and had more assists than either of our guards.
This is true.
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This is false. I don't have a problem with shots being missed, I have a problem with the shots being taken. Two of Booker shots were 3 pt heaves to beat the expiring shot clock and he missed shots he normally makes. Knight comes down and just shoots. He only passes if and only if it is impossible to shoot the ball. Knight doesn't even look to pass, and shows frustration if he does. I pointed out his frustration after a brick and Booker took a wide open three during the Pacers game, look it up. Goodwin was forced to take wide open shots because as Eddie said, Atl was going under the screens. As far as the assists being down, it was because no one was making shots, how could you not see that or were you just trying to get on us fans for being hypocritical?
I would love to see a stat that had failed assists because a shot was missed. Attempting an assist and not attempting an assist and having the same number of assist are not the same thing. Stats don't lie but statisticians do. Don't just look at the box score.
Knight and Bledsoe frequently shoot when the clock is expiring. In fact, they always end up having to create when the clock expires on this team, and not once have I seen those pulled out from their shot total, and I read nearly every game thread. Nobody makes shots on our team routinely in the lineups Knight and Bledsoe usually played with (hello, our lineup most of the year has been some combo of Tucker, Chandler, Price, Markieff playing with these guys. Only Tele and Leuer were shooters those guys routinely played with). Rarely have I seen the lack of shooters as an excuse. Instead, it's constantly people upset, claiming they aren't real point guards (and for the record, I agree Knight isn't a PG--he's a 2 guard, which is why we played him at the 2 when Bledsoe wasn't hurt). In Bledsoe's case in particular, his passing numbers are more advanced than guys like Lowry at the same age, but hey, he's just starting the all-star game. The truth is Bledsoe is a better passer than anybody on here gives him credit for, particularly when it comes to setting up 3 point shooters. He's also nowhere near as selfish as people claim. I've seen that dude pass up layups to get open 3s from teammates constantly and to my frustration since you should always take the open layup. Looking at Archie and Booker's numbers from this game and trying to morph them into something noticeably different from our usual guard play is somewhat ridiculous given the nearly identical numbers. The real truth is, Booker and Goodwin aren't better passers than Knight and Bledsoe, and there's nothing wrong with that given their ages, but to say otherwise is just not backed up by any numbers whatsoever. When Knight was playing and PJ and Chandler got assists, the mantra here was "wow, our PGs are so bad that even PJ is a better passer." I guess that all went out the window.
And I saw that play you referred in Indy and was nowhere near as upset as you. He looked frustrated with his miss, and wanted the ball back because he was open again, saw Booker shoot, watched it go in, and then celebrated the made shot. If you're going to blame our guys for a half second of frustration, well watch Chandler and Tucker all game.
The kid has a good game, gets the main mike, then eggs his coach.
