Saberestar wrote:sunsbg wrote:WeekapaugGroove wrote:He probably just doesn't have a coach who knows how to use him or a PG that lets him excel
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Ayton's shots decreased by five going from Rubio to CP3. I can't understand why people around here act like it's all on Ayton and his development has nothing to do with how he's been used. It's both.
And we went from a non-playoff team to the Finals.
Team success over individual success.
I think for now the team is much better with Ayton on an smaller role and that was verified with his meh games recently as a primary option on offense.
As long as the team is healthy, I think he can get as many shots as the defense gives in a game. Ideally this will and probably should be about 12-15 shots a game. But it can be more. Most of his games with around 20 shots prior to all the injuries resulted in between 28-31 points. He had 5 or 6 of those prior to additional injuries to and losses or more players than just Cam, Paul and Crowder.
Ayton scored about 1.45 pps the last two years, but is at 1.31 this year
The other starters are as follows:
Book and CP3 hover around 1.3. Book being on higher volume with so much self creation makes this more impressive than anyone else.
Cam was at 1.35 PPS last year, second best on team, but is first this year at 1.41 ppg
Bridges is at 1.25 this year but at 1.35 last year.
Bridges AND Ayton are down on efficiency this year largely because of taking on top two options with no other options or any ballhandlers for a decent stretch, and it really impacted both of their efficiency compared to what is was prior to that and last year.
The others have played almost exclusively when at least 4 of the starters were there, and have remained about the same with efficiency, except Cam, who was the only guy to play all his games early when team was fully healthy and is hot upon return with only Book missing out of starting lineup (albeit on small sample size).
I think people focus a little too much on # of shots or who is what option, but I think it depends on what the opposing defense is giving, who is hot, etc. Shots will vary and different guys will step up. Ayton and Cam are great to utilize if open or facing mismatches and Book is the best option against a tough D where everyone is well guarded (or Paul when he is/was at the top of his game). Bridges has been but typically takes open 3s and cuts to the basket, though I think he has has added some nice self creation (though I'm sure some disagree with this).
Our team started winning more when Paul came mostly because he is a top notch HOF PG and our young guys were in their 2nd and 3rd years. (Cam in second but was in college 4 years..Bridges 3rd but in college 4 years..Ayton the least experienced with 1 college year and going into 3rd year, but he rapidly improved too). Paul was the perfect leader, not only on the court but off the court, and emphasized defense to Book and Ayton and helped the other guys with efficiency, making sure he dissected and took advantage of the defense. In addition, Ayton really worked on his midrange game and hook shots and became elite from the field last year...after being nearly elite the year before in comparisons with other Cs across the league when looking at efficiency and volume.
Our team and invividual players, +/-, on/off, etc, is too difficult to really analyze or put much stock into, and given lineups, Ayton and Bridges efficiency have taken big hits when so many people are out.
It's really quite obvious but so many ignore all that and thought/think they suddenly got a lot worse on offense after both being elite in efficiency the last two years, both among league leaders.
