HangTime wrote:I think it's because of their surroundings, they get breathing room.
Spacing helps people if they can hit shots, for sure. Being wide open didn't help Scottie above the arc, and he hasn't really been too interesting otherwise. I realise that we're likely to have him cut down on his volume ATB, which is good, but he isn't really an exciting player from a scoring perspective in any other regard. Those 10- and 12-footers on the left block are nice, as are the elbow and FT line shots, but you can't really build a good scoring game around just that. He's average ish in the RA, he doesn't get there enough, he's weak from the corner, he doesn't dominate the short game, etc, etc.
I think more we'll see his passing open up a little more than his scoring. He IS a good passer. This we've known since he was at Florida State, really. But he was pretty crap with light or no contest in general, so that's not super encouraging for improvement with different spacing. MAYBE life gets easier for him trying to get all the way to the rim, but he was getting slowed by 1 or 2 defenders, not like 3 collapsing in, so I doubt it.
If he's healthy, i do think he can be a 35-37% on 4-5 attempts.
Doubtful. I expect he isn't as crap as he was THIS year, of course. There at least we can agree.
I believe if you swapped Scottie into Cade's spot on Detroit, the Piston as a whole are better,
Christ no, they get even worse on offense with Scottie. 0% chance they improve with a guy whose a worse scorer and playmaker. The D wouldn't even matter that much.
You know how there's advanced stats,
This is like an advanced look. Something deeper that could explain a lot, when people on see "bad" numbers on the surface.
Nah, this remains just a weird look. It's like some 5G contrails conspiracy-level thinking, beyond the fact that Scottie was encouraged to shoot more 3s in a lost season. That part, at least, is sane and accurate.
Hopefully though, we'll be able to feed Scottie some easier looks, take advantage of his passing where possible (like in transition) and largely leave the scoring burden to better players, with better secondary and tertiary options in the offense with the other shooters who should be healthy.
I think OakleyDokley's hope is probably the closest to what we're going to get, something like 17-19 ppg on maybe -1% rTS, depending on how much we let him shoot and how healthy the rest of the team is, give or takes trades and stuff. And that's not great, but it'll be more tolerable with the other options clicking more regularly, anyhow.
We're going to have a problem unless BI is both healthy and playing more like his All-Star self. We're looking like a pretty tepid overall offense without any real efficient options besides Yak, Ochai (neither of whom are volume guys) and maybe BI. Mmm, give or take Jamison Battle, but he's like a 7 ppg C+S guy, so like Ochai, he matters only so much.
Much to wait and see, though. If BI plays 65 games, even as a league-average scorer, that will help a LOT to bring us at least out of the dumpster. Getting past that, though, we'll need to find a competitive advantage. We were 6th-worst inside the arc, 8th-worst from 3 (and 3rd-least attempts, 2nd-lowest 3PAr), crap at protecting the ball, 2nd-worst at the line, 6th-worst at GETTING to the line...
Like, we were brutal. Quick and BI being semi-healthy will help some with the 3pt shooting. Moving touches away from Barnes to Quickley will help, but will be kind of matched off by Ingram, who is also a 12-13% TOV kind of guy on average. We'll have to be careful with Shead, who is a bit of a turnover factory. But yeah, we really lack for shot-making everywhere. Ingram is typically worse than league average inside the arc, he's normally like a 95 2P+ guy, but well above average from 3 and generally very good at getting to the line: last 3 seasons of 40+ GP have had him over .300 FTr, which is excellent, and he has been about an 85% FT shooter his past 300 or so games.
And then there's just giving Scottie fewer shots, which should help a lot.
So, none of this is a pathway to elite offense, but it is potentially a pathway to average offense, which would actually still be a huge improvement. If we were a net-neutral offense, or even like a +0.2 offense, that'd be a huge deal for us if we continue to defend semi-competently. Like, if we're talking 15th offense and like 17th defense, we're flirting with .500 on the season, and any improvement beyond that is gravy.
