pingpongrac wrote:JB7 wrote:Ok, since Siakam has returned from his injury (first game back was against the Cavs on Nov. 28th), and as well as he has played, the teams record over that time is 4-9. And the next 8 are against: Cavs, Clippers, Griz, Suns, Pacers, Bucks, Knicks and Blazers (generally all teams well above .500). The Raps record at that point (since Siakam's return) could be like 5-16.
So either the whole team around him sucks. Or his play is not actually elevating his team to win. Either way, it screams trade him now, while his value seems to be peaking, because if the team does suck that much, adding a player here or there is not going to do much to shift the overall performance of this team.
The team as a whole has been vastly underperforming as of late because of injuries (Achiuwa and Porter have missed all 13 games while OG and GTJ have missed 4 each) and some slumps for some key players (FVV and Scottie were terrible for 4 or 5 games at the start of this stretch and Boucher has been brutal almost the entire 13 games while Banton and Flynn have been mostly unplayable) coinciding with the tougher schedule. They have sucked for the most part recently, but they are much better than they've shown.
Regarding Siakam's play and if it elevates the team...I think it's pretty obvious as just about every single key player looks much better when they share the floor with Siakam.
Scoring (per36) and efficiency with/without SiakamGTJ: 20.8 PTS on 62 TS% vs 17.7 PTS on 47 TS%
Banton: 16.7 PTS on 54 TS% vs 19.5 PTS on 50 TS%
OG: 16.6 PTS on 59 TS% vs 20.1 PTS on 56 TS%
Scottie: 16.4 PTS on 59 TS% vs 15.0 PTS on 46 TS%
Boucher: 15.3 PTS on 63 TS% vs 18.2 PTS on 53 TS%
FVV: 15.2 PTS on 51 TS% vs 22.2 PTS on 54 TS%
Flynn: 12.6 PTS on 42 TS% vs 19.5 PTS on 69 TS%
Birch: 12.0 PTS on 63 TS% vs 7.6 PTS on 60 TS%
Achiuwa: 12.0 PTS on 49 TS% vs 18.9 PTS on 50 TS%
Thad: 10.7 PTS on 63 TS% vs 11.0 PTS on 56 TS%
Juancho: 9.3 PTS on 63 TS% vs 8.9 PTS on 58 TS%
Koloko: 7.1 PTS on 50 TS% vs 9.1 PTS on 50 TS%
Outside of FVV (and OG to a lesser extent), all of our top players greatly benefit from playing with Siakam. In particular, the on/off Siakam splits of Scottie and GTJ (2-3 points less on ~15% lower TS%) are absurd...which makes it wild when people claim Siakam is holding Scottie back.
Is the with vs without ordering correct in that list, because if it is, and 'with Siakam' is the first set of numbers, pretty much all of the key players score more without Siakam on the floor, and some by a lot.
I would think GTJ on/offs are influenced more by FVV than Siakam, and it might be that GTJ is performing better with Siakam, because Fred is on the floor less, as Nurse tries to have one of PS or FVV on the floor at all times.
In terms of Scottie, I think the problem is as other media have stated, that they are both essentially the same types of players. To be their most effective, they need the ball in their hands a lot, look to drive to the basket, and need to be surrounded by shooters. I think for Scottie, when he is on the floor with Pascal, PS dominates the ball, and when Pascal is off, then Fred is probably on the floor with Scottie, and dominates the ball. And Scottie can just tune out, because they are not generally looking to him as a shooter.
Scottie's frustrations seem to be that he expected to have the ball in his hands more this season, after his rookie campaign, and it has been the opposite, with PS playing a much more dominant roll with the ball, and Fred sucking up what is left, to keep his numbers up. The team tried playing Fred off ball to start the season, but I think the problem that has come about is it killed his production so much, it is now threatening his next contract.
The team has generally been about trying to keep the players happy, so for guys like PS and FVV, who have been there longer, and looking at their next big deals, the coaching staff has differed to them, at the expense of others on the roster. They probably feel they have more time with Barnes to correct things. Also, it doesn't hurt to play up PS and FVV's values. Yes it can translate into more expensive contracts, but it also translates into more tradeable assets. But clearly, PS and FVV going off is not generating a lot of success, as their record would indicate.
