2018-2019 OKC Thunder Regular Season Pt 1: A Renewed Hope

[getrichordie]

Let’s say you could only keep one of Diallo or Ferguson. Who do you keep and why?


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[CROklahoma]

Diallo, cause of everything , right now.

But it seems TF could somehow erupt in his 4th year and become a stud.

Id stick to both of them and be stuborn, giving them lots of rotation minutes.

[getrichordie]

Diallo, cause of everything , right now.

But it seems TF could somehow erupt in his 4th year and become a stud.

Id stick to both of them and be stuborn, giving them lots of rotation minutes.

Yeah, it’s close for me but I’d give the slight edge to Diallo if only because he just has so much damn confidence in himself. If he can develop a catch and shoot game, my god. I also like his frame better than Ferguson.

But this my main reason for concern with Roberson coming back because you will be taking minutes away from those guys most likely. Hell, maybe you can slide George down to the 4 and get rid of Patterson somehow.


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[slick_watts]

But this my main reason for concern with Roberson coming back because you will be taking minutes away from those guys most likely.

and thank the lord for that. i'm sorry, diallo and ferguson are both scrubs right now. maybe that changes eventually. we're getting excited over two guys who can't shoot and have zero offensive game and can barely play defense without fouling.

russell westbrook is 30 and the team is 70 mil in the tax. winning time is now. i don't care how many minutes anyone gets so long as the best units are on the court. and unless 'dre is completely broken, he's vastly superior to either diallo or ferguson.

[Pillendreher]

But this my main reason for concern with Roberson coming back because you will be taking minutes away from those guys most likely.

and thank the lord for that. i'm sorry, diallo and ferguson are both scrubs right now. maybe that changes eventually. we're getting excited over two guys who can't shoot and have zero offensive game and can barely play defense without fouling.

russell westbrook is 30 and the team is 70 mil in the tax. winning time is now. i don't care how many minutes anyone gets so long as the best units are on the court. and unless 'dre is completely broken, he's vastly superior to either diallo or ferguson.

While I completely agree with you in general, I think two things are not as bad as you make them out to be regarding those two guys. I think Diallo has already shown some skill going to the basket and Ferguson has been much better at defending without fouling, moving his feet, rotating, etc. But still: Roberson should not get a reduced role because of those two guys.

[Pillendreher]

Almost 20 games played, which means the sample size of games is getting bigger and bigger. These kind of ratings are still somewhat circular, but I think it's still worth a look:

NetRtG adjusted for strength of opponent: +5.15 NetRtG/A, currently 5th in the league, good for a 55 win pace
ORtG adjusted for strength of opponent defenses: 107.5, currently 23rd in the league, 2.2pp100p worse than league average
DRtG adjusted for strength of opponent offense: 102.4, currently 1st in the league, 7.5pp100p better than league average

----------------------------------------------------------------

Latest RPM update:

Last week:

Schröder: 0.47 ORPM | -0.31 DRPM | +0.16 RPM - 23rd among PGs
Westbrook 0.91 ORPM | -1.09 DRPM | -0.18 RPM - 27th among PGs
-----------------------
Abrines: -1.57 ORPM | 0.38 DRPM | 1.19 RPM - 43rd among SGs
Diallo: -0.97 ORPM | -0.92 DRPM | -1.89 RPM - 65 among SGs
Ferguson: -2.39 ORPM | -1.08 DRPM | -3.47 RPM - 95th among SGs
-----------------------
George: 3.59 ORPM | 2.26 DRPM | 5.85 RPM - 2nd among SFs, 5th overall
Grant: -0.64 ORPM | 1.36 DRPM | 0.72 RPM - 14th among SFs
-----------------------
Noel -1.11 ORPM | 2.28 DRPM | 1.17 RPM - 18th among PFs
Patterson -1.58 ORPM | -0.22 DRPM | -1.80 RPM - 74th among PFs
-----------------------
Adams 0.51 ORPM | 1.60 DRPM | 2.11 RPM - 10th among Cs

This week:

Westbrook 1.10 ORPM | -0.39 DRPM | +0.71 RPM - 20th among PGs
Schröder: 0.62 ORPM | -0.33 DRPM | +0.29 RPM - 25rd among PGs

-----------------------
Burton: -1.09 ORPM | 0.23 DRPM | -0.86 RPM - not-listed
Diallo: -0.67 ORPM | -0.78 DRPM | -1.45 RPM - 48th among SGs
Abrines: -1.77 ORPM | 0.28 DRPM | -1.49 RPM - 50th among SGs
TLC: -2.14 ORPM | -0.54 DRPM | -2.68 RPM - 81st among SGs
Ferguson: -2.44 ORPM | -0.89 DRPM | -3.33 RPM - 91st among SGs
-----------------------
George: 3.37 ORPM | 2.45 DRPM | 5.82 RPM - 1st among SFs, 3rd overall
Grant: -0.45 ORPM | 1.50 DRPM | 1.05 RPM - 11th among SFs
-----------------------
Noel -1.1 2| 2.31 DRPM | 1.19 RPM - 19th among PFs
Patterson -2.31 ORPM | -0.37 DRPM | -2.68 RPM - 86th among PFs
-----------------------
Adams 0.05 ORPM | 1.80 DRPM | 1.85 RPM - 11th among Cs

[slick_watts]

Almost 20 games played, which means the sample size of games is getting bigger and bigger. These kind of ratings are still somewhat circular, but I think it's still worth a look:

thanks for this. still nothing surprising here aside from how bad ferg is considering the lineups he plays with. and how good george is.

also worth a re-mention: rpm and any rapm metric are predictive metrics not descriptive. so looking at it as how a player has performed this season relative to others is missing the point. for that you'd want non-prior informed rapm, which has its own issues on such small sample sizes. normalizing variance and adding 'skepticism' being the point of priors in the first place.

i hope you keep this up. it would be interesting seeing the week to week fluctuations.

[getrichordie]

But this my main reason for concern with Roberson coming back because you will be taking minutes away from those guys most likely.

and thank the lord for that. i'm sorry, diallo and ferguson are both scrubs right now. maybe that changes eventually. we're getting excited over two guys who can't shoot and have zero offensive game and can barely play defense without fouling.

russell westbrook is 30 and the team is 70 mil in the tax. winning time is now. i don't care how many minutes anyone gets so long as the best units are on the court. and unless 'dre is completely broken, he's vastly superior to either diallo or ferguson.

While I completely agree with you in general, I think two things are not as bad as you make them out to be regarding those two guys. I think Diallo has already shown some skill going to the basket and Ferguson has been much better at defending without fouling, moving his feet, rotating, etc. But still: Roberson should not get a reduced role because of those two guys.

It really all depends on how Roberson looks when he comes back.

Also, early lineup data shows that the Ferguson starters have been better than the Roberson starters by a significant enough margin (albeit small sample size; 15 games) for one to get encouraged. Also, the Grant/Ferguson/Adams lineups are some of the very best in the league.

Westbrook/Ferguson (2018/19) =

8 games played (115 minutes)
114 ORtg / 101 DRtg
60 TS%
109.52 pace

Ferguson/George/Grant/Adams (2018/19) =

14 games played (197 minutes)
119 ORtg / 95 DRtg
61 TS%
102.55 pace

—

Westbrook/Roberson (last year) =

39 games played (957 minutes)
106 ORtg / 97 DRtg
53.6 TS%
98.57 pace

Westbrook/Roberson (MVP year) =

79 games played (2181 minutes)
108 ORtg / 104 DRtg
54.9 TS%
101.0 pace

Westbrook/Roberson/Grant (MVP year)

66 games played (424 minutes)
104 ORtg / 104 DRtg
56.5 TS%
110.33 pace


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[getrichordie]

Almost 20 games played, which means the sample size of games is getting bigger and bigger. These kind of ratings are still somewhat circular, but I think it's still worth a look:

NetRtG adjusted for strength of opponent: +5.15 NetRtG/A, currently 5th in the league, good for a 55 win pace
ORtG adjusted for strength of opponent defenses: 107.5, currently 23rd in the league, 2.2pp100p worse than league average
DRtG adjusted for strength of opponent offense: 102.4, currently 1st in the league, 7.5pp100p better than league average

----------------------------------------------------------------

Latest RPM update:

Last week:

Schröder: 0.47 ORPM | -0.31 DRPM | +0.16 RPM - 23rd among PGs
Westbrook 0.91 ORPM | -1.09 DRPM | -0.18 RPM - 27th among PGs
-----------------------
Abrines: -1.57 ORPM | 0.38 DRPM | 1.19 RPM - 43rd among SGs
Diallo: -0.97 ORPM | -0.92 DRPM | -1.89 RPM - 65 among SGs
Ferguson: -2.39 ORPM | -1.08 DRPM | -3.47 RPM - 95th among SGs
-----------------------
George: 3.59 ORPM | 2.26 DRPM | 5.85 RPM - 2nd among SFs, 5th overall
Grant: -0.64 ORPM | 1.36 DRPM | 0.72 RPM - 14th among SFs
-----------------------
Noel -1.11 ORPM | 2.28 DRPM | 1.17 RPM - 18th among PFs
Patterson -1.58 ORPM | -0.22 DRPM | -1.80 RPM - 74th among PFs
-----------------------
Adams 0.51 ORPM | 1.60 DRPM | 2.11 RPM - 10th among Cs

This week:

Westbrook 1.10 ORPM | -0.39 DRPM | +0.71 RPM - 20th among PGs
Schröder: 0.62 ORPM | -0.33 DRPM | +0.29 RPM - 25rd among PGs

-----------------------
Burton: -1.09 ORPM | 0.23 DRPM | -0.86 RPM - not-listed
Diallo: -0.67 ORPM | -0.78 DRPM | -1.45 RPM - 48th among SGs
Abrines: -1.77 ORPM | 0.28 DRPM | -1.49 RPM - 50th among SGs
TLC: -2.14 ORPM | -0.54 DRPM | -2.68 RPM - 81st among SGs
Ferguson: -2.44 ORPM | -0.89 DRPM | -3.33 RPM - 91st among SGs
-----------------------
George: 3.37 ORPM | 2.45 DRPM | 5.82 RPM - 1st among SFs, 3rd overall
Grant: -0.45 ORPM | 1.50 DRPM | 1.05 RPM - 11th among SFs
-----------------------
Noel -1.1 2| 2.31 DRPM | 1.19 RPM - 19th among PFs
Patterson -2.31 ORPM | -0.37 DRPM | -2.68 RPM - 86th among PFs
-----------------------
Adams 0.05 ORPM | 1.80 DRPM | 1.85 RPM - 11th among Cs

So these numbers are to be used as predictors but they don’t mean anything for how well/bad a player has played?


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[slick_watts]

Almost 20 games played, which means the sample size of games is getting bigger and bigger. These kind of ratings are still somewhat circular, but I think it's still worth a look:

NetRtG adjusted for strength of opponent: +5.15 NetRtG/A, currently 5th in the league, good for a 55 win pace
ORtG adjusted for strength of opponent defenses: 107.5, currently 23rd in the league, 2.2pp100p worse than league average
DRtG adjusted for strength of opponent offense: 102.4, currently 1st in the league, 7.5pp100p better than league average

----------------------------------------------------------------

Latest RPM update:

Last week:

Schröder: 0.47 ORPM | -0.31 DRPM | +0.16 RPM - 23rd among PGs
Westbrook 0.91 ORPM | -1.09 DRPM | -0.18 RPM - 27th among PGs
-----------------------
Abrines: -1.57 ORPM | 0.38 DRPM | 1.19 RPM - 43rd among SGs
Diallo: -0.97 ORPM | -0.92 DRPM | -1.89 RPM - 65 among SGs
Ferguson: -2.39 ORPM | -1.08 DRPM | -3.47 RPM - 95th among SGs
-----------------------
George: 3.59 ORPM | 2.26 DRPM | 5.85 RPM - 2nd among SFs, 5th overall
Grant: -0.64 ORPM | 1.36 DRPM | 0.72 RPM - 14th among SFs
-----------------------
Noel -1.11 ORPM | 2.28 DRPM | 1.17 RPM - 18th among PFs
Patterson -1.58 ORPM | -0.22 DRPM | -1.80 RPM - 74th among PFs
-----------------------
Adams 0.51 ORPM | 1.60 DRPM | 2.11 RPM - 10th among Cs

This week:

Westbrook 1.10 ORPM | -0.39 DRPM | +0.71 RPM - 20th among PGs
Schröder: 0.62 ORPM | -0.33 DRPM | +0.29 RPM - 25rd among PGs

-----------------------
Burton: -1.09 ORPM | 0.23 DRPM | -0.86 RPM - not-listed
Diallo: -0.67 ORPM | -0.78 DRPM | -1.45 RPM - 48th among SGs
Abrines: -1.77 ORPM | 0.28 DRPM | -1.49 RPM - 50th among SGs
TLC: -2.14 ORPM | -0.54 DRPM | -2.68 RPM - 81st among SGs
Ferguson: -2.44 ORPM | -0.89 DRPM | -3.33 RPM - 91st among SGs
-----------------------
George: 3.37 ORPM | 2.45 DRPM | 5.82 RPM - 1st among SFs, 3rd overall
Grant: -0.45 ORPM | 1.50 DRPM | 1.05 RPM - 11th among SFs
-----------------------
Noel -1.1 2| 2.31 DRPM | 1.19 RPM - 19th among PFs
Patterson -2.31 ORPM | -0.37 DRPM | -2.68 RPM - 86th among PFs
-----------------------
Adams 0.05 ORPM | 1.80 DRPM | 1.85 RPM - 11th among Cs

So would it be fair to say that last week’s numbers would indicate that Schroder played a touch better than Westbrook? Genuinely curious.


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no. the margin of error on such a small rpm sample is larger than the gap between them.

[getrichordie]

Almost 20 games played, which means the sample size of games is getting bigger and bigger. These kind of ratings are still somewhat circular, but I think it's still worth a look:

NetRtG adjusted for strength of opponent: +5.15 NetRtG/A, currently 5th in the league, good for a 55 win pace
ORtG adjusted for strength of opponent defenses: 107.5, currently 23rd in the league, 2.2pp100p worse than league average
DRtG adjusted for strength of opponent offense: 102.4, currently 1st in the league, 7.5pp100p better than league average

----------------------------------------------------------------

Latest RPM update:

Last week:



This week:

So would it be fair to say that last week’s numbers would indicate that Schroder played a touch better than Westbrook? Genuinely curious.


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no. the margin of error on such a small rpm sample is larger than the gap between them.

So I’m genuinely curious as to how these numbers can be predictive w/o being descriptive? Where do these numbers come from if not for how well or bad a player has played?

I generally see better players near the top of RPM and never near the bottom.


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[slick_watts]

Also, early lineup data shows that the Ferguson starters have been better than the Roberson starters by a significant enough margin (albeit small sample size; 15 games) for one to get encouraged.

games aren't important. it's minutes. you are exaggerating the sample size of the ferguson starters by calling it '15 games' because the minutes per game is far less than the 'dre starters last year, for example. this is why we use minutes.

i think you should take a hard look at the individual performances in those lineups and decide whether or not they are sustainable and what factor terrance ferguson has in the performance of them before making conclusions. i know you won't, but you should.

[spearsy23]

Zofran works for both men and women.

Uh, no ****?

If the excuse is he was puking and he can take drugs that can effectively stop him from puking, what's the excuse? He missed almost a week mind you. Look, all I'm saying is barfing alone wouldn't explain the absence we saw.

Yes, vomiting and diarrhea would easily explain the absence we saw. As it turns out humans aren't designed to run and jump at an NBA level when they've been losing fluids and unable to keep any foods down. Taking ondansetron isn't some miracle cure, even if you stop vomiting long enough to make it through an NBA game it's going to leave you feeling even more lethargic. This is probably the dumbest argument of the season, why aren't you all over Hami for missing games with his sprained ankle? This is the same damn thing.

We aren't actually having much of an argument. You said it was serious barfing. I said it couldn't be just that given modern medicine. Then you proved you can google things by using the chemical name and referencing a possible side effect for the drug I referenced.

Look, bottom line, are you going to seriously act like it wasn't weird to miss a goddamn week over stomach virus? How many players over the years have you seen play with the flu (Jordan flu game, anyone)? That happens fairly regularly.

I don't think most hospital employees would need to Google ondansetron, it's probably the most used med in a hospital. And Jordan wasn't sick for over a week, hell there's speculation he was actually just hungover. It's pretty damn common for a stomach virus to knock someone out for a week.

[getrichordie]

Also, early lineup data shows that the Ferguson starters have been better than the Roberson starters by a significant enough margin (albeit small sample size; 15 games) for one to get encouraged.

games aren't important. it's minutes. you are exaggerating the sample size of the ferguson starters by calling it '15 games' because the minutes per game is far less than the 'dre starters last year, for example. this is why we use minutes.

i think you should take a hard look at the individual performances in those lineups and decide whether or not they are sustainable and what factor terrance ferguson has in the performance of them before making conclusions. i know you won't, but you should.

How do you assess individual performance in a certain lineup? I will definitely do that, but just not sure of the best way to do that. Is there a tool on NBA stats site?

And I’m not actively trying to exaggerate.


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[slick_watts]

So would it be fair to say that last week’s numbers would indicate that Schroder played a touch better than Westbrook? Genuinely curious.


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no. the margin of error on such a small rpm sample is larger than the gap between them.

So I’m genuinely curious as to how these numbers can be predictive w/o being descriptive? Where do these numbers come from if not for how well or bad a player has played?

I generally see better players near the top of RPM and never near the bottom.


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rapm does something called ridge regression, which is intended to correct for outliers and add some 'skepticism' to short term 'leaps'. it regresses to '0'. xRAPM (and, RPM) do the same thing except the priors are player specific and use things like past performance, age, height, and all sorts of other criteria.

the use of priors is intended to control for short term variance and be skeptical of large changes to player performance. this is why rpm is not descriptive. if it was intended to be descriptive it wouldn't have priors at all, it would just take into account data from the current season. it's intended to be predictive.

[Pillendreher]

.

You have to dig deeper then ORtG/DRtG because you're missing the big discrepancies that lead to the bigger NetRtG for the Ferguson starters so far.

The base for said comparison is Roberson-George-Adams. That 3-man-lineup allowed 93.2 pp100p per stats.nba.com. Per basketball-reference.com, that was the 2nd best defense last year among all 3-man-units with at least 500 mp. The only better lineup was Rubio-Mitchell-Gobert (96.8 for Roberson-George-Adams compared to 95.9 for the Utah lineup).
Now this season Ferguson-George-Adams is at 97.5 DRtG. That right there is a ~5p100p swing. 97.5 DRtG is still excellent (per ctg, the Ferguson lineup ranks in the 98th percentile; the Roberson one in the 99th percentile), but it is a difference after all. So the difference in NetRtG is not due to a better defense, but due to a better offense: 106.0 ORtG for the Roberson one, 116.7 ORtG for the Ferguson one. That's a big swing and one might be inclined to point at Roberson as the main culprit, but I'd say this is actually quite easy to explain: Shooting.

This is the 3P% of our starters in the Roberson lineup:

Westbrook: 26 % on 61 tries
Roberson: 26 % on 23 tries
George: 39 % on 105 tries
Melo: 34 % on 101 tries

And this is the 3PT% of the Ferguson starters:

Westbrook: 33 % on 6 tries
Schröder: 36 % on 22 tries
George: 41 % on 54 tries
Grant: 58 % on 19 tries

Ferguson-George-Adams has an eFG% of 56.4 % (that's better than the Rockets last season and almost as good as last year's Warriors), Roberson-George-Adams at 52.7 % (which is slightly above league average). And furthermore, the Ferguson starters have been much less turnover prone (77th percentile compared to 18th percentile for the Roberson starters) and have been getting to the line (66th percentile compared to 15th percentile for the Roberson starters).

You can certainly make the argument that not playing Roberson might have a positive effect on the team, but I highly doubt that since Ferguson can't shoot either and can't do anything offensively anyway. I suspect we're simply talking about variance and some changes in the offensive approach that Roberson didn't benefit of last year.

[Dadouv47]

Let’s say you could only keep one of Diallo or Ferguson. Who do you keep and why?


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Diallo and it's not close. He's stronger, more confident. He still needs to learn how to shoot (well at least he isn't a bad FT's shooter) but he just came in the NBA. Ferguson is a hard worker but he's not that strong, not very confident and is struggling to shoot.
I Think Diallo has a higher BBIQ too from what he showed so far.

[getrichordie]

.

You have to dig deeper then ORtG/DRtG because you're missing the big discrepancies that lead to the bigger NetRtG for the Ferguson starters so far.

The base for said comparison is Roberson-George-Adams. That 3-man-lineup allowed 93.2 pp100p per stats.nba.com. Per basketball-reference.com, that was the 2nd best defense last year among all 3-man-units with at least 500 mp. The only better lineup was Rubio-Mitchell-Gobert (96.8 for Roberson-George-Adams compared to 95.9 for the Utah lineup).
Now this season Ferguson-George-Adams is at 97.5 DRtG. That right there is a ~5p100p swing. 97.5 DRtG is still excellent (per ctg, the Ferguson lineup ranks in the 98th percentile; the Roberson one in the 99th percentile), but it is a difference after all. So the difference in NetRtG is not due to a better defense, but due to a better offense: 106.0 ORtG for the Roberson one, 116.7 ORtG for the Ferguson one. That's a big swing and one might be inclined to point at Roberson as the main culprit, but I'd say this is actually quite easy to explain: Shooting.

This is the 3P% of our starters in the Roberson lineup:

Westbrook: 26 % on 61 tries
Roberson: 26 % on 23 tries
George: 39 % on 105 tries
Melo: 34 % on 101 tries

And this is the 3PT% of the Ferguson starters:

Westbrook: 33 % on 6 tries
Schröder: 36 % on 22 tries
George: 41 % on 54 tries
Grant: 58 % on 19 tries

Ferguson-George-Adams has an eFG% of 56.4 % (that's better than the Rockets last season and almost as good as last year's Warriors), Roberson-George-Adams at 52.7 % (which is slightly above league average). And furthermore, the Ferguson starters have been much less turnover prone (77th percentile compared to 18th percentile for the Roberson starters) and have been getting to the line (66th percentile compared to 15th percentile for the Roberson starters).

You can certainly make the argument that not playing Roberson might have a positive effect on the team, but I highly doubt that since Ferguson can't shoot either and can't do anything offensively anyway. I suspect we're simply talking about variance and some changes in the offensive approach that Roberson didn't benefit of last year.

My question would be is if those changes in offensive approach are actually due to not having Roberson and are effective, because whether or not Ferguson might not be a consistent shooter, he is still respected on offense to a significantly greater degree than Roberson. After all, Roberson is a historically bad shooter. Even Ferguson isn’t that bad and won’t be that bad.

I think an underrated thing when discussing Ferguson over Roberson is that he is just more offensively skilled than Roberson. Cutting, offensive recognition, passing (even if it doesn’t lead to an assist), running floor in transition, vision, leaping ability, and he’s just plain faster on his cuts and running off screens which does cause some kind of misdirection at times where as defenses just know to sag off of Roberson at all times.


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[Eskobar13]

Let’s say you could only keep one of Diallo or Ferguson. Who do you keep and why?


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Diallo and it's not close. He's stronger, more confident. He still needs to learn how to shoot (well at least he isn't a bad FT's shooter) but he just came in the NBA. Ferguson is a hard worker but he's not that strong, not very confident and is struggling to shoot.
I Think Diallo has a higher BBIQ too from what he showed so far.

This.

Also kill me if you want but since we have Westbrook and Geroge and a prime Adams locked up for so long, I think the sooner we give up on either Diallo or Ferguson (Ferguson really), the better. We don't have the time to be investing in the development of multiple negative players at the same time, not when those guys have good role-player as their likely ceiling.

[Pillendreher]

My question would be is if those changes in offensive approach are actually due to not having Roberson and are effective, because whether or not Ferguson might not be a consistent shooter, he is still respected on offense to a significantly greater degree than Roberson. After all, Roberson is a historically bad shooter. Even Ferguson isn’t that bad and won’t be that bad.

Well, no, he is not. He is a career 31.3 % 3pt shooter. He can't shoot either. The only difference is that Roberson does not want to shoot whereas Ferguson has no problem with letting it fly. That might make a difference on the court, but after all, neither one of them can shoot. When teams start gameplaning for our offense, they will sag off of Ferguson just as well.

I think an underrated thing when discussing Ferguson over Roberson is that he is just more offensively skilled than Roberson. Cutting, offensive recognition, passing (even if it doesn’t lead to an assist), running floor in transition, vision, leaping ability, and he’s just plain faster on his cuts and running off screens which does cause some kind of misdirection at times where as defenses just know to sag off of Roberson at all times.

Everything you've just said is what Roberson is better at than Ferguson. When, pray tell, is Ferguson doing these things you're ascribing to him? Because more often then not he's just standing in the corner. He's not cutting with regularity, he doesn't even have the ball in his hands to pass, and most importantly he can't set a screen to save his life. Our offense really started humming last sesaon when they started reversing Roberson and Melo on offense with Anthony being parked at the perimeter and Roberson playing like a four, setting screens and playing closer to the basket.

You talk about Ferguson like he's constantly dashing to the rim. When have we ever seen a this play with him?





Remember, this was the exact same play he injured himself on. They were doing this regularly, smartly taking advantage of Roberson's defender ignoring Roberson when he was positioned in the corner. With Ferguson's athleticism, we should be seeing this with regularity as well, no?

Ferguson actually gets the fewest touches per game among the 221 players with at least 20 mpg at 13.5. He's also averaging the fewest "touch minutes" per game amongst those 221 guys: He has the ball in his hands for not even 21 seconds (!!!) per game (!!!). He also averages the fewest passes per game amongst said 21 guys at 7.9. That's how much of a non-factor offensively he is for this team.