pcbothwel wrote:babyjax13 wrote:pcbothwel wrote:
Lol. Ok bud. You can argue about Udoh being better or not, Im cool with that. But the fact us you're not getting a 1st and Oubre for Favors.
Cleveland should be who you call.
Gortat is having just as good of a year, if not better than Favors. So it doesnt give us an upgrade and we'd have to re-sign him this summer.
Oubre is for moving Mahimni

And Gortat isn't having as good of a year as Favors, especially at center. 9/8/2 in 27 minutes is not nearly as productive as 16/9/2 on 29 minutes. I'm cool with you not wanting to make that trade (personally I think it's reasonable and makes Washington quite a bit better), but it really helps to do some research. Favors is a massive upgrade, and there is little to no competition to resign him in the summer.
If you want to look at counting stats then what are we even talking about. Centers in the modern day need to play defense/protect the rim, be efficient scoring particularly around the basket, and get shooters free by setting great picks.
Gortat does all those things, specifically the last one. It doesnt show up in points and rebounds for him, but it does show up in the eye test and +/-. Its why i trust RPM when it comes to Centers.
Gortat is ranked 13th in Wins and 24th in RPM at 0.04.
Favors has an RPM of -0.12.
Now, that doesnt mean Gortat is better. But it is a good indicator of how effective a big is outside of scoring points, blocking shots, and getting rebounds. The league is about shooting now and the entire team is/should be built around having shooters and getting them open looks.
No different to how the NFL is completely built on the QB. As that became apparent over the last 20 years, teams focused solely on getting a QB and then protecting them with a great OL, specifically a Left Tackle.
Wall, Beal, and Otto are our QB's... and Gortat plays the part of a really undervalued Left Tackle.
Our centers get a lot of screen assists (Gobert averages 4.9 while Gortat averages 5.1). Favors are depressed because we don't have our power forwards run the PnR nearly as much, but when he's at center he is very effective (averages 2.7 per game but there are no split stats, I'd be willing to bet he's around 4 when at center just because that's what we have our centers do and he is excellent in the PnR). That still puts him among the best in the league (
https://stats.nba.com/players/hustle/?sort=SCREEN_ASSISTS&dir=1).
When it comes to defense Favors also contests more shots (2-PT Favors 4.9/game, Gortat 5.1; 3-PT Favors 2.6/game, Gortat 1.2) and deflects more passes (1.2/game vs. .8) while recovering the same amount of loose balls but drawing less charges (.25/game vs 0).
It's still up in the air how well RPM works as a stat (e.g. RPM says Udoh is better than Favors and Gobert), and it seems that no one really knows what's happening with it. That being said, Gortat's RPM is .04 but it is -1.89 on offense and 1.93 on defense. Favors is -.12 but it is -1.36 on offense and 1.24 on defense. Part of the RPMs calculations are based on who plays the same position as you, so Favors stats are getting depressed by the fact that we have excellent post defenders (including him) and when he plays power forward he's being horribly misused. You will see below that when it comes to being a roll man and finishing in the paint, Favors is actually excellent... so asked to do what Gortat is doing, is ORPM is likely to be much higher (and likely is much higher at center, but we don't have split stats).
Looking at PER, Favors is a better player (18.95, likely higher at center vs. 14.85). Favors also draws more fouls, shoots a higher percentage at center, is a better PnR finisher, is a better freethrow shooter, is more mobile, has a larger wingspan, likely a larger standing reach, and is just ... bigger. Have him run the amount of screens that Gortat runs and he likely averages just as many screen asssists and improves your team in so many ways.
Favors is also a much better PnR finisher (53%FG vs 38%FG) and we have him run the PNR for a lot of freethrow line jumpers+ he has to content with Gobert in the same operating space which depresses that percentage (
https://stats.nba.com/players/roll-man/?sort=aFG&dir=1&CF=Time*G*15:GP*G*10:PossG*G*1.5). This is supported by the fact that he is one of the best finishers in the league in the restricted area (
https://stats.nba.com/players/shooting/?Season=2017-18&DistanceRange=By%20Zone&sort=Restricted%20Area%20FG%20PCT&dir=1&CF=Restricted%20Area%20FGA*G*2&SeasonType=Regular%20Season). Our problem is we have one of the few centers who is better than Favors.
I don't even want Gortat, my idea was to ship him to a third team (the Pelicans for Asik+pick). It's fine to want to keep him and to think he's valuable, but your defense of him > Favors is really bad.