Curry, Harden, Durant, Davis, Cousins Named Western Conference All-Star Starters

[hoopsfan2424]

Yeah, no. KAT may finally be waking up defensively, but he's a 20pt scorer who doesn't create and is clearly taking a back seat this year to his own teammate Butler, who IS deserving as the true leader of that squad.

What? I don't understand how you can just accept it as a simple black and white fact that Cousins has performed better than KAT this season.

Look how effective KAT is offensively compared to Cousins. It's really not even that close. Cousins is ever so slightly ahead of KAT defensively, but that doesn't make up for the offensive gap. KAT has 5.1 offensive win-shares this season compared to Cousins' 1.7. Given that Cousins' usage percentage is 32.5 and KAT's is 22.2, this is particularly striking. As for your point about not being able to create his own shot -- why would a coach rely on KAT to create his own shot when there are great playmakers on the floor (e.g. Teague & Butler)? This isn't KAT not stepping up and making plays. It is KAT playing his role, which is to be highly efficient offensively and to serve as a rim protector, which he does, actually slightly better than Cousins (BLK%).

Here's the difference: Towns is spoonfed good shots. He's being used as a finisher for them, not a creater. He's very skilled, but what he's doing is relatively EASY. It's also why Towns can have low usage games and the Wolves are fine. If he's not open, they just swing it elsewhere to somebody who is.

Cousins not only creates his own shots, he creates them for teammates. He's at the center of everything they do.

73.6% of Towns' shots are assisted. That's an enormous number for a guy who is being called a star. Meanwhile he only averages 20.1pts and 2.3ast. He simply does not have the ball very often, again, compared to other star players.

Meanwhile only 54.9% of Cousins' shots are assisted, and that's even though 93.7% of this threes are assisted. Essentially outside of the spot shot threes, he has to create everything himself, and that's while playing for the #2 assisting team in the NBA. Well, they are #2 in part because of Cousins -- he creates his own shots, he creates shots for others, and he doesn't drain assists back his way. The great majority of their assists go to making scrubby guys like Darius Miller (82.3% assisted) or E'Twaun Moore (77.3% assisted) look better than they are.

Davis 26.7pts on 68.6% assisted
Cousins 25.3pts on 54.9% assisted
Embiid 23.8pts on 48.5% assisted
Aldridge 22.7pts on 53.5% assisted
Towns 20.1pts on 73.6% assisted

Cousins in the ASG doesn't bother me because it's an ASG but I'd never want him on my team. Stats are cool but he doesn't make winning plays and his attitude is terrible. Someone out there keeps track of hustle plays (i know Miami does) and I'd love to see how low cousins is ranked. Unfortunately my Mavs are rumored to be gearing up for a run at cousins, i will strongly consider finding a new team if that happens.

[bpcox05]

I posted this last year too so thought I would again to add to the convo...


RPM All Stars (removing obvious roleplayers)

West
G - Curry (vs. Curry)
G - Harden (vs. Harden)
F - Davis (vs. Davis)
F - Cousins (vs. Cousins)
F - Jokic (vs. Durant)

East
G - Lowry (vs. Irving)
G - Oladipo (vs. DeRozan)
F - LeBron (vs. LeBron)
F - Giannis (vs. Giannis)
F - Embiid (vs. Embiid)


RPM All Stars if there were no position restrictions (removing obvious roleplayers)

West
Curry (vs. Curry)
Westbrook (vs. Durant)
Harden (vs. Harden)
Butler (vs. Davis)
Cousins (vs. Cousins)

East
Oladipo (vs. Irving)
LeBron (vs. LeBron)
Giannis (vs. Giannis)
Horford (vs. DeRozan)
Embiid (vs. Embiid)

[dice]

Jimmy Buckets should be listed as a F and starting over cousins IMO. Him and Wiggins are interchangeable based on the matchups so I don't get why he can only count as a guard.

if there are going to be rigid positional designations it should be 1 point guard, 2 wings, 2 bigs. because the wing and big positions are, as you say, pretty interchangeable. moreso than PG and SG are, certainly

[dice]

I posted this last year too so thought I would again to add to the convo...


RPM All Stars (removing obvious roleplayers)

West
G - Curry
G - Harden
F - Davis
F - Cousins
F - Jokic

East
G - Lowry
G - Oladipo
F - LeBron
F - Giannis
F - Embiid


RPM All Stars if there were no position restrictions (removing obvious roleplayers)

West
Curry
Westbrook
Harden
Butler
Cousins

East
Oladipo
LeBron
Giannis
Horford
Embiid

if done by RPM wins produced, which is fairer given that it accounts for time spent on the floor helping one's team, you get the following (functional rosters disregarding position):

west

cousins
KAT
butler
harden
westbrook

davis
draymond
jokic
harris
durant
holiday
curry

east

horford
LeBron
giannis
oladipo
lowry

drummond
porter
covington
beal
derozan
kemba
dinwiddie

very smallball roster, kyrie left out in the cold as 4th string pure point guard (unfairly - RPM clearly overrating dinwiddie's offense). embiid screwed over because RPM is clearly underrating his offense this season

[Blaze the Nugz]

Yeah, no. KAT may finally be waking up defensively, but he's a 20pt scorer who doesn't create and is clearly taking a back seat this year to his own teammate Butler, who IS deserving as the true leader of that squad.

What? I don't understand how you can just accept it as a simple black and white fact that Cousins has performed better than KAT this season.

Look how effective KAT is offensively compared to Cousins. It's really not even that close. Cousins is ever so slightly ahead of KAT defensively, but that doesn't make up for the offensive gap. KAT has 5.1 offensive win-shares this season compared to Cousins' 1.7. Given that Cousins' usage percentage is 32.5 and KAT's is 22.2, this is particularly striking. As for your point about not being able to create his own shot -- why would a coach rely on KAT to create his own shot when there are great playmakers on the floor (e.g. Teague & Butler)? This isn't KAT not stepping up and making plays. It is KAT playing his role, which is to be highly efficient offensively and to serve as a rim protector, which he does, actually slightly better than Cousins (BLK%).

Here's the difference: Towns is spoonfed good shots. He's being used as a finisher for them, not a creater. He's very skilled, but what he's doing is relatively EASY. It's also why Towns can have low usage games and the Wolves are fine. If he's not open, they just swing it elsewhere to somebody who is.

Cousins not only creates his own shots, he creates them for teammates. He's at the center of everything they do.

73.6% of Towns' shots are assisted. That's an enormous number for a guy who is being called a star. Meanwhile he only averages 20.1pts and 2.3ast. He simply does not have the ball very often, again, compared to other star players.

Meanwhile only 54.9% of Cousins' shots are assisted, and that's even though 93.7% of this threes are assisted. Essentially outside of the spot shot threes, he has to create everything himself, and that's while playing for the #2 assisting team in the NBA. Well, they are #2 in part because of Cousins -- he creates his own shots, he creates shots for others, and he doesn't drain assists back his way. The great majority of their assists go to making scrubby guys like Darius Miller (82.3% assisted) or E'Twaun Moore (77.3% assisted) look better than they are.

Davis 26.7pts on 68.6% assisted
Cousins 25.3pts on 54.9% assisted
Embiid 23.8pts on 48.5% assisted
Aldridge 22.7pts on 53.5% assisted
Towns 20.1pts on 73.6% assisted

Correct -- Cousins is being used as a playmaker. But the fact of the matter is that Cousins is a poor playmaker. He is inefficient in this role and should not be rewarded for it. Night in, night out, he jacks up low-percentage, contested jumpers. This is not creating offense; this is forcing offense. Secondly, he does pass the ball willingly, but he is not actually skilled at making the correct pass. He averages 5 turnovers per game, for godsake. Other playmaking big men (e.g. Nikola Jokic and Marc Gasol) have substantially better assist/turnover ratios. He simply does not make plays to help his team win, and should in no way, shape, or form be rewarded for his "playmaking".

Let's look further at team impact. When Cousins is on the court, NO has an offensive rating of 107.8. When he is off the court, NO's offensive rating is 109.4. Indeed, NO's offense has performed better with Cousins off the court thus far. This is in contrast to Anthony Davis, who has a +2.8 on-court difference in offensive rating this season. Care to guess KAT's on-court offensive rating? + 11.2. Yes, that's right... When KAT is on the floor, his team scores 11.2 points additional points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, Cousins' team scores 1.6 fewer points per 100 possessions while he is on the floor.

Now let's look at defense. Cousins' net defensive rating is -1.3 while KAT's net defensive rating is -3.9. This means that teams score fewer points while KAT is on the floor than while Cousins is on the floor. Given that they are both starters playing 36 minutes per game, they are playing equal competition (i.e. opposing players are starters, not bench warmers).

So there you have it. KAT is statistically better for his team this year offensively and defensively. He has succeeded in his role more so than Cousins, and his team performed better as well. Cousins is NOT the best center in the league and is NOT deserving of the starting all-star spot.

[Winsome Gerbil]

What? I don't understand how you can just accept it as a simple black and white fact that Cousins has performed better than KAT this season.

Look how effective KAT is offensively compared to Cousins. It's really not even that close. Cousins is ever so slightly ahead of KAT defensively, but that doesn't make up for the offensive gap. KAT has 5.1 offensive win-shares this season compared to Cousins' 1.7. Given that Cousins' usage percentage is 32.5 and KAT's is 22.2, this is particularly striking. As for your point about not being able to create his own shot -- why would a coach rely on KAT to create his own shot when there are great playmakers on the floor (e.g. Teague & Butler)? This isn't KAT not stepping up and making plays. It is KAT playing his role, which is to be highly efficient offensively and to serve as a rim protector, which he does, actually slightly better than Cousins (BLK%).

Here's the difference: Towns is spoonfed good shots. He's being used as a finisher for them, not a creater. He's very skilled, but what he's doing is relatively EASY. It's also why Towns can have low usage games and the Wolves are fine. If he's not open, they just swing it elsewhere to somebody who is.

Cousins not only creates his own shots, he creates them for teammates. He's at the center of everything they do.

73.6% of Towns' shots are assisted. That's an enormous number for a guy who is being called a star. Meanwhile he only averages 20.1pts and 2.3ast. He simply does not have the ball very often, again, compared to other star players.

Meanwhile only 54.9% of Cousins' shots are assisted, and that's even though 93.7% of this threes are assisted. Essentially outside of the spot shot threes, he has to create everything himself, and that's while playing for the #2 assisting team in the NBA. Well, they are #2 in part because of Cousins -- he creates his own shots, he creates shots for others, and he doesn't drain assists back his way. The great majority of their assists go to making scrubby guys like Darius Miller (82.3% assisted) or E'Twaun Moore (77.3% assisted) look better than they are.

Davis 26.7pts on 68.6% assisted
Cousins 25.3pts on 54.9% assisted
Embiid 23.8pts on 48.5% assisted
Aldridge 22.7pts on 53.5% assisted
Towns 20.1pts on 73.6% assisted

Cousins in the ASG doesn't bother me because it's an ASG but I'd never want him on my team. Stats are cool but he doesn't make winning plays and his attitude is terrible. Someone out there keeps track of hustle plays (i know Miami does) and I'd love to see how low cousins is ranked. Unfortunately my Mavs are rumored to be gearing up for a run at cousins, i will strongly consider finding a new team if that happens.

No no, you really don't want to see the "hustle" stats because I just posted those in another thread a couple of days ago and they would do violence to this silly narrative you're living with:

NBA.Com Hustle Leaders
Cousins ranks:

Contested Shots: 441 (2nd in NBA)
Charges Drawn: 20 (2nd in NBA)
Loose Balls Recovered: 67 (4th in the NBA)
Defelections: 110 (20th in the NBA) (LeBron also has 110, Giannis has 105)

And that's in addition to being 2nd in the league in defensive rebounds, and 9th in blocks.

Is Cousins a racing scrambling speed demon on defense? No. But then again neither was your former franchise player with the Mavs, nor the recently retired one on the Spurs. But he is absolutely a playmaker, on defense as well as offense. He knows where to be, knows what he can do and not do, and can be flat disruptive when his dander is up.

[ChokeFasncists]

I suppose Kawaii is not making cuz of his injuries?

You don't have to suppose that's obvious.

Lol, true; but not so quick!

Guys of similar caliber who are more high-key make it a lot even when they are injured

Amazing how the Duncan Spurs and Kawaii found each other.