#BringBacktheBiz - The Bismack Biyombo Thread

[fatlever]

amazing work as always lamar.

[KembaWalker]

great mix

[Eoghan]

Lamar, that mix made my week. Great job, love those beats you used. Man, if Biyombo was coming out for this draft and this mix was the main footage available I bet even Nanogeek would be crying out for us to draft him.

[BeesWax]

Perfect mix. Loved how it showed him catching on the run and the developing one hander he has off the spin. Sure they are not perfect but he had none of that last year. This shows some spots of what he can do now that he could not before. Perfect video of what he has developed and the type of jump we hope to see next year.

[Elden Payton]

Awesome work Lamar.

Biz will be more than fine, he is a very intriguing prospect and he is worth a #7 easily imo.

[LamarMatic7]

Thanks, guys! I hit Biz up on twitter, by the way, he liked it as well.

[MPM]

MVP! MVP! MVP!

Kudos Lamar - your mix has me thinking max money for Biz.

Loved it.

[mrknowitall215]

Season Report Card: Bismack Biyombo

Grade: C

10.07 PER vs 16.77 PER Against; Net -6.7

Strengths: The one outlying strength for Biyombo at this point in his young career is his shot blocking ability. Bismack averaged 1.8 BPG this season, which was the same as last season. So, there wasn’t any vast improvement in that area, but it’s still far above average and remains the one category he can hang his hat on.

I would like to say that Biyombo really improved on the glass this season, but that wouldn’t be extremely accurate. He did average +1.5 RPG from ’11-’12, but the improvement is nothing to do back flips over when you dig into the data. In 27.1 MPG this year, Biz pulled down 7.3 RPG — his overall Rebounding Rate was 15.2%, which was best for 56th in the league amongst qualified players. Not that awesome, but nonetheless, it’s improvement.

Another strength I noticed Biz excel in more-and-more as the season wore on was in his ability to run the floor to both ends. He’s definitely a high energy player and did a good job this season in using that to get easy buckets by running the floor in transition every chance that he got.

Weaknesses: Unfortunately, there is a lot we could focus on here. For starters, Bismack has really bad hands and below average hand-eye coordination. If he could catch the ball off the rim with more finesse and ferocity, getting the ball to his chin quicker then I truly believe that Biz could yank down 10 RPG. The biggest problem lies in his inability to ever get balanced — when Biyombo leaves his feet to go after a rebound or go up for a shot, he always seems to somehow get off balance, which in turn affects the way he brings the ball into his body, or releases the shot — neither of which is the most efficient. So, one aspect that Biz must get much better with is establishing his center of gravity on just about every basketball play he’s involved in.

Offensively, there ain’t a whole lot to smile about. 86.4% of Bismack’s shot attempts came from 5-feet or less (‘Around the Rim’) and he shot 48.5% from this area — that’s -8% from the league average. Not awesome. I would like to say that Biz needs to find a go-to move around the basket, but first I think he’s going to have to develop some form of competency offensively.

Reasons for Optimism: Bismack is 20 years old and will be in Charlotte until ’14-’15 when the front office has a team option on his contract (highly likely to be picked up). His youth is clearly the biggest reason for optimism, because Bismack didn’t make any significant leaps on the court this season. Although this season certainly wasn’t the leap forward many had hoped for Biz, let’s try to focus on the fact that he is one of the youngest players in the league and has as good of an attitude/work ethic you’re going to find.

+ In Biyombo’s last 15 games of the season he averaged 6.9 PPG (49.4% FG) & 9.1 RPG.

+ Although he got to the foul line less this season, he did improve his FT% to 52.1% (+3.8%). So, there’s that as well.

Reasons for Pessimism: FG% came down -.013% this season and an improvement on the offensive end is what people wanted to see the most — well, as I said, signs of competency at least. I think it’s safe to say that didn’t happen — at least not on any kind of consistent pattern. Without going off on too much of a rant here, but also focusing on the fact that this is the pessimism section — I’m starting to become concerned that Biz will become nothing more than a defensive reserve specialist in this league and someone who’s job is to play extremely physical/protect the rim. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that — Reggie Evans is living proof that this is an extremely valuable commodity in this league. On that same thought, though, I think it’s time to throw the Serge Ibaka comparisons out the door — for right now, at least.

Defensively, Biz hasn’t shown the ability to be an anchor inside. The Bobcats ended the season with a 108.9 Defensive Rating – With Biz on the floor the team was 109.0 — not really worse, but certainly not better.

At some point, reaction to plays in this league have to be natural and Biz simply reacts to the majority of plays noticeably late. Will that change? It certainly could, and I’m certainly not knocking his potential — the guy has a wider wingspan and longer standing reach than Anthony Davis. The physical gifts/tools are there, but does he have the natural coordination and reaction ability to be an elite player for any frontcourt in this league? The jury is still out and I’m beginning to lean towards ‘No’.

http://queencityhoops.com/blog/2013/05/ ... k-biyombo/

[fatlever]

fair assessment of biz

[catch20two]

Biyombo is a very likable player/teammate and a hard worker to boot so I want for him to stick around for the long haul of this rebuild of ours if possible but I hope we're not making personnel moves pending on him becoming a quality NBA starter. That -6.7 net PER look ugly on his resume'. I noticed the strides that he made as a rebounder as well as his improved hand-eye coordination in the dog days of the season but I'm looking forward to seeing more than marginal improvements from him next season.

[Eoghan]

That article does not take into account the fact that Biz had to play with Driftwood, Hakim Warrick, Byron "Where's the post?" Mullens, Tyrus, Diop and the only guy resembling an average NBA big man, Josh "Journeyman" McRoberts.

Biz is learning how to play in the NBA, he's like an on the job trainee with washed up, on the verge of getting fired guys as his trainers. You have to be a special player to get good stats when your frontcourt mates routinely are out of position, don't box out, can't rebound or defend, or draw a defender.

I still attest that his hands aren't as bad as everyone thinks. He usually catches passes that he's expecting, it's the improvised, off the dribble bullet pass he struggles with because he's not used to being passed to. He'll at least become average at this as his awareness and experience increases.

[KembaWalker]

his stats didnt take a leap but i thought he showed a decent years worth of improvement eye test wise. looked more like he improved everything a little bit over his rookie year and opposed to taking any huge steps in 1 area. his post moves were a bit cleaner, hit a few jumpers, rebounding and free throws improved a bit. monster screen setter.

id like to think he will take a big step next year but who knows? Hopefully he plays in summer league.

[thruthefire]

fair assessment of biz

Spot on, IMO.

[LamarMatic7]

Defensively, Biz hasn’t shown the ability to be an anchor inside. The Bobcats ended the season with a 108.9 Defensive Rating – With Biz on the floor the team was 109.0 — not really worse, but certainly not better.

I agree with everything else but this is just unfair. You could put rookie Tim Duncan on this team and he wouldn't be able to anchor the defense by himself. If a team's bad on defense, it's bad and there's nothing one player can do to improve it as it's a 5-man job. Moreover, we have a group of young guys and there simply aren't any examples in the history of the league of a bunch of rookies and sophomores playing great defense from their first two years in the league under a rookie coach.

Put Biz in Omer Asik's position and let him develop as the back-up center for Thibbs for two years (the experience of playing pro ball in Turkey definitely helped as well) and I reckon he could do the job Asik has done for a team like Houston.

[Snidely FC]

someone who’s job is to play extremely physical/protect the rim.

The mantra now is winning NBA teams need to be able to shoot 3s and protect the rim. Biz will be a valuable commodity for a successful team from the protecting the rim standpoint.

catch the ball off the rim with more finesse and ferocity

This is the area I'd like to see him improve on the most. His hands have improved in terms of catching passes. But when rebounding, there are still too many plays where Biz gets to the ball first but bobbles or fumbles it, often losing the ball to the other team. He improved this year on positional rebounding. Now, he'll need to improve on going after a ball in a crowd and securing it.

Special note: One quality not mentioned in the review is how Biz's play seems to improve by leaps and bounds as his confidence in that skill area grows. He looked more confident catching passes by year's end. Hopefully the same mechanism will kick in on securing 50/50 balls.

[LamarMatic7]

That biceps!!

If you watch Django you know what I'm talking about!! #funtime #cabo #biznation
http://instagram.com/p/ZEU1W9Q78h

[Snidely FC]

That biceps!!

If you watch Django you know what I'm talking about!! #funtime #cabo #biznation
http://instagram.com/p/ZEU1W9Q78h

So awesome.
Django, what a great movie. Biz, how can you not love this kid?
Is that Gana Diop who tweeted he was just there last week?

[Diop]

on a side note, Diop uses the N word when talking to other ballers.

I thought it was only on tv shows, didn't realize guys still talked like that.

[LamarMatic7]

That biceps!!

If you watch Django you know what I'm talking about!! #funtime #cabo #biznation
http://instagram.com/p/ZEU1W9Q78h

So awesome.
Django, what a great movie. Biz, how can you not love this kid?
Is that Gana Diop who tweeted he was just there last week?

Yep. Gana's a somewhat active instagram user.

on a side note, Diop uses the N word when talking to other ballers.

I thought it was only on tv shows, didn't realize guys still talked like that.

You hear the N word plenty of times when we get some audio from the mics which are under the backboard though. Kevin Garnett, for one, uses it a lot.

[vorbis]

i also think that is a fair assessment of biyombo but i want to reiterate the caveat that he was only one big man in a rotation that is probably as bad as any bigman rotation has been in the NBA last 20 years. this doesn't change his balance issue, which i agree is at least as big of a hurdle as his ability to catch passes. he needs to be able to land strong. he can hop quickly with the best of the best, but he does that high school big thing where he brings the ball below his shoulders unnecessarily way way too often, and i think part of that is his attempts to gather himself. i think he's strong enough in the upper body but maybe some power work in his lower half will let him land more solidly. then again i'm no trainer.

however i think his actual game stats would have shown more improvement if there were more competent teammates to help him out. too often he was left alone under the basket with only guards and wings swooping in to help on the boards. he was also ignored by the guards on offense for large swathes of the season (not completely without reason). a guard with good vision, combined with continued improvement of biyombo's hands could lead to a significant jump in FG%. i hate to fall back on this argument, but by my eyes, both in person and on the screen, he was a significantly more confident player (albeit in fits and starts, much more towards the end of the season). this is in keeping with his development as a raw 20 year old prospect.

so i guess i'm saying, don't cut him yet. if he ends up being a reserve defensive specialist type big, then while that may make him a crappy #7 lottery pick in retrospect, it doesn't make him somebody you just throw away.