A young player who I have been tracking for well over 5 years, who I think just needs to go play for a coach who believes in him - Jeremy Lamb. My man has been pretty unfairly villified since the second he came into the NBA because of his involvement in the James Harden trade, which many observers found to be personally offensive on some level. How dare the Thunder trade away one of the best players in the NBA for a bunch of unproven young players!? These young guys better be good because if they are not we are going to roast Sam Presti & Co. Lamb, since he has not been able to carve out a consistent spot in the rotation is OKC, is ipso facto a bust and a failure. The guy just can't get it done. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Let's play a game. Here are the per-36 minute statistics of a few players this season. You tell me who is playing better.
Player A: 16.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists on 1.5 turnovers and 1.3 steals on 41.6% shooting, 36% from 3
Player B: 14.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists on 1.9 turnovers and 1.9 steals on 38.7% shooting, 27.7% from 3
Player C: 6.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists on 1.3 turnovers, 1.4 steals and 0.9 blocks on 45% shooting, 21.6% from 3
Player A is Jeremy Lamb. Player B is Dion Waiters. Player C is Andre Roberson.Now you can spin those numbers any way you want, but those are the only numbers the players have any actual control over. They don't control minutes per game or points per game - that's entirely on the whims of the coach. When a team is winning games, it's hard to criticize the coach for his rotation decisions. When the team isn't winning games, you would think the coach would try to look at what's happening on the floor and see if there are any adjustments on the bench. I don't see Scott Brooks doing that.
Whenever I watch OKC, I see a team that looks stuck in the mud in offense and has to work really hard to score points when KD and Russ aren't isolating and scoring at will. Maybe Waiters (doubtful) and Roberson (probable) are that much better on D that Brooks has no choice but to play them, but when your team is rated No. 18 on O and No. 9 on D, maybe he's looking for answers on the wrong side of the ball? What he doesn't seem to understand is that a bad offense can have consequences on your defense. If the other team doesn't have to guard Andre Roberson and they have an easier time getting stops, that allows them to get out in transition, where they will always have an easier time scoring than against a set defense in the half-court. It's hard to push the ball when you are inbounding it from under your own basket.
Most people will look at Lamb's lack of playing time and OKC's struggle to score and ask what the hell is wrong with him. I look at Lamb's lack of playing time, OKC's struggle to score and his consistent per-minute production and wonder what the hell is wrong with his coach.
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Here's the important thing to remember about Lamb - he can't make Scott Brooks play him. When he's on the floor, the only thing he can control is how he plays. The big knock on him with a lot of OKC fans is that he's not consistent ... but he has been consistently better than Dion Waiters whenever he has played so what exactly is he supposed to do?
Scott Brooks reminds me a lot of Avery Johnson in that he seems to be constantly searching for ways to justify his own playing career in the way he handles his rotation. Scott Brooks the basketball player didn't have a ton of natural talent and didn't put up huge statistics, but he played REALLY hard and he REALLY wanted to win and etc. etc. etc. So when he sees a player like Lamb with a ton of natural talent who seems to "float" through the game it naturally makes him more upset than when he sees a guy like Roberson with a broken jumper who still plays really hard. How many times did a young Scott Brooks have to swallow his pride and watch a "more talented" younger player who was taken higher in the draft play ahead of him even though he didn't work nearly as hard? When he in charge, things will be different.
When I look at Jeremy Lamb, I see a 22-year old with good athleticism and plus length for his position (6'11 wingspan), whose always been a consistent three-point shooter and whose shown the ability to handle and pass the ball. Whenever he's on the court, he seems to find his way into points, rebounds, assists and steals. I'm fairly confident he's a good basketball player and I don't really hold his inability to convince Scott Brooks of his worth against him. In short, he reminds me a lot of Danny Green in Cleveland.
After all, who was Danny Green before the Spurs gave him a shot? A lot of NBA teams want Danny Green at 27 but they don't want to go through the trouble of developing Danny Green at 23. They want someone else to do it for them and to give them the statistical certainty they so desperately crave. Jeremy Lamb is younger than Green when he came to San Antonio. If you are looking for a market inefficiency, there it is.
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