SNPA wrote:Reservoirdawgs wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:Let's see, who replaced him in the starting lineup? Chris Webber, who never in his entire time with the Kings had as good of a raw +/- as Miller had that year.
I think people honestly need to ask themselves if Webber was a more effective player in any year than Miller was that year. And I'll note that Miller is one of these players who just finds a lot of impact out there, and demonstrated consistent trend toward this on other teams.
I'll note that the big 5 Kings of that era - Webber, Stojakovic, Christie, Divac & Miller - it's really only Divac and Miller who showed that kind of destined-for-impact play.
As someone who was a HUGE fan of the early 2000s Kings, I always attributed their rise to Chris Webber's offense and passing. Out of all of the players that I've been educated on thanks to advanced stats, he's been the hardest for me to admit that what I saw with my eyes did not turn out to be reality.
Also, as a UNC fan, I'll always be thankful for Webber's timeout
Eh.. The metrics don’t take into account that it was a system in Sac and Web sacrificed some of his game for that system. Then, when Webber got hurt he was replace with an all star in Miller.
And there was a reason Adelman forced him back into the starting lineup upon return...he knew that without an integrated Web he had no shot at a title.
Webber not shot as much as he did in Sacramento, and everything really indicates that he shouldn't have been. From my perspective, that's the system sacrificing for Webber rather than the other way around.
With that said, in terms of shooting efficiency, I do think there's something to be said that the passing big men that Adelman relied upon seemed to be put in a position where their efficiency was lower than it could have been. So that's a mark in favor of your point, but I'd feel it was a much stronger point if Webber wasn't jacking more shots that he'd ever justified taking before, and the Kings didn't seem fine without him.
Re: Had to put him into the starting lineup to win a title. I mean, he may well have thought that, but they didn't win a title when they put him back in. They got worse. Maybe it was worth the risk, but given that the same guy who led everybody in +/- as a starter in the RS was also the same guy putting up grade +/- off the bench in the playoffs, Adelman may have made a mistake benching Miller for Webber out of pressure to play the "superstar" rather than the guy who was more effective.
