Post#13 » by lethalweapon3 » Tue Nov 12, 2019 11:15 pm
Holy hot sauce, we’ve got some Louisiana lads squaring off tonight!
I shall spare everyone my 21st annual, “Why Hasn’t Louisiana Tech Retired Paul Millsap’s Jersey Number?” fuss, for now. We’ve got bigger catfish to fry tonight.
This time last year, Damian Jones was holding the fort as a starting center for the defending NBA champs, as was the plan, until Boogie Cousins could get upright and healthy. A year later, the pride of Baton Rouge is back with a top line and will be front-and-center at tip off when his Atlanta Hawks face another Bayou State baller, Uncle Paulie, and his red-hot Nuggets in Denver (9 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Altitude TV if you can get it). This time, Jones will be holding the fort until… well, we will have to wait and see, won’t we?
Nobody can convince me that climate change isn’t real, because I am the last soul here on Alex Len Fan Club Island, up high on the last standing tree, clinging precariously to a coconut. The NBA’s worst offensive big man and worst offensive starter so far this season (89.3 O-Rating, 5th-lowest among all NBA’ers w/ 15+ MPG and 5+ GP; 6.0 O-Reb%, 39.2 TS%), Len will get to come sit by coach Lloyd Pierce and Cam Reddish, as the Hawks try to not waste Trae Young’s considerable energy (sole NBA player in Top-10 for PPG, APG and SPG).
Jones won’t be the last player to catch flak from his new team’s fans based on his previous place of employment. Many hoped he could bring some of that Dub Magic with him, pixie-dusting it onto his new mates. Instead, his Derp Tragic play during the Hawks’ preseason rendered him gravely disappointing and downright unplayable, in the minds of many, as the regular season commenced.
Still, others have noted that the fourth-year center out of Vanderbilt has less than a full season of play, just 57 regular-season and 12 playoff appearances, under his belt, a great number of them unworthy of being categorized as much more than, “appearances”. The 24-year-old is as much a developmental player as anyone on Atlanta’s roster, although the pair of championship rings he carries can obscure that fact.
Jones has put up binary boxscore lines throughout his early tenure in the pros. But, to his credit, he has shown a propensity for putting the Popeyes biscuit in the basket (68.2 2FG%, 77.8% at-rim; they do still have biscuits, I am told). And during Portland’s Baze-tastic 124-113 overtime win there were times, early on, where the race to be the best Damian on the court was surprisingly close. Jones’ seven boards were a career-high, and he came dangerously close to the fifth double-digit scoring effort of his career.
Atlanta (3-6) has regressed in many measures during their current three-game skid, mostly due to the absence of John The Pharmacist, but the one area where they have maintained a decided advantage is in the paint points department. Thanks largely to a more seasoned and scrutinized 24-year-old, Renaissance Man Jabari Parker (27 points, 4 blocks and 11 rebounds, 12-for-17 2FGs @ POR), Atlanta’s 52.3 per-48 paint points rank third in the NBA, their +9.9 net edge in that area behind only one of Parker’s former clubs, Giannis’ Milwaukee (+11.3).
That advantageous interior gap could be as wide as Lake Pontchartrain by now, one can imagine, if Len didn’t bring the arms and hands of a Turkish wrestler to the floor with him. Jones has gone six consecutive appearances where his personal plus-minus exceeded his team’s final margin, and so coach Pierce has decided that while Jones isn’t Mister Right, he is Mister Right Now.
Until the Hawks can improve on their atrocious perimeter shooting (29.0 team 3FG%, somehow not dead-last in NBA), and horrendous free throw shooting (70.2 team FT%, somehow not dead-last in NBA), finishing interior plays is the way to go. The Nuggets’ offensive efficiency (103.7 O-Rating, 23rd in NBA) has been almost as bad as Atlanta’s (102.3, 27th in NBA), but for different reasons. Their 46.7 team 2FG% is somehow not dead-last, either, despite the third-highest two-point shot frequency (68.2% of all FGAs).
Coach Mike Malone’s club has been living and dying by clutch threes, winning three of their past four games by four points or less. If the Hawks’ perimeter defenders show up at critical junctures, they could be the second Atlanta team with a losing record this week to catch a happy-go-lucky, seven-win opponent off-guard. On that note...
Does the Louisiana native, Millsap, even like the Aints? All indications are that Paul has been as True to Atlanta as any former Hawks star. This past summer alone, you could catch him balling at the AEBL summer league, working with his brothers to keep their Core 4 Atlanta training facility running up in Chamblee. This month, he’s been named the regional development director for southside ATL’s longtime popular local eatery, “This Is It! Southern Kitchen and BBQ.” Heck, he’s one Dimitroff call away from becoming the Falcons’ fifth punter.
Sap has been very, very good for Atlanta, but he has been indispensable for Denver (7-2, tied with the Lakers for 1st in the West). Almost every SportsCenter highlight has Millsap (12.1 PPG, 96.8 FT%, 47.8 3FG%) in the background doing his quiet superhuman routine. Fending off multiple defenders for a loose ball then kicking it out to Nikola: “Jokic with the BIG 3!” Flexing old-man hops to dunk on unsuspecting bigs in the post: “What a smart inbound pass by Jamal Murray (18.8 PPG, 4.2 APG, 2.9 TOs/game), spotting the mismatch.” Stripping a ball, or blocking a shot in the restricted zone, leading to the play that gets TV announcers’ attention on the Nuggets’ transition at the other end.
Millsap’s opponents have suffered a minus-11.2 FG% differential within six feet of the hoop, third-best among Western bigs defending at least five such shots per game. The Nuggets will need Millsap, in tandem with guard Gary Harris and forward Jerami Grant, to be as disruptive as possible, to allow 24 Hour Fitness at Happy Hour model Jokic (16.7 PPG, 6.0 APG, 9.3 RPG) to shine when the game matters most.
Replacing Len with Jones isn’t quite as controversial a switcheroo as bait-and-switching Frank Ocean with Drake at Camp Flog Gnaw, so the reaction among the Hawks fans for this latest starter switch will be supportive but tepid. But if Jones’ incremental improvement enlivens Atlanta’s offense around Young and the awakening Kevin Huerter, and improves the league’s worst defensive rebounding unit in away games (NBA-low 66.3 D-Reb%), starts during the Hawks’ current road trip might become more of a carnival atmosphere and less of a sideshow.
Throw us somethin’, Mister Jones!
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
"Dunking is better than sex." - Shawn Kemp, 1996
....that's what I've been thinking but seeing it in print 
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