Los_29 wrote:dTox wrote:Los_29 wrote:
Well clearly his 46.2% TS% will bring down those numbers. He also played a far more significant role than Scottie (2nd option in 2018, 1st option after that). Pascal's TS% was 66% in the 2018 playoffs. Reality is Pascal played an integral role in our championship run. He's a far better player now than what he was in 2019 as well.
It's not clear bias against Scottie. In fact, it's clear bias against Pascal because Scottie reaps the rewards of not getting any defensive attention as all of that attention goes to Pascal and Fred. Context is important.
So on one hand no mention of playing next to Kawhi for inflated TS%, but on the other hand taking away merits from Scottie since Siakam/Fred draw all the attention, who draw no where near the same amount of coverage as Kawhi, creating much more open shots for his teammates, not to mention also having one of the league's best passer spoon feed the entire team in Lowry, none of these advantages Scottie had during his first 2 years.
Pascal averaged 19/8/3 in 21 games without Kawhi with splits of 55/29/79. Meanwhile Scottie is our 4th/5th option. Pascal clearly had to work a lot harder and got more defensive attention even with Kawhi than Scottie has ever gotten in his NBA career. Lowry is the GROAT but we have a tendency to overrate him. Kawhi has been just as efficient if not moreso in LA than he was with us. Pascal's TS% as a 1st option has been better without Kyle than with him. Powell's TS% has been the same in LA than it was with us. Meanwhile, Scottie is significantly more efficient with Fred in the lineup than without. So clearly, he is reaping some benefits to having Fred out there.
This whole argument stems from a poster claiming Pascal cowers under pressure while Scottie thrives and the team should be built around him. I simply pointed out an obvious fact that Pascal played a very important role during our championship run as our #2 option. Scottie's clutch stats are fantastic but context is very important. He gets little to no defensive attention compared to other players on the team. You just can't compare the two. Pascal was playing extremely intense, high stakes basketball as our 2nd option in our championship run.
I'm not saying Scottie will never be a player we can build around. It's just that he needs to show a lot more. I don't think that's a controversial take. Most likely, Scottie will be a player we use to compliment that #1 player. Just like Pascal should be in an ideal world.
You think a team with the best supporting cast in the NBA that season didn't make life easier for Siakam vs. a team today that is terrible offensively? Leonard, Lowry, Ibaka, Gasol, Green, Van Vleet, Powell, OG. Yeah, I think that veteran team knew a bit better how to play basketball than this iteration does. It took Siakam and Van Vleet 3/4 of this season to figure out that you need to play as a team to win lol.
You keep saying Barnes is a 4th or 5th option, but whatever he is, the defenses clearly shift to have multiple defenders focus on Barnes when he has the ball. You're essentially making things up when you say he isn't guarded like you have a habit of doing around here lol. In fact, opposing teams typically guard him very similar to the way they guard Siakam with a little less attention because they have the same strengths and weaknesses depending on which spot on the floor Barnes gets the ball. I think you have even said he is not guarded on the perimeter and even that's false. Generally you want him to take the jumper but you also don't want to ignore him or he will take it to the rim which is worse for your defense. That happened for like a 3 game stretch and teams quickly realize the kid was too smart to guard him like that.
By your own logic this team doesn't actually have anyone who should be featured over anyone else since none of them shoot well, so may as well give the young guy the chance.