jbk1234 wrote:toooskies wrote:ijspeelman wrote:
I think rival GMs will continue to look at how he's guarded and the volume he shoots. Although, I do think he has made a concerted effort to shoot more threes (especially some with some movement), however the rate stats only show marginal volume increase since last year.
He's young, but shouldn't fetch much more than PJ Tucker has (adjusted for the cap).
Okoro's young AND he hasn't gotten development reps on offense. I think he could do more than he does if Detroit or Utah want to give him those reps.
This argument drives me nuts. He's gotten more unearned minutes of any player drafted by Altman besides Sexton. JB loved the kid and with Garland, Strus, and Mitchell missing time this year he got plenty of starters minutes last season and in the playoffs. We've been forced to ask him to take a bigger role in the offense due to injuries and he hasn't been up for it - especially against good teams.
If the opposing team rebounds and/or protects the rim well, his garbage points go away and you're left with his open looks which he's still very hesitant to take. He's played 4 full seasons and that problem exists entirely between his ears. He's either protecting his shooting % for reasons having to do with his contract, or it's a deeply rooted confidence issue that manifests in big moments.
The bottom line is you can't pay a guy more than the MLE if he can't give you even 10ppg as a starter against good teams.
Well, 10.8 points as a starter this year. Okoro has earned minutes but when everyone is healthy he doesn't get touches. If Dean Wade's advanced stats this year tells you anything it's that you don't need to score points to deserve minutes. All Okoro's done the past three years in various spots in the rotation is deliver positive +/- and on/off stats. Those aren't "unearned" minutes.
Okoro was once again high on the team's list of points per touch, scoring .306 PPT, trailing only Mitchell, Allen, Merrill, and Morris. Other role playing wings like Niang (.258), Strus (.221), and Wade (.205) were significantly worse. Okoro led them by more than he trailed Mitchell for the team lead. In the playoffs, Okoro was also 5th on the team in points per touch (.275), with Mobley passing him by .005 and Merrill falling behind.
The issue is that Okoro got 30 touches per game in the regular season and 20 in the postseason. That's not enough to score more than 10 points per game. You can blame Okoro himself for not getting more touches by being more active in the offense, but generally the results when he touches the ball are positive for the team.
I disagree that we need our best perimeter defender to score more, though, when you've got Mitchell, Garland, Mobley, and Allen all asking for 20+% usage, LeVert somehow taking 23% usage, Strus and Merrill and Niang getting plays run for them off the bench, etc.
You see hesitancy to take shots and I see Okoro not taking bad shots. He doesn't take shots when the pass to him isn't on-target. He doesn't take shots when he's being closed out on. He generally makes pretty good passes. All his shots are at the rim or 3s. These are all clear analytics-driven good plays. Most players shoot pretty poorly on 3s that aren't wide open or are off-balance. Most players don't hit a high percentage of 2s. Most 5th options don't have AST/TO ratios above 2. (Although that dropped a bit in the playoffs, it was still above 1.)
Max Strus is a better shooter than Okoro at every 3-point shot they both take. Okoro shot a much better percentage because he passes up shooting shots that he'd typically miss. Whether that's "hesitation" or just a good shot selection is up to the observer.
This is all consistent with the way JBB has coached the team, though-- play good fundamental basketball, don't make mistakes, make the right play, take what the defense gives you. Which to me indicates that Okoro will both a) listen to what his coaching is telling him, and b) may have been limited by that coaching.
