wco81 wrote:Thing about trading for all these wing defenders everyone talks about -- Jones, Ellis -- is that they're not necessarily better.
Jones is bigger and has shot well from 3 point range but he's not shooting that well this year, 39/36.2 on 4.3 3PAs. Don't know why his overall shooting percentage is so low compared to career average of 47%. At his size, presumably he finishes well at the rim, maybe even a dunk target on alley oops.
Moody and Podz are both shooting better than Jones on more shot attempts but fewer minutes. Of course they're both much younger than Jones, who's 27. He may be better defender but is he mainly a catch and shoot player or can he attack closeouts and finish well at the rim with his size? He apparently isn't doing it this season.
Ellis for some reason is playing only 16 MPG this season after 24.4 MPG last season. His shooting is well off 41.1 versus 47.1 career average and 39.1 from 3, though it's down as are his attempts. Again another catch and shoot guy, doesn't rebound or get assists compared to Moody and Podz.
Maybe their advanced stats on defense are much superior? Otherwise they both play for teams which are not playing well this season and Ellis has had his minutes cut way back.
Sure trade away JK since he isn't producing to merit another year at his salary. But I'm not sure throwing in Moody or Podz would be smart..
Definitely, neither Jones nor Ellis seem to be worth FRPs unless you're talking like top 25 protected. Even then, I think I'd rather draft someone in the late first round, early second round versus paying either of these players 8-figure salaries.
Jones isn't really an offensive guy tbh. He's kind of like gp2 on offense. He can make decisions and dribble the ball and is pretty athletic. But he's not a knockdown shooter. His main selling point is that he's an all NBA level defender. Good on ball and off ball.
Ellis is a catch and shoot guy. I don't think he's a movement shooter. But he's a great on ball defender and an aware off ball defender.
Basically the 2 of them would be our attack defenders allowing us to pressure the ball the way okc does. They are both really smart defenders and we'd be really fast on defense. I do think we'd be able to be much closer to okc defensively with them.