OMFKG! The Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Thread

[HornetJail]

Me too. Klay isn't top 3 material, but neither is anyone else in this draft. I'd want someone we know can contribute. Everyone in this draft has their flags.

[Eoghan]

I'm conditionally agreeing with you. Basically, if we can land Noel or McLemore, I'd rather have those guys than Klay.

[Liver_Pooty]

I'm conditionally agreeing with you. Basically, if we can land Noel or McLemore, I'd rather have those guys than Klay.

I agree with Noel. Toss up to me between McLemore and Thompson, though.

[KembaWalker]

I'd like to hear an argument as to how McLemore won't be better than Thompson. They have the exact same strengths and weaknesses except McLemore is much better at the same age and has much more natural talent. Maybe he isn't typical top 3 level talent but he is certainly more talented and better than Klay Thompson. Klay does absolutely nothing well besides catching and shooting. He is not a standout talent. He's basically a worse shooting version of what Anthony Morrow was a few years ago

[catch20two]

I'd like to hear an argument as to how McLemore won't be better than Thompson. They have the exact same strengths and weaknesses except McLemore is much better at the same age and has much more natural talent. Maybe he isn't typical top 3 level talent but he is certainly more talented and better than Klay Thompson. Klay does absolutely nothing well besides catching and shooting. He is not a standout talent. He's basically a worse shooting version of what Anthony Morrow was a few years ago

You're totally disrespecting Klay Thompson's ability to put the ball on the floor and create his own shot. He's not just some catch and shoot player like McLemore currently is. First some of you tried to tell me that Steph Curry doesn't create his own shots and now Klay doesn't either? Klay has a decent handle and a scorer's mentality along with a great shooting stroke.

[Liver_Pooty]

I'd like to hear an argument as to how McLemore won't be better than Thompson. They have the exact same strengths and weaknesses except McLemore is much better at the same age and has much more natural talent. Maybe he isn't typical top 3 level talent but he is certainly more talented and better than Klay Thompson. Klay does absolutely nothing well besides catching and shooting. He is not a standout talent. He's basically a worse shooting version of what Anthony Morrow was a few years ago

Have you actually watched Klay Thompson? You act as if he is Matt Bonner or something.

[KembaWalker]

I'd like to hear an argument as to how McLemore won't be better than Thompson. They have the exact same strengths and weaknesses except McLemore is much better at the same age and has much more natural talent. Maybe he isn't typical top 3 level talent but he is certainly more talented and better than Klay Thompson. Klay does absolutely nothing well besides catching and shooting. He is not a standout talent. He's basically a worse shooting version of what Anthony Morrow was a few years ago

You're totally disrespecting Klay Thompson's ability to put the ball on the floor and create his own shot. He's not just some catch and shoot player like McLemore currently is. First some of you tried to tell me that Steph Curry doesn't create his own shots and now Klay doesn't either? Klay has a decent handle and a scorer's mentality along with a great shooting stroke.

80.6% of Klay Thompsons shots are assisted. He is a catch and shoot player. Don't know what Stephen Curry has to do with anything, just because someone incorrectly told you Stephen Curry is a catch and shoot player doesn't mean Klay Thompson ISN'T a catch and shoot player. They are 2 very different players.

Klay Thompsons 80.6% assisted rate is actually significantly higher than even Anthony Morrows was back then. He's not quite at Matt Bonners catch and shoot rate but he's not exactly far off either. 84% vs 80%

[catch20two]

This is Klay Thompson at Washington State when he was about the same age as McLemore now. If you watch the clip then you will realize that he scores in a much more wider variety of ways than McLemore, and a lot of the time off the dribble.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2ekvQS-Xs[/youtube]

[KembaWalker]

Don't really care what he did in college, thats not the kind of player he is now. Which is a mediocre scorer (16 per 36 at 53%TS is not good. worse than Henderson) that doesn't do anything else and relies mainly on getting assisted for open shots. (80% of shots are assisted)

McLemore was a much more efficient scorer and better shooter in his 1 year of college than Klay Thompson was any of his years in college. Regarding college, if McLemore can average 16ppg at 64%TS for Kansas, I'm sure he could have averaged 20 at Washington State at 54%TS like Thompson did..

[DashGlobal]

This is Klay Thompson at Washington State when he was about the same age as McLemore now. If you watch the clip then you will realize that he scores in a much more wider variety of ways than McLemore, and a lot of the time off the dribble.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2ekvQS-Xs[/youtube]

I remember watching that and wanting Klay Thompson. I think he is a more rounded player offensively than McLemore. He did more off the dribble in one game than McLemore did all season imo

[BeesWax]

I'd like to hear an argument as to how McLemore won't be better than Thompson. They have the exact same strengths and weaknesses except McLemore is much better at the same age and has much more natural talent. Maybe he isn't typical top 3 level talent but he is certainly more talented and better than Klay Thompson. Klay does absolutely nothing well besides catching and shooting. He is not a standout talent. He's basically a worse shooting version of what Anthony Morrow was a few years ago

You're totally disrespecting Klay Thompson's ability to put the ball on the floor and create his own shot. He's not just some catch and shoot player like McLemore currently is. First some of you tried to tell me that Steph Curry doesn't create his own shots and now Klay doesn't either? Klay has a decent handle and a scorer's mentality along with a great shooting stroke.

In most cases I am with you Catch but I have to disagree on Curry. He is not a great shot creator for himself. His handles are solid but not spectacular and the same goes for his quickness. He is very good at shooting with very little space and has a quick shot. He creates more off the dribble in transition than he does in the half court. Mostly he has a step back jumper but not a consistent crossover or attacking dribble. He is getting better at it but he never used it much in college and needs to finish developing it.

[fatlever]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... First-Team

MKG made 2nd team all-rookie as expected

Damian Lillard headlines the 2013 NBA All-Rookie Team as a unanimous selection.

Bradley Beal, Anthony Davis, Dion Waiters and Harrison Barnes joined Lillard on the All-Rookie First Team.

On the All-Rookie Second Team is Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kyle Singler and Tyler Zeller.

[HornetJail]

No way Kyle Singler made it over Maurice Harkless. Other than that, no real problems with this.

[Liver_Pooty]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/227671/Lillard-Davis-Beal-Waiters-Barnes-On-2013-All-Rookie-First-Team

MKG made 2nd team all-rookie as expected

Damian Lillard headlines the 2013 NBA All-Rookie Team as a unanimous selection.

Bradley Beal, Anthony Davis, Dion Waiters and Harrison Barnes joined Lillard on the All-Rookie First Team.

On the All-Rookie Second Team is Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kyle Singler and Tyler Zeller.

I can see Piston fans already flipping out that their chosen one wasn't first team.

[countryboi]

MKG should have made it over barnes...i guess we going to penalize MKG for playing for the bobcats.

[fatlever]

barnes is getting that winning team bonus. not really fair to MKG. put him on the warriors and barnes on the cats and MKG would be looking fantastic right now in the playoffs and barnes would be golfing and people would be talking about how we made a mistake by drafting barnes over MKG.

[SWedd523]

Drummond and MKG should be above Barnes

[mrknowitall215]

MKG, for a player that was supposed to be considered offensive challenged compared to the likes of per se a Harrison Barnes more than held his own this year. They basically averaged about the same amount of points, on the same amount of shots, in the same amount of minutes per game. MKG shot a higher field goal percentage, but Barnes shot a higher 3-point percentage. I would easily consider MKG to be the better player though since he impacts the game in more ways at the small forward position, thus the reason for him sporting a 14.0 PER vs Barnes' 11.0 PER.

[mrknowitall215]

Drummond and MKG should be above Barnes

[mrknowitall215]

Season Report Card: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

Grade: B

14.0 PER vs 16.3 PER Against; Net -2.3

Strengths: MKG’s most immediate and obvious strength this year was his rebounding. On a team that desperately needed help there, he pulled down a very solid 8.1 rebounds per 36 minutes. Those don’t appear to be empty numbers, either: When he was on the floor, Charlotte’s total rebound percentage improved from an average of 47.8 percent to 49.7 percent. That bump might look modest, but it’s the difference between being the second-worst rebounding team in the NBA and one that’s almost exactly league-average. The improvement on the boards helped spark the offense, as well, as the team had significantly more second-chance points with Kidd-Gilchrist on the floor.

His defense was also a plus. Just using the eye test, MKG did a good job of sticking with his man and providing help where he could. While MySynergySports.com grades him out as an average defender overall, there were certain areas where he shined. In isolation, MKG gave up .67 points per possession, good for a top-50 ranking. He was similarly talented at defending the ball handler in pick-and-roll situations and in post-ups, showing his versatility. For a player that could potentially bounce back and forth between the forward positions, holding his own in the post is a very promising sign. As he gains an improved feel for team defense (and the team’s defense improves in general), he has a good chance at blossoming into the elite defender Charlotte hoped it was getting.

Weaknesses: Kidd-Gilchrist’s biggest flaw is pretty glaring: his jumpshot is painful to watch. It’s not very effective, either. On mid-range shots, MKG only converted 29.6 percent of his attempts. For forwards with at least 100 attempts from mid-range, the average was 40 percent — Kidd-Gilchrist was only better than four of the 75 players that qualified. (Weird statistical footnote: MKG was actually marginally better than fellow rookies Anthony Davis [!] and Harrison Barnes [!?!].) It’s a significant limitation, and how much it improves over the next few years will determine how high his ceiling really is.

MKG could also stand to tighten up his handle. Too often, he’d get the ball in the high post with room to operate, then defer and pass off to a teammate. Other times, he’d begin a drive only to lose control and cough up the ball. According to Synergy, in situations where MKG was the ball handler in the pick-and-roll, he turned it over 22 percent of the time. I’d rather see a confident and aggressive Kidd-Gilchrist, but he’ll need to work on limiting those giveaways.

Reasons for Optimism: Here’s what Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote about Kidd-Gilchrist on Jan. 3, just 30 games into the season:

Damian Lillard has earned front-runner status [for Rookie of the Year], but Kidd-Gilchrist deserves real consideration. Given their three-year age gap, it’s not surprising there are some folks around the league who would prefer to build around MKG for the long haul. http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... rds-part-2

Good to hear! But a lot changed after that article was published, with MKG slumping in January and suffering a terrifying concussion to start February. He didn’t miss many games following the injury, but his play continued to slide: After shooting 51 percent in the first two months of the season, Kidd-Gilchrist only made 31 percent of his attempts in February’s 10 games. Though he refused to make excuses for the poor stretch, he admitted that he was still recovering in early March. He bounced back in March and April, shooting a relatively efficient 47 percent through the final 24 games of the year.

If you want to be optimistic about Kidd-Gilchrist, you’d probably look to the first chunk of the year as your justification. What changed as the season went on?

Digging into the numbers shows part of the reason why Kidd-Gilchrist’s efficiency took a dip. Here’s his shot selection through 30 games, when he was shooting 51 percent:



A very high percentage of shots came within eight feet of the basket, where he was shooting 62 percent. Much fewer came from mid-range, where he didn’t have much confidence.

Here’s the rest of the year, where he shot 42 percent overall:



While it was still his bread and butter, we see fewer attempts near the rim and an increased emphasis on jump shots. Even though it helped make him a less efficient scorer, it was an important step: MKG can’t camp the lane forever, and if he wants to grow as a player he’ll need to step outside his comfort zone (figuratively and literally).

So, how did that go? Here’s the chart for Kidd-Gilchrist’s shooting performance in the first 30 games of the season:



It’s about what you’d expect: Good near the basket, bad everywhere else (in admittedly limited attempts). Over that stretch, MKG hit only 24.6 percent of his 65 mid-range attempts.

Here’s the final 30 games:



Is that some yellow outside the paint? And a green spot! To close the season, MKG made 36 percent of his final 91 mid-range attempts. It’s not quite average for his position, but it’s a hell of a lot better than 24.6 percent. (His form is still hideous, though.)

Those aren’t the largest samples to draw from, so I wouldn’t make any definitive conclusions about MKG’s jumper — we’ll have to wait until next year to see if an offseason of reps can improve his consistency. But it’s still encouraging, and it’s at least a hint at growth from a young, developing player. As a defender and all-around contributor, Kidd-Gilchrist already seems relatively well-formed. If he can continue to improve on both ends, he could be special.

Reasons for Pessimism: If he doesn’t continue to improve on both ends, he’ll wind up as a role player. That’s fine (the world needs role players), but it’s obviously not what you’d like from your second overall pick.

Even if MKG becomes a competent shooter from mid-range, it’s unlikely that he’ll ever be great from distance. That will probably be a problem moving forward: the league in general is taking more three-pointers than ever, and efficient offenses tend to focus on the restricted area and shots from beyond the arc. Kidd-Gilchrist has a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to become a complete player; it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up.

I’d rather not end this report card on a down note, though, so here’s Kidd-Gilchrist dunking Greg Monroe’s face off.

http://queencityhoops.com/blog/2013/05/ ... gilchrist/