Is it time to worry about Taj?

[Keller61]

Tajy-woo has been Tajy-woe of late. He's shooting 43% since the new year and hasn't scored more than 15 points in a game since November. His defense and overall energy have been lacking. He doesn't look like the player who should have won 6th Man of the Year last season and was probably the 2nd best player on the team.

I know his ankles have been bothering him for a while, and hopefully the all-star break will help with that, but I'm beginning to get worried that this team won't go far without that consistent impact off the bench from the Taj Mahal.

[Rerisen]

One of the trade rumor blurbs was speculation that Taj was getting frustrated with his role.

But while the actual trade rumors could be true, and he could be getting shopped, I don't buy into that part of it.

If you just step back and look at his statistics, he is doing fine, in line with his usual production.

I think a good portion of the perception of his worse D, is that Noah not being as good makes everyone look worse by comparison. Also Taj and Gasol seem to have rotation mix ups and communication issues at times.

[Mech Engineer]

I think there is a lot of communication issues going on and the offense obviously catered more for Pau. Look at many open shots Pau gets....Taj is covered by two defenders. And, even yesterday, he was getting passes at his ankles sometimes.

Taj cannot move around without the ball because he just cannot go to the 3 pt line and stand. That's not his game. He is playing good defense but gets caught a lot because of Pau not rotating.

If you looked at simple stats, he looks average. It is a ltitle bit of small injuries, his role plus the cult like hatred of his game which leads you to think he is slipping a lot. He has still been the best big man defender this season.

Actually, Taj's defense seems to be better playing with Mirotic than Pau. But, Mirotic has been too inconsistent on defense for Thibs to use them together.

[AirP.]

One of the trade rumor blurbs was speculation that Taj was getting frustrated with his role.

This is something a FO would leak to make easier for the fan base to accept if they were to move him.

[johnnyvann840]

I agree that the passion and energy is missing from his game lately. His numbers are right in line with last year, he just takes fewer shots, because his role has been somewhat reduced and his minutes have become more spotty. I also think he is playing hurt and that is a big part of not having his usual explosiveness. He has been disappointing lately for the most part and it's likely a combination of his ankle(s), his spotty role and sporadic minutes, and the recent trade rumors and the bad defensive play of his front court mates all taking their toll.

Re is also right that Noah has not been the same and Gasol is flat out slow and even a little clueless still on the communication and rotations. This frustrates Taj and then Noah being a step slower and having almost no lift (until lately, he is showing some signs- last night was the best he's played). Noah is getting caught in between and confused a lot switching between playing Pf and C depending on who he's on the floor with.

We definitely need the Taj from 2nd half and the playoffs last year if this team is going to seriously contend for the ECF's or a title. But, we also need Rose and Noah to be at least close to what they are capable of being when healthy. ... and we need MDJ healthy and back spacing the floor.. and we need Hinrich to either grab some bench or turn it on like he usually does in the second half of the season and he's already way late... and we need Niko to find the form he had in December and we need either Doug or Tony to be consistent backing up MDJ and Jimmy.

[MC3]

potential concern number two?

[Payt10]

Taj's defensive impact on this team has suffered quite a bit this season compared to last year.

His DRPM last season was: 3.64, which was 7th overall amongst PF's
His DRPM this season is: 1.63, which is 23rd amongst PF's

Niko's DRPM is actually 1.99, good for 11th, btw.

I don't know what the reasoning is behind Taj's regression this year other than I think he's been playing hurt.

[Rerisen]

One of the trade rumor blurbs was speculation that Taj was getting frustrated with his role.

This is something a FO would leak to make easier for the fan base to accept if they were to move him.

It could be part of it in truth too, I just don't buy that Taj would let it get out if so.

But he could be feeling some kind of spidy sense that he could be the guy on the outs this summer and it is affecting his motivation, even if its not intentional.

I mean he's not dumb, he sees Mirotic showing a lot of talent and signs of being legit at some point. All it takes is some simple math dividing up 96 to see the problem.

[Rerisen]

Taj's defensive impact on this team has suffered quite a bit this season compared to last year.

His DRPM last season was: 3.64, which was 7th overall amongst PF's
His DRPM this season is: 1.63, which is 23rd amongst PF's

Niko's DRPM is actually 1.99, good for 11th, btw.

I don't know what the reasoning is behind Taj's regression this year other than I think he's been playing hurt.

I think that is underrating him because early in the year he played with horrific defense units with Brooks, Snell and McBuckets, that got murdered, and the stat usually regresses unknown players toward neutral if it doesn't know a lot about them.

[Flopper]

He looks like damaged goods right now and no doubt it's the repeated ankle injuries taking their toll. His superior lateral quickness is gone, doesn't have a lot of lift when rebounding or contesting shots, and seems to have major issues keeping his balance when there's contact.

Taj also has this really bad habit now of having to bring the ball down real low to finish around the rim. He just doesn't have the explosion he had last season. I'm starting to have doubts on whether he'll return to his previous form this year, which unfortunately sounds like a lot of other guys on this team.

[Payt10]

Taj's defensive impact on this team has suffered quite a bit this season compared to last year.

His DRPM last season was: 3.64, which was 7th overall amongst PF's
His DRPM this season is: 1.63, which is 23rd amongst PF's

Niko's DRPM is actually 1.99, good for 11th, btw.

I don't know what the reasoning is behind Taj's regression this year other than I think he's been playing hurt.

I think that is underrating him because early in the year he played with horrific defense units with Brooks, Snell and McBuckets, that got murdered, and the stat usually regresses unknown players toward neutral if it doesn't know a lot about them.

RPM is suppose to take other players out of the equation, though.

[johnnyvann840]

Taj's defensive impact on this team has suffered quite a bit this season compared to last year.

His DRPM last season was: 3.64, which was 7th overall amongst PF's
His DRPM this season is: 1.63, which is 23rd amongst PF's

Niko's DRPM is actually 1.99, good for 11th, btw.

I don't know what the reasoning is behind Taj's regression this year other than I think he's been playing hurt.

I think that is underrating him because early in the year he played with horrific defense units with Brooks, Snell and McBuckets, that got murdered, and the stat usually regresses unknown players toward neutral if it doesn't know a lot about them.

yeah, his regression on D has been overstated. He's, BY FAR, been a better defensive player than Niko and it's really not even close. All you have to do is watch a game. You really have to break it down by lineups and who's he's playing with. A lot of those defensive metrics had Boozer as a better defender than Taj and Noah too.

[DanTown8587]

One of the trade rumor blurbs was speculation that Taj was getting frustrated with his role.

But while the actual trade rumors could be true, and he could be getting shopped, I don't buy into that part of it.

If you just step back and look at his statistics, he is doing fine, in line with his usual production.

I think a good portion of the perception of his worse D, is that Noah not being as good makes everyone look worse by comparison. Also Taj and Gasol seem to have rotation mix ups and communication issues at times.

Taj's # since returning from injury (per 36) over 26 games
12.7 points
8.9 rebounds
.454 FG%
.503 TS%
13.3% TRB

This year he started out on fire but he's crashed since he missed those two games. Not sure what's up.

[Payt10]

Taj's defensive impact on this team has suffered quite a bit this season compared to last year.

His DRPM last season was: 3.64, which was 7th overall amongst PF's
His DRPM this season is: 1.63, which is 23rd amongst PF's

Niko's DRPM is actually 1.99, good for 11th, btw.

I don't know what the reasoning is behind Taj's regression this year other than I think he's been playing hurt.

I think that is underrating him because early in the year he played with horrific defense units with Brooks, Snell and McBuckets, that got murdered, and the stat usually regresses unknown players toward neutral if it doesn't know a lot about them.

yeah, his regression on D has been overstated. He's, BY FAR, been a better defensive player than Niko and it's really not even close. All you have to do is watch a game. You really have to break it down by lineups and who's he's playing with. A lot of those defensive metrics had Boozer as a better defender than Taj and Noah too.

No they didn't unless you're confusing defensive rating with DRPM. Taj was one of the more impactful defensive players last year according to the statistic, as I mentioned above, but now he's not.

Boozer was actually a -0.02 last season.

[AirP.]

It could be part of it in truth too, I just don't buy that Taj would let it get out if so.

But he could be feeling some kind of spidy sense that he could be the guy on the outs this summer and it is affecting his motivation, even if its not intentional.

I mean he's not dumb, he sees Mirotic showing a lot of talent and signs of being legit at some point. All it takes is some simple math dividing up 96 to see the problem.

Right, it's why he should have been moved before the season started. Someone was going to be wasted... Gibson or Mirotic and also the potential problem of knowing someone was on the way out.

Either the FO didn't expect Mirotic to show any signs early on(rookie year) or they thought they could move Gibson near the trade deadline for something they need. The FO had no idea if Rose or Noah would hold up or if one of the young players would step up.

We now see McDermott really isn't in the plans for this year, Noah and Rose both look like they're getting back to how they should be and Mirotic has looked good when playing just PF. The need is SF or SG and they have a good asset to address it with. The time is right to make a move. The FO has a much better idea what the current team needs now than they did at the beginning of this season.

BTW... Taj has no way of stopping info from being leaked from the FO. It could be leaked by just making Taj available to some other GM who does leak info, just to get Taj's name out there to draw up interest without actually saying he's available.

[Rerisen]

RPM is suppose to take other players out of the equation, though.

It doesn't take them out of the equation so much as adjust for their impact - good or bad.

But it has to know their impact properly to rate the player we want adjusted for.

And right now RPM stats do not have near enough data to know how much McBuckets sucked at D (so will hedge him toward 0), and probably isn't doing that great at rating Snell or Brooks either on account of their low minutes and that Brooks wasn't in the league for a while.

So if the stat is guessing that these guys are more toward neutral which is how its set up to work when it has incomplete data, good chance its going to blame Taj inordinately for the bad defense not blame the poor defenders as much as it should.

[DanTown8587]

Taj's defensive impact on this team has suffered quite a bit this season compared to last year.

His DRPM last season was: 3.64, which was 7th overall amongst PF's
His DRPM this season is: 1.63, which is 23rd amongst PF's

Niko's DRPM is actually 1.99, good for 11th, btw.

I don't know what the reasoning is behind Taj's regression this year other than I think he's been playing hurt.

I think that is underrating him because early in the year he played with horrific defense units with Brooks, Snell and McBuckets, that got murdered, and the stat usually regresses unknown players toward neutral if it doesn't know a lot about them.

yeah, his regression on D has been overstated. He's, BY FAR, been a better defensive player than Niko and it's really not even close. All you have to do is watch a game. You really have to break it down by lineups and who's he's playing with. A lot of those defensive metrics had Boozer as a better defender than Taj and Noah too.

You go around for three years throwing +/- in everyone's face about how terrible Boozer was + how good Gibson was and now that it's Gibson with the negative net rating, you rely on the good ole eye test.

[DanTown8587]

I think Taj was great to start the year and then into December. Somewhere around Christmas though (also around where the ankle flared up again and when Taj missed two games), he just hasn't looked the same since and he looks a step slower and that step is big for Taj because his speed is where he draws his elite defensive ability to defend P&R. While I'd say rest normally would do him well, he hasn't looked that good the past week playing on plenty rest.

[DASMACKDOWN]

He's hurt, but playing through it.

He is basically still hurt in his ankle and he tweaked it again in the New Orleans game.

Taj will be fine after allstar break.

[Rerisen]

I think Taj was great to start the year and then into December. Somewhere around Christmas though (also around where the ankle flared up again and when Taj missed two games), he just hasn't looked the same since and he looks a step slower and that step is big for Taj because his speed is where he draws his elite defensive ability to defend P&R. While I'd say rest normally would do him well, he hasn't looked that good the past week playing on plenty rest.

He's not as bouncy, but then again him and Noah are moving close to 30... some small athletic slippages could be starting.

But if he's hurt we should shut him down and let Niko fill in for a while. We need him ready to do something for the playoffs. Well both of them.