DY_nasty wrote:Braggins wrote:DY_nasty wrote:Actually yeah. Kemba is one of the league leaders in touches per game. Al's role is to be the primary scorer, yeah, but Kemba has the ball more than most MVP candidates. Makes no sense whatsoever.
You know how MCW and Rondo being a focal point of their offense's movement is like.... never good? Same applies to Kemba (on a not so drastic scale of course. He's nowhere near as catastrophic to offenses as those guys but still).
http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/possessions/?sort=TCH&dir=1&Season=2014-15&SeasonType=Regular%20SeasonHe's also got a really high time of possession too. Much higher than Al's - and Al gets the ball in the low post more than any big in the league not named Dwight Howard.
He has the ball a lot because for most of the season he was the only capable ballhandler on the team. What specifically about our roster construction and offensive system is supposed to be tailored to Kemba's playing style? Please tell me? He is an undersized but quick ballhandler that needs to operate in space/transition and struggles with outside shooting. We slow the game down and play a style based around feeding the post and setting up other guys for spot up jumpers. Are you telling me that we play slow for Kemba? Or that our team is based around the post and spot up shooting because of Kemba... Do we play a style that results in a perpetually clogged lane because that is supposed to suite Kemba? Did we spend a large portion of last season with a front court with no pick and roll threats for Kemba? Come on, these arguments about this team being designed for Kemba are flat out asinine. If you were to design a team and play style specifically to not fit Kemba's game it would look a lot like what we do and how our team is constructed. Just because he is the poor soul burdened with the task of trying to make this pathetic system work most of the time doesn't mean it is at all suitable for his game.
I really can't believe that you would look at this roster and how we play and think that we are set up to complement Kemba's game.
I'm gonna start with the bolded and move down. How many 'capable ball handlers' are on the Hawks? Really just two. Dennis and Teague. Do either of those guys boast 30% usage rate? The system in Clifford's mind must suit Kemba and Al because Kemba's T/O rate with all of that considered is staggeringly low - and we all know how Cliff prioritizes low turnovers more than just about anything else when it comes to offense. I'm not saying it makes sense or is good. I'm saying that all signs point to just that. People also love to say that guys are failing Kemba at some massive rate. There's a stat for that too. Assist Opp per game. Kemba isn't anywhere near the top of that list while also being one of the leaders in general passes per game at the same time.
http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/passing/?Season=2014-15&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&sort=AST_POT&dir=1 Its just one of the many conundrums and paradoxes this team has where it forces the offense to work against itself.
You cannot say an offense isn't built around a guy when he's got a massive usage rate, is allowed to shoot EVERYTHING, and he's a league leader in touches per game Is it good for him? HELL NO
Where do I ->Ever<- say that? lolvI'm just telling you what's actually happening. The offense is built around him, the roster moves have made with him in mind, and they just don't create a good product. You can say that the product is horrible and that a better job needs to be done.
Sure. We all say that in some shape or form. The fact is though that Kemba is sole driving force of the offense (when Mo isn't forced to pretend to be Kemba) and that #kembaneedshelp has been a part of this team's decision making process for years.
Its just inarguable. He has the ball because the coaches want him to have it. Anything else, whatever narrative/side story/gut feeling has no real sway on the fact Kemba's got the ball more than Westbrook and LBJ. That he has the ball longer than 2/3s of the other starting PGs in the league. However people feel about it is just like... opinion. Fact is, he's got the ball - and other teams with fewer ball handlers than us have no problem generating player and ball movement. And its not even Kemba's fault.
Our offense is built around dribbling the hell out of the ball. That's really all it is. I've dropped links dating months back about how we have the longest possessions, with the most useless passes, in a scheme that actually brings the ball AWAY from the rim more often than it brings the ball towards it. Even when Al went down and Kemba had a great month, the offense wasn't necessarily efficient. Just average - which, paired with our defense, helped a ton.
Yeah, I agree with most of this. I was arguing that the roster and offensive system are set up for failure for Kemba, and basically everyone on the team for that matter. It just looks worse for Kemba because he is our only perimeter player that can create his own shot and usually ends up being the bailout option after the shot clock ends the game of hot potato. I do think that strategically the offense is definitely geared more towards Al than Kemba, despite the usage rating. Its just really easy for teams to deny our super predictable post attack and we don't ever seem to have any kind of plan or action to create good shots so games tend to devolve into Kemba running around desperately trying to make something happen without any room to operate or anyone to take the pressure off him. I think Kemba can do well initiating the offense in a good system but he needs to be the 3rd option, or possibly 2nd on a really balanced team. You are right though that the coaches want him to have the ball, but he really is our best option if we aren't going to have some kind of plan to create good shots. Its a bad situation, but I find it hard to really blame him for how things play out. I mean, I don't think anyone would rather have Hendo or MKG trying to iso every possession when the shot clock starts to wind down, which are really the only other remotely feasible options, other than the obvious solution of running an actual offense, but that is out of the players control.
