Pace and Space: The Wizards' New Offense

[Higga]

This offense won't work with our older players. We need more youth and athleticism outside of Wall Beal and Porter. Gortat in particular, he's a good player but in this new scheme he gets winded way too fast and his play suffers.

[Illmatic12]

Update: Washington is currently #5 in pace, #10 in offensive efficiency

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats

Last season they were #16 in pace, #19 in offensive efficiency.

So early returns say that yes, the style changes are clearly benefiting the offense.

The stat to track now is defensive efficiency, where the Wizards finished #5 last season. They were outside of the top 20 last week, now they've finally snuck in at #19 and trending upwards.

Interestingly, Golden State and Boston are the only two teams who are top 5 in both pace and defensive rating. Those are both deep teams with a lot of athletic wing defenders who can snuff out transition opportunities and play 48min of solid D. The Wiz getting back to their top 5 defensive ranking may be a stretch this season, but I think it's very possible for this team to finish top 5 in pace, top 10 in offense, and top 10 in defense - will be tracking this over the course of the season.

[closg00]

Post article on Bigs feasting on second units. Nene and Gorcin did not chart.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fancy-stats/wp/2015/11/24/with-post-play-on-the-decline-nbas-big-men-can-feast-on-second-units/

[tontoz]

We are up to 10th in offensive efficiency in spite of our dismal (27th) turnover rate. We are currently 3rd in the league in pace.

[Higga]

We are up to 10th in offensive efficiency in spite of our dismal (27th) turnover rate. We are currently 3rd in the league in pace.

The problem is if we're sacrificing defense to do it, are we really gaining anything in terms of W/L?

[tontoz]

We are up to 10th in offensive efficiency in spite of our dismal (27th) turnover rate. We are currently 3rd in the league in pace.

The problem is if we're sacrificing defense to do it, are we really gaining anything in terms of W/L?

I dont' know that one is related to the other. I think the defense has been picking up lately. Last night George and Miles just went nuts.

[TheSecretWeapon]

The Wizards offense so far this season is 0.3 points per 100 possessions more efficient than it was last season. League average is about a 1.6 points per 100 possessions lower so far (it typically rises during the season) so -- at least to this point -- they're exactly average vs. 1.9 points per 100 possessions worse than average last year.

Their defense is notably worse so far. Some of that is Humphries (a very average defender -- at best) instead of Nenê, but Nenê's playing time is down about 6 minutes per game so far. And, they sat Humphries for all but 8 minutes against the Pacers, and it was one of their worst defensive performances of the season. The big thing: opponents are getting good looks. Washington was 5th in defensive efg last season; this year they're tied for 27th. That can't be pinned completely on Humphries -- their defensive efg when he's on the bench would rank only 25th. With Nenê they move all the way T-23. With Dudley it's T-20. They have a team-wide defensive problem so far this season.

I'm not too terribly worried about the turnovers at this point. They're 27th, but just 1.2 tov per 100 possessions below average, and only about a turnover per 100 worse than they were last year. My guess is that they if they de-emphasize the "pace" part of their pace & space, the turnovers will continue to come down.

[FAH1223]

Start Nene

Bring him out after 4-5 mins

Then bring Hump

Then after a few min, bring out Dudley to play SF

[gambitx777]

NENE needs to go imo I can imagine he is causing some issues with gortat, But thats just my opinion

[dangermouse]

F*ck it, START NENE

it worked 2 season in a row

we don't have the stretch 4 we need with the legs to play this offense.

clog the lane? our starters only drive on the break/pushing the ball after a rebound and kick out, anyway. they can still do that with Nene starting.

as someone else said, just pull him early and replace with Hump. when Gortat sits replace with Nene.

[TheSecretWeapon]

F*ck it, START NENE

it worked 2 season in a row

we don't have the stretch 4 we need with the legs to play this offense.

clog the lane? our starters only drive on the break/pushing the ball after a rebound and kick out, anyway. they can still do that with Nene starting.

as someone else said, just pull him early and replace with Hump. when Gortat sits replace with Nene.

See, this is the thing: it really didn't "work" two seasons in a row. Last season, they were 22nd in offense; the season before they were 17th. They were thoroughly average teams both seasons, but had their record inflated by a historically weak East. One of my stat goober buddies estimated that playing in the East added 3 wins to the records of the top 5 seeds in the East each of the past two seasons.

They had a couple fun playoff runs -- including last season where they played a different style than they had all year. AND they got fortunate that Lowry had an injury that rendered him functionally useless.

The notion that their style "worked" is a myth.

[Illmatic12]

F*ck it, START NENE

it worked 2 season in a row

we don't have the stretch 4 we need with the legs to play this offense.

clog the lane? our starters only drive on the break/pushing the ball after a rebound and kick out, anyway. they can still do that with Nene starting.

as someone else said, just pull him early and replace with Hump. when Gortat sits replace with Nene.

Dude, Nene can't even stay healthy two games in a row. Starting him at this stage in his career, especially against the new fast PF position, is decidedly a terrible idea