yosemiteben wrote:Cool, you disagree with my argument. I'm fine with that. Just don't act like I haven't been clear about what that argument is or like there is some nefarious intent.
Ben, your statements in this thread and elsewhere were unclear to me. My perception was that you were attacking or making random counterarguments with no clear end goal in sight.
Given your arguments:
yosemiteben wrote:MCW's performance this season is not reflective of his past performance. Establishing that fact and exploring it is helpful in diagnosing the problem with this team.
I'm arguing that MCW has never played this poorly, and if he played more in line with his historical performance our bench would be better.
Lets look at a couple of your assumptions.
1. MCW has never played this poorly.
Taking a look at
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/cartemi01.html and there are some indications otherwise. MCW’s VORP is just as bad here as it was in Chicago and his BPM, WS, and DRtg aren’t out of line with that either. Yes he is slightly worse here, but the role he had in Chicago, backing up Rondo, is similar to what he got here and the performance is in line with that. Further, it’s clear from links I posted earlier, that he has had issues the entire time he’s been in the league. As the NBA has changed and teams have scouted him better his performance has only gotten worse.
2. If MCW were playing better then the Hornets bench would be better.
In some ways that’s self-evident. If all the bench guys were doing better, then the bench wouldn’t be a problem, right? The thing is that the bench, with the exception of Lamb, is mostly guys with bad ORtg and OK DRtg. Even if MCW were playing well he wouldn’t be bringing the skillset needed to the bench. As others have argued elsewhere a Lou Williams or Jeremy Lin type player with strong offence would help the bench far more than a defensive MCW. A ‘good’ MCW might, in theory, be OK with a bench running Monk, Lamb, and other offensive threats, but even then his past performance throws some doubt on that.
3. Clarifying why MCW is playing poorly might help frame why the team as a whole is.
I both agree and disagree here. At this point, with more research under my belt, I think that MCW was likely to have been trash here or anywhere. He probably shouldn’t be in the league at this point.
That said, my personal view is that the Hornet’s overall lack of passing I pointed out elsewhere is the real issue. The team is not running an offense where the ball moves and the open man takes a shot most of the time. I think that there are multiple reasons for this, ranging from scheme, to issues that individual guys on the team have.
In MCW’s case he is a part of that problem for the bench. He frequently takes shots he shouldn’t, disrupting the flow of the offence and he rarely seems to really move the ball well. His inaccuracy, even on shots he probably should be taking, like those layups, is both a result of the lack of ball movement and his own issues – such as lack of strength and any sort of mental block he has going on.
In any case, my TL:DR, is that MCW shouldn’t be in the league and there isn’t too much to be learned from him IMHO.