2017-2018 OKC Thunder Regular Season Thread Part Deux: Follow the Melo Brick Road

[Andre Roberstan]

I don't understand how he can be rated his badly. He has the 5th best On/Off NetRtG on the team at +3.1 The offense is 5.7 points better with him on the floor than with him on the bench. I know he has been bad individually, but I still don't think that he was a -2 player offensively this season.

The on/off isn't a result of Melo being adequate. It is a result of Jerami Grant being so god awful that you'd have to be a completely incompetent coach in need of being fired to play him over Singler, Collison and Dakari.

I

uh

what?

[Pillendreher]

If anything, the on/off should be a result of Russ, not Grant being 'awful'.

[Pillendreher]

Here's some positivity for you:

Read on Twitter

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[slick_watts]

If anything, the on/off should be a result of Russ, not Grant being 'awful'.

guys. bpm has no on/off component like this. it is not informed in any way directly by the team's success when melo is in v. when he is not in. which is why its creator, daniel myers, has this to say about DBPM:

Box Plus/Minus is good at measuring offense and solid overall, but the defensive numbers in particular should not be considered definitive. Look at the defensive values as a guide, but don't hesitate to discount them when a player is well known as a good or bad defender.

[hardenASG13]

I don't understand how he can be rated his badly. He has the 5th best On/Off NetRtG on the team at +3.1 The offense is 5.7 points better with him on the floor than with him on the bench. I know he has been bad individually, but I still don't think that he was a -2 player offensively this season.

The on/off isn't a result of Melo being adequate. It is a result of Jerami Grant being so god awful that you'd have to be a completely incompetent coach in need of being fired to play him over Singler, Collison and Dakari.

So, you don't watch the games at all huh? Grant is a stud, sorry.

[Kizz Fastfists]

So, you don't watch the games at all huh? Grant is a stud, sorry.

So you don't see what you are watching. Grant is a scrub, sorry.

[ThunderBolt]

If George re-signs, is there any possibility that Anthony gets stretched?

[Kizz Fastfists]

If George re-signs, is there any possibility that Anthony gets stretched?

I don't really see the point. Yes, there would be some tax savings, but it wouldn't give them the ability to add to the roster beyond what they already have. It would strictly be to save on tax and I have think ownership already approved the tax implications for next season of having Russ, PG, Melo and Adams. I also don't think Russ and PG would react positively to them getting rid of Melo. So I think it is more likely they would try to package Singler, Abrines and Patterson for a random 30 year old European stash that will never come over. I think they would move Adams before Melo not because it is the right basketball move, but because of Russ and PG.

[thekaoswithin]

So, you don't watch the games at all huh? Grant is a stud, sorry.

So you don't see what you are watching. Grant is a scrub, sorry.

No way Grant is a scrub. He's been a solid post scorer, cleans up on offence and has switched well. Last year, sure, but this year Grant has been great and has honestly deserved our 6th man role.

You've already made it clear that you don't really watch the games though so I'm not surprised you'd say this.

[bondom34]

Yeah I've been very anti-Grant but he's been really solid this year. One of a handful of real bright spots.

[hardenASG13]

So, you don't watch the games at all huh? Grant is a stud, sorry.

So you don't see what you are watching. Grant is a scrub, sorry.

Care to explain? I think his shot blocking, defensive energy, ability to get to the line, post up, dunk, drive, and improved jump shot have been awesome off the bench.

[ThunderBolt]

If George re-signs, is there any possibility that Anthony gets stretched?

I don't really see the point. Yes, there would be some tax savings, but it wouldn't give them the ability to add to the roster beyond what they already have. It would strictly be to save on tax and I have think ownership already approved the tax implications for next season of having Russ, PG, Melo and Adams. I also don't think Russ and PG would react positively to them getting rid of Melo. So I think it is more likely they would try to package Singler, Abrines and Patterson for a random 30 year old European stash that will never come over. I think they would move Adams before Melo not because it is the right basketball move, but because of Russ and PG.

As far as a basketball move, just having Melo off the team would benefit them by allowing better players to be on the floor.

[alessandrux]

So, you don't watch the games at all huh? Grant is a stud, sorry.

So you don't see what you are watching. Grant is a scrub, sorry.

Care to explain? I think his shot blocking, defensive energy, ability to get to the line, post up, dunk, drive, and improved jump shot have been awesome off the bench.

I also think Grant has been great this year, and I hope he continues to be.

But I don't think it is that far fetched to think his game is scrubby.
In my opinion most of his plays are on the line, he gets many ticky-tacky fouls in his favor. Most of his plays have very little room of error, many shots rattle in. It looks often times lucky. But it's almost every game, and if you look lucky all the time I would argue that it is skill and not luck.


But we have to see if his game tranfers well into the post-season, I have a good feeling about it. He might be one of our x-factors, among all the other x-factors we have(Melos effort and shooting, does playoff-George show up, ...).
I think Grant has the ability to play versus many of our possible opponents best line-ups.

[RalphSampsonJr]

Yea Grant has been amazing the last half of the season.
I was listening to thunderheads podcast and they had ol Antonio Daniels on there. He made a good point.
He was saying you usually have a guy thats good at blocking shots or taking a charge. Grant is a rare player that has become good at both.
Not to mention you can give it to him 15 out and he can gallop his way to the rim with much improved finishing ability.
I will be very disspointed if the thunder let him go

[bondom34]

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[slick_watts]

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the same tool shows the team at 108.5pp100 off westbrook defensive rebounds last season, which is worse than the team pp100 off any defensive rebound with westbrook on the court of 110.5pp100. this would confirm my research last season that his defensive rebounding did not help.

i wonder where he is getting his data this year from, because wowy has been broken. if it's not broken, this is a significant swing v. last year even according to the tool itself.

[bondom34]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Kizz Fastfists]

Care to explain? I think his shot blocking, defensive energy, ability to get to the line, post up, dunk, drive, and improved jump shot have been awesome off the bench.

Grant can only score at the rim. He is not a big man and can't defend bigs adequately. His block% and steal% are both below his career average this year. His blocks and steals per 100 possessions are at career lows. He is the same player he was last year only with a higher usage and taking a higher percentage of his shots at the rim. If you thought he was great last year then you should still think he is great. If you accepted that he was a scrub in the past he has done NOTHING to change that. He has shown NO improvement to the eye or stat test. There are a lot of players that will be available for the vet minimum that can do what he does.

OKC probably gives him something around the MLE to keep him around, like they did Singler. If they get a real backup center that will eliminate those paint touches from Grant then the same people calling him great this year will call his contract an albatross for the next 3-4 years.

[Pillendreher]

He is the same player he was last year only with a higher usage and taking a higher percentage of his shots at the rim.

I can't believe I'm the one to come to Jerami Grant's rescue, but this is flat out untrue.

-Among those who drove to the basket at least 150 times this season, Grant is 5th in PTS% (out of 197 total players). When Grant drives to the basket, he scores 79 % of the time (The rest of those 197 guys score on 50.1 % of their drives on average), which is better than James, Irving and Harden. Last season he scored on 62 % of his drives.
-With Grant being the roll man, the Thunder score 1.24 points per possession. That's good for the 81st percentile and better than when Towns or Davis are the roll men for their teams.
-Among those with at least 250 paint touches this season, Grant is 28/84 in pts per touch overall.
-He has career highs in PER, TS%, WS/48, BPM, VORP and ORtG
-HIs defense has improved as well: He has done a better job just playing within the team, rotating, just generally not being that all over the place. He's 11th overall in total charges drawn and for whatever it's worth, opponents shoot 3.1 % worse when he is defending the shot (3rd best on the team after Huestis at -5.5 % and Adams at -3.2 %).

If you accepted that he was a scrub in the past he has done NOTHING to change that. He has shown NO improvement to the eye or stat test.

Why do you always fly off the handle when the Thunder don't implode? Are you that desperate for failure?

[slick_watts]

i feel like grant has improved during the 2nd half of the season on offense but he's still bad on defense. outside of drawing charges and rim defense instincts he has poor awareness. being the guy coming in for melo helps him look decent.