Fencer reregistered wrote:Captain_Caveman wrote:Fencer reregistered wrote:
The part where his contribution was significantly bigger. What did he do two seasons ago that he didn't do (as much of) last season, to an extent that made him a significantly greater contributor despite inferior scoring efficiency and inferior health?
Win more games by sheer force of will.
Telekinesis?
It all comes down to a combination of:
-- Visible basketball plays
-- Invisible improvement to your team's basketball plays and/or damage to the opposition's (via verbal call-outs, positioning, intimidation, whatever)
I find it remarkable that you simultaneously seem to:
-- Assert this is all obvious
-- Find it extremely hard to articulate substantively what you believe happens
By the way: For the most part, I agree with you about Smart. But I think you're out of line in the extraordinarily obnoxious attitude you take about the subject and most especially in your insistence on so frequently sharing your poison with the forum.
We may also have a substantive disagreement as to the importance of actually making one's shots.
Well, there's an easy way to never have these conversations. Don't give me years of **** for wanting to tank or for thinking Smart is a good role player while you pimp IT as a franchise player. Since you never did that, was never really talking to you on this.
As to what we are talking about, I have already laid out why Smart made a greater contribution two years ago than he did last year and didn't make some huge leap as a player. Feel like that is self-evident to the point where you should be trying to explain what it is not the case, rather than asking me to say why it is.
I am down for advanced stats arguments or any other nerd argument that you can imagine. But the truth of it with Smart is that not only are we talking about a largely insignificant improvement in shooting percentages for a guy who shoots 7 times a game, the improvement itself was mostly attributable to him getting to play on a talented starting unit for the first time in his career. Rather than having to force the issue on undermanned teams with untalented, scoring-deficient benches, he got to pick and choose far easier scoring opportunities as a 4th or 5th option, playing alongside a backcourt mate who was often doubled and trapped to the point where Smart was left WIDE OPEN.
You are saying that he shot better, and I am saying, "Yeah, no ****."
The truly scary part? Despite that improvement in shooting percentages, the team was actually better and his impact more substantial when he had to force things, because he was in a bigger role with more of an imprint on the team and their success.
