payitforward wrote:Glad to hear it, & I like Bertans. I was aware of him in the run up to the '11 draft & thought he'd be an NBA player. He's a tremendous shooter, an absolutely awful rebounder, & about average on everything else.
If you are playing an average NBA 4, then you take him out of the game & replace him with Davis Bertans, the result is that you get worse. Period.
Why, otherwise, do you think SA would want to replace him with one of the Morris twins? Why, otherwise, would you imagine that he was available to us for... nothing. Zip. Zero.
Because San Antonio has 12 players on their roster that are perimeter players. And you’re thinking of Bertans as a 4 not a 3. Here he will play that role. A face up perimeter player. A giant 2-guard. A top of the key Small Forward. Durant lite.
The Spurs have that guy four deep at all outside positions. They needed defense and extra fouls and veteran depth up front behind Aldridge considering they were losing an aging Pau. And the West is getting bigger. Well, the league is all over.
But if you look at his FIBA play, Davis is a perimeter player all the way. And if you notice, many of the players we picked up have FIBA experience. A front office puts their stamp on a team. If you were trading and drafting you would make your choice based on Rebounding first. You weight Offensive rebounds highly.
This team had opportunities to choose those players and bypassed them. Why? They have an analytics department. Tommy is a numbers guy. They talk about having a system for weighting players. Carefully choosing players based on their own internal calculus.
Now Unless you think they’re lying, or making bad choices, or simply passively selecting whatever was offered, you have to take them at their word. And if so ask yourself what is the common thread if any in each of the players they made an effort to acquire.
Our selections in the draft and in fee agency seem to be weighted towards TS%. That and ball handling are the two areas they chose to address.
Now you may not like the players they picked up. You may hope our front office is just filling slots. But you’re baffled that we didn’t make an effort to land Vonleh. Clarke. Or better rebounders with the Admiral selection.
CJ Miles, veteran perimeter forward. Bertans, perimeter forward with FIBA experience. Wagner, perimeter 4/5, played in the U19 FIBA leagues. Bryant, noted in drafting for his smooth comfortable outside stroke. Hachimura, they had their eye on him since before Gonzaga, in FIBA play he’s even more face up oriented.
Bertans is not a rebounder. He’s not a low post player at all, so you’re bound to be underwhelmed especially in your pet fetish stat of Offensive boards. In your metric he is “just a guy”.
But on this team, in year one of a deliberate rebuild, he is a starter for us. And that will definitely shape the team and how we play.
Stick your head in the sand all you want. But this team is being built around ranged gunning and efficient scoring. Outside scoring, with drive-and-kick guards.
Don’t argue with me about it if you have issue, email their analytics guy who is sending Ted 96 page long missives on the proper direction of the team.
Even Bryant, who Tommy stormed in and demanded Ernie acquired, had a strong record of efficient scoring as his primary skill in his resume. Not dominant rim defense and boardwork. Outside shooting. Catch and dunk in traffic. Good hands on the roll.
That is the team that this FO is trying to build. A team that can outgun opponents.
Unless of course there is no analysis whatsoever and they’re simply taking whatever the wind blows them as is your theory. Seems unlikely to me. But given that this team has emphasized analytics, take a look at the stats yourself and guess what sort of team you think they’re building. Make your case. Seems to me you’ll find that TS% number is the standout in the bigs they’re picking up. Look at college. Look at FIBA. See what I’m talking about. Challenge your own opinions. Guess their chess game.
FWIW you know me. I predicted teams would or ought to go big and heavy on defense and rebounding as a counter to the outside metagame. I’ve been banging on that for a year. That these players are undervalued. I wanted Vonleh mid season. I agree with your assessment on all but the value of NCAA offensive rebounds in draft assessment. This FO is working a different angle than me. Tommy May have his prejudices from all those years scouting the international game. He may be wrong.
But from everything I can see this is clearly deliberate. Theres a direction in how we are going to play this year. And with Wall as well,since they got a Wall Jr. in Ish Smith.