payitforward wrote:Every 80 minutes last season -- that's once every 2.8 games on average -- Myles Turner sank exactly one more 3 pt. shot than Thomas Bryant. You really think that 1 extra make every 2.8 games, while obviously a good thing, provides for a significant difference in better floor spacing? Really? I don't.
The threat of actually attempting a shot from 3 pt range does effect how defenses guard players. If you don't think that is true, well then i'll just assume you didn't play pick up ball too much (at least as of late anyways). (Go on retort about how you have some grand life experiences that prolly outweigh my own)
Meanwhile, in those same 80 minutes, Bryant turned 21.5 2-pointers into 29.5 points. Turner, otoh, put up just slightly more of them, 22.2, but got only 23.1 points out of his attempts.
Yup Byrant is better at finishing around the rim. That's great. Turner needs to get better at it.
So... Turner's utterly minimal "floor spacing" advantage gets put front & center, it is part of why he is a "most valuable" style player. But Bryant out-scoring him significantly on fewer shots... that's not worthy of mention. That doesn't render him valuable.
I value Turner as much as I do mostly cause of how great he is on defense AND he's good enough on offense. Again I'm not gonna say Turner is better offensively then Bryant, cause Bryant was overall more efficient, albeit in a different role (which is something you will undoubtedly shoot down as nonsense cause the roles players are asked is tom foolery and the only thing that matters is what they produced yada yada). In a vacuum, I get you think Turner's offensive game is...bad? Or am I off base here?
Not to mention that Bryant also provided his teammates with few extra shots in that same time, via offensive boards... that doesn't count either. Not to mention all those extra defensive boards, fewer turnovers, better FT%. All that stuff is minor compared to the effect of Turner's 1 more made 3 pointer every 80 minutes. Wow!
We've been through this, I don't give a damn about offensive rebounds, I don't adhere to WP like you. Absolutely your prerogative to do so though
The other stuff is true though, but I do wonder how much of that is from Bryant's offensive role being more simplistic. I'm happy he is as efficient as he is, but I'd like to see how he does as a true 2nd option with a lot of the offense being run through him, cause he put up a great TS on meh usage last year... I'd sacrifice some of that for more offense being run through him.
Then there's that made up "problem" Turner has to overcome. I say made up because you seem to think Thad Young was in the past last year. Actually, he started & played almost 2500 minutes last year. Moreover, Young is an under-sized 4 & not an inside player at all.
Uhhh, Thad Young did play for Pacers last year, I'm not sure how you are reading what I said (I was trying to say Thad young basically killed his spacing last year too, if it didn't come off that way, my bad.) but that aside... Nearly 75% of Thad Young's shot attempts came from inside 10 feet last year. Go add the Percents listed on Basketball reference if you don't believe me. Do you think a 4 who takes 75% of his shots from mid range and closer offers good floor spacing? Curious about the linguistic gymnastics you'll perform for this one.
Moreover, since Sabonis did not start, & as often as not replaced Turner on the floor, I'm not sure what kind of a problem he gave Myles Turner in his log 1800+ off-the-bench minutes.
This is true, I think they only shared 400ish+ mins together last year, but the fact that he had boy wonder in Thad young doesn't help. I'm more curious if they are gonna stick Turner out on the perimeter this season to try to get the most out of em, especially since they drafted bizdale. I'm guessing they could probably shop Sabonis for a starting quality 3 eventually, him or turner.
I'm not dinging Myles Turner. He's quite a good player, and for sure he's a better defender than Bryant. But, overall, he wasn't nearly as good as Thomas Bryant last year. Plus, in 20`7-18 -- his 3d year, when he was the age Bryant was last season -- he wasn't anywhere near as good as he was last year.
Age matched production you have a point. Turner was still better defensively then Bryant basically every year he's been in the NBA, except maybe his rookie season. I'm happy we have Bryant, very...if he learns to play defense well. We could have a borderline all star quality big in that case. I'm hoping it happens.
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