The Cousins injury thread

[Penberthy]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet:

Bogut was better than Cousins in the playoffs last season and he's still a free agent.

Brilliant suggestion!!!

Hear that, Rob?

Bought had some choice words about the Lakers FO and how they did him dirty. Don’t think it’s gonna happen unfortunately...

[stan francisco]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet:

Bogut was better than Cousins in the playoffs last season and he's still a free agent.

Brilliant suggestion!!!

Hear that, Rob?

Bought had some choice words about the Lakers FO and how they did him dirty. Don’t think it’s gonna happen unfortunately...

Ouch.

Noah and Monroe or Euroleague is what’s feasible.

[tugs]

So disabled player exception. What's the next move then?

[zimpy27]

Just wait, pick someone up later in the season.

[ROballer]

So disabled player exception. What's the next move then?

Iguodala.

[Ball so hard]

Just wait, pick someone up later in the season.

Yea, don't really see much downside to keeping him on the roster until you actually need the roster spot. At the moment i'm not really buying the argument that keeping Cousins on the roster will hurt our image... this can obviously change once the investigation is complete.

[zimpy27]

So disabled player exception. What's the next move then?

Iguodala.

He's unlikely to become a Laker. Probably goes to the Rockets.

But an SF is the big need, I'd be looking Thabo.

[Slava]

We should be looking at another ball handler. There are enough wings to throw out there between KCP, Bradley, Green and LeBron.

[stan francisco]

Trade the injury exception cash(?), KCP and filler guards (Cook/Daniels) for Iggy. Iggy and LeBron and AD and Kuzma can all bring up the Ball and initiate the offense despite their size and position. So can our guards Caruso, Bradley, Norvell, Rondo, THT. But a defensive bulldog PG is always welcome in my book. Don’t need more playmakers.

[snaquille oatmeal]

So disabled player exception. What's the next move then?

Iguodala.

He's unlikely to become a Laker. Probably goes to the Rockets.

But an SF is the big need, I'd be looking Thabo.

What’s up with the rumor of Iggy to the Clippers?

[Ball so hard]

I did a quick analysis on KCP's defensive matchups and found that he's at his worse when guarding SFs. I'd guess this isn't a surprise to most.

Source data: https://stats.nba.com/player/203484/matchups/?sort=PLAYER_PTS&dir=1

I manipulated the data a bit to remove noise.

Ranking based on minimum of 5 possessions:

SG - 596 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net -9
PG - 231 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net -109
SF - 173 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net - +42
PF - 52 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net -11
C - 5 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +19

For those unfamiliar with this metric:

Player PTS DIFF is "an offensive player’s Points per 100 Possessions in a specific matchup compared to his season average Points per 100 Possessions."

Conclusion:
KCP's worse position to guard by far is SF. He's actually pretty solid against PGs. The C position can pretty much be thrown out given the sample size.

[zimpy27]

I did a quick analysis on KCP's defensive matchups and found that he's at his worse when guarding SFs. I'd guess this isn't a surprise to most.

Source data: https://stats.nba.com/player/203484/matchups/?sort=PLAYER_PTS&dir=1

I manipulated the data a bit to remove noise.

Ranking based on minimum of 5 possessions:

SG - 596 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net -9
PG - 231 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net -109
SF - 173 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net - +42
PF - 52 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net -11
C - 5 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +19

For those unfamiliar with this metric:

Player PTS DIFF is "an offensive player’s Points per 100 Possessions in a specific matchup compared to his season average Points per 100 Possessions."

Conclusion:
KCP's worse position to guard by far is SF. He's actually pretty solid against PGs. The C position can pretty much be thrown out given the sample size.

Yes he's a very good PG defender, he's more a PG/SG player. There's no way that he should backup SF for the Lakers, only Green could potentially do that.

Lakers need an SF backup, right now it's Dudley.

[Dr Aki]

So disabled player exception. What's the next move then?

getting the disabled player exception now means we cannot waive cousins for the extra roster spot

which means the candidate most likely to get waived becomes either troy daniels or jared dudley

that said, the exception is not prorated.

therefore, we can offer it to better players come playoff-waiver deadline (approximately 2/3rds of the season in), it makes the 1.75 mil exception look as good an offer as a prorated contract 3 times its size

[Ball so hard]

So disabled player exception. What's the next move then?

getting the disabled player exception now means we cannot waive cousins for the extra roster spot

which means the candidate most likely to get waived becomes either troy daniels or jared dudley

that said, the exception is not prorated.

therefore, we can offer it to better players come playoff-waiver deadline (approximately 2/3rds of the season in), it makes the 1.75 mil exception look as good an offer as a prorated contract 3 times its size

I'd be willing to bet it will be Daniels. I actually like what Dudley brings to the table. I expect he'll play mostly at the 4 and play some small ball 5. Daniels on the other hand offers almost nothing outside of his shooting.

[stan francisco]

I would actually bet money that the exception money goes to D Wade sometime in December/January.

We’ll have to trade KCP and some promising youth to get Iggy.

Hoping for blowouts and garbage time so that Cacok and Caroline and Cook can show some of what they’ve got.

[Ball so hard]

Data on Bradley paints a far different picture than that of KCP. I didn't watch Bradley a ton last season so I was quite surprised by my finding. By and large Bradley was almost terrible across the board. He was only a plus defender against SFs. The data suggests he may simply be too slow to keep up with PGs and SGs... again, I didn't really watch him last year.

Ranking based on minimum of 5 possessions:

SG - 806 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +32
PG - 389 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +126
SF - 289 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net - 4
PF - 55 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +55

A few SFs he had a plus rating while defending:
Taurean Prince
Lebron
Paul George
Wes Iwundu
Covington
Omri Casspi
Harkless
Porter Jr.

Conclusion:
We're in big trouble if Bradley is our starting PG next year. He was atrocious while defending PGs. I expect KCP will start next to Lebron and Bradley will come off the bench.

[Ball so hard]

I would actually bet money that the exception money goes to D Wade sometime in December/January.

We’ll have to trade KCP and some promising youth to get Iggy.

Hoping for blowouts and garbage time so that Cacok and Caroline and Cook can show some of what they’ve got.

I'm coming around to thinking KCP is one of the last guys we should look to trade. He might be the only player on our roster that can defend PGs. Without looking at the data, I think Caruso might be ok also.

Edit - Confirmed Caruso was pretty solid against PG. He struggled a bit against SGs such as Klay, Kennard, Gary Harris, etc. However, he was far from a turnstile against 2s.

[zimpy27]

Data on Bradley paints a far different picture than that of KCP. I didn't watch Bradley a ton last season so I was quite surprised by my finding. By and large Bradley was almost terrible across the board. He was only a plus defender against SFs. The data suggests he may simply be too slow to keep up with PGs and SGs... again, I didn't really watch him last year.

Ranking based on minimum of 5 possessions:

SG - 806 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +32
PG - 389 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +126
SF - 289 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net - 4
PF - 55 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +55

A few SFs he had a plus rating while defending:
Taurean Prince
Lebron
Paul George
Wes Iwundu
Covington
Omri Casspi
Harkless
Porter Jr.

Conclusion:
We're in big trouble if Bradley is our starting PG next year. He was atrocious while defending PGs. I expect KCP will start next to Lebron and Bradley will come off the bench.

Keep the analysis coming.
KCP seems a PG/SG defender and Bradley seems to be an SG/SF defender.

Both players gamble and hassle, they need a good defensive Frontcourt to be effective. They need people to clean up the gambles they lose. Here you have him being lauded as the best perimeter defender only 2 years ago.
https://www.flohoops.com/articles/5050579-is-avery-bradley-the-best-perimeter-defender-in-the-league

Maybe it's worth doing a 2-year analysis.

In any case, I actually thought the best starting lineup would be KCP, Green, LeBron, AD, Howard and the best backup lineup would be Caruso, Bradley, Thabo, Kuzma, McGee. The reason I thought that was the starters have LeBron and AD as playmakers while the bench has Caruso and Bradley. It's a much more balanced lineup. KCP/Green is also the better 3-shooting combo to surround LeBron with. I like that your analysis might gel with that.

[dockingsched]

So disabled player exception. What's the next move then?

getting the disabled player exception now means we cannot waive cousins for the extra roster spot

which means the candidate most likely to get waived becomes either troy daniels or jared dudley

that said, the exception is not prorated.

therefore, we can offer it to better players come playoff-waiver deadline (approximately 2/3rds of the season in), it makes the 1.75 mil exception look as good an offer as a prorated contract 3 times its size

Once the DPE gets approved, it’ll remain available to the Lakers until they use it even if they waive Cousins.

[Ball so hard]

Data on Bradley paints a far different picture than that of KCP. I didn't watch Bradley a ton last season so I was quite surprised by my finding. By and large Bradley was almost terrible across the board. He was only a plus defender against SFs. The data suggests he may simply be too slow to keep up with PGs and SGs... again, I didn't really watch him last year.

Ranking based on minimum of 5 possessions:

SG - 806 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +32
PG - 389 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +126
SF - 289 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net - 4
PF - 55 possessions - Offsensive players pts diff of net +55

A few SFs he had a plus rating while defending:
Taurean Prince
Lebron
Paul George
Wes Iwundu
Covington
Omri Casspi
Harkless
Porter Jr.

Conclusion:
We're in big trouble if Bradley is our starting PG next year. He was atrocious while defending PGs. I expect KCP will start next to Lebron and Bradley will come off the bench.

Keep the analysis coming.
KCP seems a PG/SG defender and Bradley seems to be an SG/SF defender.

Both players gamble and hassle, they need a good defensive Frontcourt to be effective. They need people to clean up the gambles they lose. Here you have him being lauded as the best perimeter defender only 2 years ago.
https://www.flohoops.com/articles/5050579-is-avery-bradley-the-best-perimeter-defender-in-the-league

Maybe it's worth doing a 2-year analysis.

In any case, I actually thought the best starting lineup would be KCP, Green, LeBron, AD, Howard and the best backup lineup would be Caruso, Bradley, Thabo, Kuzma, McGee. The reason I thought that was the starters have LeBron and AD as playmakers while the bench has Caruso and Bradley. It's a much more balanced lineup. KCP/Green is also the better 3-shooting combo to surround LeBron with. I like that your analysis might gel with that.

Will post once I clean things a bit and remove what I think are outliers. 2017 data currently shows he was a + defender against just about every position including PGs. Perhaps the 2018 season was an off year. I'll need to drill down a bit deeper in the data.