70sFan wrote:Am I the only one who don't want to believe in the sample of 7 games against literally one opponent, who was mediocre offensively all season long? Am I unfair because I don't want to call Rockets the best defensive team in playoffs?
I think davis has been pretty good off of doubles, esp compared to the RS. Hes missed a few passes here and there but I think his passing out of doubles outside of a few mishaps has been solid, and far better than during the RS. The lakers arent a good team and being located in the right places when teams double as well, i mean even brons not finding open guys at times and hes the best ever at drive and dishing.
I also do think davis's playoff defense has been really good, in that hes playing in a way that demonstrates high versatility. His D against portland was nutty, his d on the rockets and nuggets have been different because hes defending like a supersized wing. Not at the level of peak duncan and them but hes the key cog in alot of defensive strategies that they wouldnt be able to do with other players, even those better defensively in a vacuum, and his efforts been more consistent although hes motors always been fine.
I think hes a more valuable playoff defender than gobert personally, but i know you rate gobert highly.
I think when evaluating his offensive performance its better to look at how hes been scoring rather than the defense he faces, its been my problem with using defensive rts for awhile now actually.
The rockets usually do up their defense in the playoffs but i definately agree they were a pretty easy matchup for AD, and he delivered
Otoh, the blazers are a 29th ranked team but nurkic is a pretty annoying defender, and in particular, whiteisde while not a great overall defender is an absolute monster 1v1, and he (whiteside) struggles with super physicality so he matches up really well against AD who is more finesse
Against the nuggets, despite being a 15th ranked D the nuggets have essentially destroyed any off ball oppertunities for AD even more so than other teams.
Like, id say while houstan was free, he completely clapped their cheeks.
Portland is a bad team D but davis's individual matchup was pretty hard. I mean people trash on him but whiteside rifht now based on pics has grown and has a taller reach than gobert, and theres a pic of him getring near the top of the backbord in game. Hes also ranked better in post d than gobert who suprisingly isnt as good as youd expect at that.
Houstan were small but they were good at doubling post players unexpectedly when they have their backs to the basket and forcing turnovers, but AD did a good job finding open guys on these oppertunities. Still a relatively easy series
The nuggets have defended AD stupid well though.
Game 3, he had a few off screen cuts (forgot what theyr called) to get decent post position but not like restricted area post positiong, got a bucket and 2 free throws from that. I wouldnt count those as easy buckets since he still had to shoot in a quadrouple team for the one he made (although the 2 guys behind him prolly didnt effect that shot) and the second one ended in an off balance fadeaway where he drew the foul
2 buckets were ez ones not created by him, and one of these were transition.
Game 4, he had like 2 times he got free throws from off ball stuff and that one lob
He didnt get a single easy off ball bucket at the rim in game 2
So from a quick view, mighr have missed a few, he got 10
Points from off ball action at the rim in games 2-4. Keep in mind that davis is a top tier off ball big man.
That means 10.8% of his buckets were from off ball action to the rim, which is stupidly low even in 2000s standards, compared to centers. I think guys like duncan were in the 20-25% range over the RS
Im not neccessarily saying AD is playing harder matchups than duncan did, of course the matchups arent rhe same spacing is better etc etc.
But i think its important to note that what AD us doing as an effecient scorer is totally different than what guys like harden or Doncic, even curry and them are doing.
They are in offenses designed to enhance their skills while davis at the moment is in one that is both relying on something he hadnt been THAT good at till like, these playoffs, and is completely misusing his best skill. Defenses have done well to force the team into this but schematically its a problem with the lakers, esp since denver are a team that davis would annihilate as an off ball scorer under different conditions
Like i guess this is more directed towards the "he plays with bron" camp, becauze as for this series he hasnt benefitsd that much from that, in ways that other top tier big men would. Sure everyone would be better playing with bron but the idea that hes getting easier buckets than in new orleans in completely false.
Now im sure that this applies to duncan to, i doubt those laker teams were easy to score against as a post player despite their non elite d in 03.
But while theres fonna be a correlation between team d and offensive hub performance its more matchup based. Against portland he got a few ez buckets but most of them were toughies and his matchups were far better than youd expect from the second worst team in the nba, houstan was free i feel but theyve screwed some post guys before and AD isnt neccessarily the archetype of a post guy theyd be afraid of offensively, and the nuggets are playing incredible team D on the lakers but i will say that jokic isnt able to guard AD at all.
I think the individual defensive matchups on AD in the nuggets series arent too tough because jokic isnt the type of post defender that can guard AD but theyve packed the paint well so AD cant really do anything driving in, or at least its gonna be a tough bucket. Hes scored theough this though, and has just driven into traffic and scored as well.
I think people tend to look at a guy like hardens effeciency and think its a norm thing, but hes in a system for that. Davis isnt really at all, whereas hardens iso oppertunity quality is A+ Relative to the leavue because mismatches and super spacing, AD is more at like a D-, since he rarely gets switches and the spacing in the lakers is really bad (relative to the league).
So when harden gets Rts comparisons it overrates his effeciency, whereas with davis it would underrate it.
AD is in a position where his possessions save the offense and hes done a miraclous job so far, vs being in a position where he gets helped by the offense hes helping it you know what i mean?
Rts has the right idea in that it tries to adjust for era effeciency, but thats a league wide thing and contextual things have to be taken into account
With AD, his offensive production doesnt really have anything that drives rts up for superstars, at least relatively speakinf since the spacing isnt really modern level, and the off ball action is stagnant
Off ball action is the main driver of higher effeciency for big guys, and AD has off ball action at the rate of 2000s guys atm, not at all comparabel to guys like bam.
Duncan probably wasnt in a favorable situation for his effeciency too but AD's in one thats pretty much fundamentally different than modern day stuff. Even relatively few switches he does get are on bigger wings checking bron vs guards like jokic has been getting
If your making tough shots at a league average rate (league avg for all shots) and those shots are a result of a stagnant offense vs bad shot selection or a limitation then thats highly effecient, but ADs been doing it at ATG effeciency which is insane
His creations been solid, not kg level but hes made a few good advanced reads here and there and he isnt turning it over vs doubles and has been solid on the playoffs as a whole, he struffled in the rs with that.
But his pure scoring this run has been other worldly so far imo. When comparing rts you have to remember that one of the biggest drivers is the advent of the three point shot and the higher occurence of off ball action (compared to the 80s-90s). Sure, aome super 5 out systems are gonna show guys that are overrated by rts but high scorers in normal systems that arent high voljme 3 point guys are going to be underrated by rts because alot of what drives it, off ball action and i creased three point scoring, doesnt apply to them as much as it would for the agregate of the whole league.
So when AD is scoring at an atg rate with an effeciency at 66ts, its not just that hes scoring so much more effeciently thab league average, hes doing it when by all means he should be scoring way below that (he should be scoring below league average based on his shot profile).
Dont get me wrong i wouldnt have RS AD particulrly close to duncan at all but hes been a different player in these playoffs
I think id put it this way
Duncan was in a harder situation to score than davis, but davis is in a harder situation relative to other stars (and other players in general) in the league, at least in terms of measuring by TS, so while his raw effeciency being higher is meh, his relative ts being so much higher is a big deal.
(Duncan at +5.8%, davis at +10.1%)
Its not that davis doesnt have alot of help he has bron but his shot profile and the scoring situations hes in is pretty much archaic compared to the shots 2016+ players get. because he isnt partaking in the drivers for ts, the rts gap is significant. Even if duncan had the same effect of being forced into tough shots because lack of help, this isnt accounted for
When you rate his playoff run you have to rate his performance in terms of his offensive production given the situation he is in, beyond just who he plays with, and go into whats happening when he plays.
Going by that its been an insane playoff run.
I think if he keeps it up its definately in the discussion for GOAT pf playoff run even though its not an instant yes obv.
People keep saying "what if you put duncan/garnett with bron" but that implies lebrons giving a tangible benefit to davis as a scorer outside of load (which davis is taking a huge load anyway).
I think the key thing here is that, if davis did this in 2018 no one would be saying "what if xxxx played with jrue" but that team while badly constructed around davis gave him WAAAAY easier shots than hes hitting now
