shazam_guy wrote:I've heard several players go out of their way to say good things about Oubre as a teammate. The other players' body language has always looked good to me around him. And he seems to be a much better fit coming off the bench, for any number of reasons. I say he's a net positive also because of his energy and chaos factor on defense -- speed and length -- and the same around the basket on offense. And after a horrible start, he's up to 32 percent on threes, so he's been making those at an acceptable clip for some time.
I didn't claim science anyway, just said that was what I thought (based on watching hundreds upon hundreds of Warrior games over the years and watching players talk about other players as well as playing with them) so I'm not quite sure why I'm supposed to spend a lot of time defending it. Feel free to disagree.
That’s a pretty passive aggressive approach to a discussion forum. I mean if you just want a place to say your thing and have no one interact with your statements I think Wordpress still exists.
For the record, I didn’t even challenge your assumption, I just asked for some support for it, if not stats, then perhaps quotes, links, podcasts, etc from people who do know the stats.
If his additive benefit is entirely off court stuff, if his best feature is that he’s secretly a locker room/morale/energy booster guy irrespective of his presence or absence from the court then I guess that kind of nebulous effect might not show up in the data. But you can’t sign a dapmaster to a multi year deal.
He has to also be adding to the on court performance and that DOES or DOES NOT show up in data, even as just correlation without proving causation. They are are either winning games by more points with him on the court or they are not.
I will say he IS objectively a better fit coming off the bench, and that does seem to be borne out by the recent data trend line. Because he is a “disruptor” type of player, that disruption can help or hurt. For a starting unit with aspirations of competing with playoff competition, it’s probably not best to roll the dice on that disruptive force going our way before the starting lineup has a chance to establish a rhythm and flow. An Oubre/Pietrus type of player needs to be a guy you can do without on a night where his disruption is going in the wrong direction. And inserting him against opposing lineups that have already broken the seal on their own bench gives a boost to the likelihood that he won’t wreck us and help the opposition. As a bench guy he could play anywhere from 15 minutes to 38 minutes depending on if those minutes are working. And that’s why I have maintained from the beginning that he was not a starter for a good team, but could be a good option as a featured bench player.
I actually picked him to be the better player than Wiggins when we signed him. I expected this to go very different than it has, but the reality is, liked, supported or not, he was miscast as a starter. It was an emergency move to fill an injury void and the main conflict on the board around Oubre is whether or not the proper fit and role will be worth what it will cost to retain him.
