Ruzious wrote:payitforward wrote:Dang, you guys are being awfully ungrateful after a win.
Dinwiddie posted 22 points on a .608 TS%. 10 assists with 2 steals & zero turnovers. He had a terrific game -- better, for example, than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (who also had a terrific game -- just not as good as Spencer's outing.
You'd think the first 45 minutes of a 48-minute game had no effect on anything.
This was an exciting game to watch. OKC has an exceptional amount of young talent. The guy who had the best game for them last night, on a per-minute basis, was Bazley. Giddey is a tremendous young player as well.
Obviously you didn't watch. The high number of assists were only because he'd dribble around accomplishing nothing for 20 seconds before passing. Then he'd get an assist because the player who caught it had to shoot right away and came through. His defense was absurdly bad. SGA played a far better game.
I wouldn't have commented as I did if I hadn't watched the game.
Every assist is created b/c a player catches a pass & comes through. & "dribble around accomplishing nothing for 20 seconds..." is obviously not an objective description on which an opinion can be based; it's the opinion itself being paraded around in the costume of a description.
I wasn't criticizing SGA, & I wasn't comparing him & Dinwiddie. I'd give my eye teeth to have SGA, & I'd trade Dinwiddie for him straight up in a heartbeat! Duh. I was comparing their outings last night -- both of which were good.
Maybe there'd be less interference from pre-determined judgments if we compared last night's outings by SGA & Josh Giddey. In fact, let's look at all 3 guys.
A turnover is a bad thing. It contributes to losing not winning. SGA had 2 of them. Spence & Giddey had none.
A steal is a good thing. It contributes to winning not losing. Spence & Giddey each had two of them last night; SGA had none.
Both those facts are simple & objective -- as much so as the fact that SGA went 13-22 including one 3-pointer, while Spence went 7-15 including one 3-pointer & Giddey was 8-15 w/ 2 of them.
Ditto that Spence got to the line 7 times & made all 7 FTAs, while SGA was 5-6, & Giddey didn't get to the line at all.
Also that, while both SGA & Giddey had 8 assists & 2 turnovers, Spence had 10 assists & zero turnovers.
Giddey had 2 offensive rebounds to SGA's 0, & he had an extra defensive board as well. Spence had 1 ofensive board but was 1 down to SGA in defensive rebounds.
All objective facts, not opinions. Ditto that while neither SGA nor Giddey had a steal, Spence had 2 steals. & that Spence & Giddey each committed only 1 foul -- compared to SGA's 4.
All three guys were really good, but I'd give the advantage to Giddey over SGA without hesitation. On the numbers, he was better. Ditto Spence over SGA. In fact, Giddey & Dinwiddie were about equally good last night.
Now, if numbers don't matter... so what? But, these numbers directly create the one number that we know matters -- the final score. So... maybe they actually do matter, what do you think?