ATLTimekeeper wrote:Spates wrote:This is a headache. I'm stuck in an argument I don't want to have. Where can we agree to disagree?
I'll move away from the unnecessary. Ball screens are an important part of the game. They open up a variety of options for teams to move defenses, get players into space, create matchup advantages, etc. What I'm contesting is that losing Fred is a huge issue regarding ball screen usage. Losing the primary handler in a bad shooting offense isn't a tragedy. He shot terribly and had a pretty bad assist to usage ratio. Democratize the ball screens and adapt your play initiation.
You really need to move away from this PG argument. Typically when a teams best player is a non-big, that player will be using the most ball screens whether pg, sg, or sf. Tatum and Butler use the most ball screens for their teams. Jokic creates most looks for his team and he barely uses at ball screens.
Those best players using screens (non-big) the most are typically playing 'the point' in those sets. I'm not sure how you can acknowledge that these really great players all run this action and also come up with "democratize the ball screens." I think Fred's assist ratio with Poeltl was close to 30, so... that's pretty high. Prior was like 26, which is also good.
Typically when a player is using an on-ball screen we call them a ball handler or initiator, it doesn't have much to do with position. It most common with guards, but not inherent to the position. If any player can step in to play the point in a set then sometimes FVV is a wing and sometimes OG is a PG.
You democratize the ball screens for the Raptors because no one excels at using them. But they're mandatory as you say. I mentioned assist to usage, not assist ratio. I'm highlighting the fact that consider Fred's usage he doesn't score or assist at a high rate. As a matter of you could argue that strategically, especially given last year's results, the team should have leveraged Fred more frequently as a catch and shoot play finisher and increased Pascal's ball screen usage.