Jammilf

[awaywehappened]

Wow, he's not as bad as I thought :O

http://www.clipsnation.com/2012/7/6/313 ... -narrative

I think this will turn out to be a pretty decent signing will really really affect our bench unit better than Mo and Swaggy did...

[og15]

Good stuff, though there are some things he didn't go into depth enough and were a little off.

First:

Last year, Crawford attempted 104 shots at the rim. He made 54.8% of them. In 2010-2011, he attempted 117 and made 61.5% of them. In 2009-2010, he attempted 182 and made 66.5% of them. There is a downtrend here and it is quite noticeable. Crawford isn't attacking the rim as much as he used to and he's not making them as much as he used to.

He forgot to take into account minutes and the shortened season.

In 10-11, Crawford attempted 117 shots at the rim, but in 76 games and 30.2 MPG. It was 1.8 attempts/game.

In 11-12, Crawford attempted 104 shots at the rim, but it was in 66 games and 26.9 MPG, and it was actually a higher 2.0 attempts per game. For every 30.2 minutes this past season, he was actually shooting 2.2 shots at the rim, so he hasn't gradually decreased in attempts, though the efficiency part is true.

It is also true that up until 2009 as a Warrior, he was a terrible finisher at the rim. Even that same season, as a Knick, he shot 43% at the rim, then jumped to 63% as a Warrior.

Secondly:

These numbers mean something. I've said he's an average defender. And he is. He's not great. He's not bad. He's just average. He has bad areas and he has good areas. But combine them together and he's average....

For those wondering, Courtney Lee this season posted a PPP Allowed of 0.88 and 39.5%. So, if you're keeping score at home, Crawford outdid Lee on defense. And let's not even get started about OJ Mayo

Courtney Lee generally got the opponents best guards every game, that affects things. Courtney Lee guarded players who have higher PPP than the average and held them to a similar number, that is likely the difference.

In addition, total straight up PPP doesn't say this guy is a better defender than another, you have to examine the individual areas. eg: Goran Dragic misses a rotation and leaves his man open. Lee tries to cover for him and contest the shot. Dragic's man makes the shot. For the Synergy stats, it counts as a make on Lee. Same scenario happens, but Lee just let's it go, it's a score on Dragic, but Lee isn't helping his team, though his defensive numbers do look better.

That is why you have to look at a combination of the synergy numbers + individual drtg compared to team drtg + defensive +/- plus add in defensive RAPM. Then try to remember their activity on defense, how they played different situations, etc (we mostly don't have time to go watch film, so this is not likely to be great for players you don't watch much), and then you can make a fair and broad assessment that takes into account the subjective and objective aspects.

The Synergy stats give you a starting point and a reference point for further analysis. Lee is not a stopper, he isn't Thabo, etc, but he's average to above average and a better defender than Crawford.

The next thing is concluding that Crawford is average overall on defense, he isn't, he's below average. What he can do though is guarding the ball handler on the pick and roll, his length helps with that, and at the least it shows effort because that requires fighting through, around, and by screens. He was a bad defender on spot up shooters and on isolation though, and the former (spot up) was the Clippers biggest problem. He had nice numbers in post up, but he was posted up 30 times last season, basically less than once every two games.

While pick and roll defense was 34.9% of his defensive possessions and he was good there, isolation (terrible), spot-up (very bad), and off-screen (bad) accounted for 51.4% of his defensive possessions. Pick and roll on the ball handler and post up were 43.4% of his defensive possessions.

His previous season in Atlanta, he was again very good at guarding the ball handler on the pick and roll, and that was again 34.9% of his defensive possessions, but he was bad everywhere else, and with a larger sample size, including the post this time.

So when you are simply talking about man to man defense, he is below average, though he is actually a good pick and roll defender. When you take into account help defense, defensive rebounding, etc, where he is bad, he is overall just a poor defender.

Like I said and will continue to say, I'm not worried about, and his offense, he will do well there for the team IMO, and defensively, I know what he brings pick and roll defense, but not much anywhere else and he's terrible when isolated, so I'm not going to be surprised or anything by him generally not being much of a factor on defense.

[LOJ]

Nice article, thanks awaywehappened, and damn west coast OG sweet post. Nice morning read in here.

[Quake Griffin]

puts his pickup in great perspective.

break down of his defense was rly helpful.
i can rest easy now