Individual NET PER's thru 12/17/08 (24-2)

[Jammer]

NET PER is your PER minus your man's PER.

Includes Atlanta Game.

My earlier post thru 24 games (22-2) indicated that the Celtics,
leaguewide, by NET PER for each position, were:

2nd SG
3rd SF
6th PG
7th PF
12th C

And, captain cheapseats, I mention some notable improvements,
as you requested about 3 weeks ago.

+11.2 Ray Allen
+10.6 Kevin Garnett
+06.1 Rajon Rondo
+05.3 Tony Allen (coming back to earth)
+04.7 Paul Pierce

+00.5 Eddie House (little bugga is more effective than you think)
+00.0 Kendrick Perkins
-00.7 Leon Powe

-08.5 Glen Davis (Big Improvement from -11.1 four games ago)
-09.3 Gabe Pruitt (bigger improvement from -16.6 four games ago)
-13.9 Patrick O'Bryant (heading North, at least, from -18.0 four games ago)
-15.3 Brian Scalabrine (you were expecting ... ?? at least he's consistent)

At least the 9, 11 and 12 players have shown improvement over the last 4 games.

[s1ickd]

The thing i don't like about Leon is two things.

When he gets the ball on offense, everything stagnates. He never passes the ball to the guy cutting through. He tries to bull his way to the hoop and hope he gets contact.

On defense, his only defense is taking a charge. If a more skilled offensive guy is taking it to him, he always ends up committing a foul.

These are the two reasons he is a 15-20 mpg guy.

[GuyClinch]

Leon is pretty good at scoring in the post and that's big for us. Most bench players really excel at one thing so it's nothing new. Eddie House excels as a shooter, TA as a defender and Leon as a post player. So yeah what your saying about Leon is true but it's par for the course in the NBA. If guys had mutiple high level skills they would be starters. PP defends, shoots, passes - all at a high NBA level thus he is a star.

This why I don't really care for big baby. What is his NBA money skill? I don't think he has one.

Pete

[humblebum]

Re: Big Baby's money skill? Defense.

[s1ickd]

Big Baby has skills that you cant teach. These include hitting the offensive glass, boxing out, a soft touch around the hoop, a mid range jumper, and man to man defense inside the FT line. His BBIQ is also above average.

The problem is, like all young players, he hasn't honed these skills to the point of consistency yet.

[GuyClinch]

Re: Big Baby's money skill? Defense.

In your mind only. A backup centers function is to provide excellent team defense by blocking shots and allowing guys who get beat a "safety net." BBD does none of this..

[GuyClinch]

Big Baby has skills that you cant teach. These include hitting the offensive glass, boxing out, a soft touch around the hoop, a mid range jumper, and man to man defense inside the FT line. His BBIQ is also above average.

None of those are money skills - just alot of dubious statements based on dreams. BBD has a "mid-range" jumper - sure. But it hardly ever goes in. His eFG% is .267 with that shot. His 'rebounding" is mediocre - on the offensive or defensive boards. His "soft touch" doesn't translate to any decent shooting percentage close to the hoop. His great "BBIQ" rarely translates to any assists or any postive play for his unit.

I can make much the same kind of list about Scalabrine or any other NBA stiff. Scalabrine has skills you just can't teach. He plays great team defense, he sets great picks, he boxes out to allow for rebounds for other players, he has a long range jumper, and his BBIQ is fantastic. He knows the rotations and is never out of place.

See? BBD is just not a rotational worthy player. You need a "go-to" skill and it has to be something important like shooting, defense or rebounding..for the most part. Setting good picks doesn't get you minutes. I am sure Richard Seymour could set nice picks for us.

Pete

[UGA Hayes]

baby was at least somewhat valuable when he was the guy getting a ton of o-boards. The jumpshooting baby is a pretty bad player. He needs to act like a poor man's Vareajao.

[ryaningf]

Big Baby has skills that you cant teach. These include hitting the offensive glass, boxing out, a soft touch around the hoop, a mid range jumper, and man to man defense inside the FT line. His BBIQ is also above average.

None of those are money skills - just alot of dubious statements based on dreams. BBD has a "mid-range" jumper - sure. But it hardly ever goes in. His eFG% is .267 with that shot. His 'rebounding" is mediocre - on the offensive or defensive boards. His "soft touch" doesn't translate to any decent shooting percentage close to the hoop. His great "BBIQ" rarely translates to any assists or any postive play for his unit.

I can make much the same kind of list about Scalabrine or any other NBA stiff. Scalabrine has skills you just can't teach. He plays great team defense, he sets great picks, he boxes out to allow for rebounds for other players, he has a long range jumper, and his BBIQ is fantastic. He knows the rotations and is never out of place.

See? BBD is just not a rotational worthy player. You need a "go-to" skill and it has to be something important like shooting, defense or rebounding..for the most part. Setting good picks doesn't get you minutes. I am sure Richard Seymour could set nice picks for us.

Pete

I love Baby, but Pete's pretty spot on here, other than his conclusion of Baby not being a 'rotational worthy player'. To me, what separates good Baby games from bad ones is the amount of energy he puts out. When he's being energetic out there, crashing the boards, running around setting picks, blitzing the pick and roll, he can be very effective in 5-7 minute bursts, even if he's not hitting Js or getting points. Thus, his NBA skill is energy and when he plays with it, it makes him a rotation player. Baby's problem is that he hasn't figured out how to come with the energy consistently.

That said, Baby's defense is getting him PT ahead of Powe right now--which means that even if his energy isn't where it should be every game, he's still better than anyone else we currently have. Maybe that's not the ideal definition of rotation player, but it's the practical one for us. If we can get past the fact that Baby's not an ideal backup center (in the sense that he can't provide back-line block shot defense), I think it's clear that he's a pretty decent one in this system. And once he gets his energy consistent, he'll secure himself a nice 10 year NBA career.

[celticsfanforlife]

At this stage of his career, Baby is too predicated on emotions to be a consistently effective NBA player.

If we had him when hes 30, then he would fit on this team wonderfully. I think he will mature and be an above average player in this league, but I don't think it will be soon enough for this team.