So what are our issues anyways?
In light of the recent losing streak I decided to take a look at how our team ranks among the others. Of course the season is still young and the numbers are more volatile as some teams have harder/easier schedules/injuries etc... but the numbers have began to become meaningful. I went to teamrankings.com to see where we measured up against the other teams in the league. Some of the results were surprising. There is a lot of info and many takeaways, some more obvious than others. I'll try not to infer my own opinions to them too much. Here's how we measure up against the other teams.
The bad: Let's get this out of the way:
23rd in rebound rate -9th offensive% 25th def% - Similar to years past we are a good offensive rebounding team and a poor defensive rebounding team. Strange to me that a team with Asik, Ryno, Davis, and Reke (good for his position) is a poor defensive rebounding team. I know Ryno is not a good defensive rebounder but still.
21st in eFG% - Aside from that Minnesota game we still are struggling to hit shots. When compared to some of the stats you'll see later it seems our problems here are not getting to the line enough and not hitting threes. Seeing the threes we're taking a lot of it is us missing open shots which will likely change. I just hope we continue to take smart threes and not dmb, off the dribble contested fadeaway threes.
27th opponent bpg - Sign of low bball IQ. opponents are blocking a ton of our shots. We need to either get contact on block attempts and get to the line or take better shots around the basket.
27th opponent fouls per possession - Look for contact. It has more of an effect than just the foul shots, but getting opponents in foul trouble challenges the other coach.
24th pace - We're playing pretty slow. We were running prior to all the injuries last season which was great. We chalked up the slower pace later to the injuries. Now we're healthy and playing slower. Asik will cause you to play slower but there's no reason for us to have the roster we have and not push the pace even a little bit. At the very least we should run the ball down the floor just to make the other team run even if we still play the half court.
The good:
1st in block percentage - We get blocked a lot but we're blocking even more. When you have AD and Asik this will happen. Just imagine if Ajinca learned to play vertical. We'd be a historically good team at protecting the rim.
2nd turnovers per possession - Seems strange to me that we're so good at taking care of the ball. Davis barely turns it over but Reke is so reckless at times that I was surprised to see this. That was one of the biggest takeaways from the '13 playoffs to me. Neither team that made the finals turned the ball over which was just huge for both of them.
8th ppp - Even though we don't hit threes or get to the line we're this high in eFG%? This should be proof of how good our offense can be.
1st points in the paint - You want to win games? Score in the paint, get fouls, and play defense. At least we're doing one of those things. This surprised me with all the problems we've had finishing. Again, I'd attribute a lot of this to AD being ridiculous.
7th opponents fast break ppg - actually kind of disappointing considering our turnover percentage.
9th opponents assist per possession - That's actually the sign of a defense that is pushing the other team. We are forcing them to beat us one on one. What sucks is that they are succeeding. At least that is a sign that we're forcing some tough looks.
The Meh:
8th percent on FG% on 2s 22nd percent on 3s (20.3%!!!!) - So we are as good at hitting our twos as we are bad at hitting threes. Again, mos of the threes I see that we take are good looks. I just want them to fall finally. If that happens and our offense and eFG% goes up we'll be able to outscore opponents fairly easily.
1st quarter 23rd points per quarter
2nd quarter 14th points per quarter
3rd 4th points per quarter
4th quarter 16 points per quarter - So after years of struggling in the third (before Monty, before Byron, before CP3, before the move to Nola) we're finally doing well in the third. And whereas we've really struggled in the 4th as many have noted, we're really killing ourselves in the first. If we were even average in the first our ppg would be greatly improved and we'd probably have a couple more wins. Why are we struggling to score coming out of the gates? I'll let you guys decide that.
11th in assists per game - not as bad as I thought. At least we're making plays.
11th steals per defensive possession - With such a risky defense I'd want this to be higher. If we can't cause turnovers with this defensive scheme that risks open lanes to the hoop when a rotation is missed, then I think we should play more conservatively.
18th fouls per game - Thanks Ajinca.
19th ppp - defense - Not great. Our defensive anchor sat out a couple games which skews this a little. With Holiday, Davis, and Asik, I would hope that we have the personnel to be higher on this list but I'm okay with an average defense if our offense improves.
27th opponent FG% - Take from this what you will. Points per possession means more as far as the bottom line to me. High FG% from opponents so far could be smallish sample size theatre or it could be that we're forcing them into decent looks that are long twos. We definitely have been running the opponents off the three point line finally and protecting the rim. Seems to me that although our opponents are hitting their shots, they are shots that aren't worth as much because we aren't sending them to the line on those shots and they aren't threes. But let's take a look at this by quarter:
1st quarter 11th
2nd quarter 7th
3rd quarter 12th
4th quarter 29th - So in the first where we struggle to score we're at least limiting the opponent's looks too. Our offense isn't great but our defense is in the second. The third when our offense is at it's best our defense is decent, but in the fourth when we struggle a little to hit shots, we can't stop ANYONE. I mean, 29th is terrible. Let's remember where we should be in most areas. We aren't contenders but there are teams who are actively tanking and we are allowing a higher FG% in the 4th than them. Is it low IQ that gets shaky when the games on the line? I don't know. That is attrocious and probably the number one takeaway here for the future. Can we get our players to tighten defense when it matters most? That would be huge.
14th opponent turnover percentage - Again, turn them over if we're running an aggressive high risk high reward defense. If the "high reward" isn't happening, then don't have high risk that leads to open looks.
Anyways, I hope this helps us examine our strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully we can identify areas of improvement and what to watch for in the future instead of lashing out at people/players/coaches/analysts.