Sage Grouse
---------------------------------------
'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
Tre Jones got his first start for the Spurs in an ot loss to the 76ers. Seth shot 6-6 on 3’s for Philly in the win, hope they weren’t against Tre.
Ouch!
We OAD haters strive valiantly to keep these kinds of Fun Facts from our minds. We meditate, pray, work out excessively, watch Corn Hole championships, do community service, and some of us, sad to say, hit the sauce. I guess we should be grateful that you compel us to up our game.
“I love it. Coach, when we came here, we had a three-hour meeting about the core values. If you really represent the core values, it means diving on the floor, sacrificing your body for your teammates, no matter how much you’re up by or how much you’re down by, always playing hard.” -- Zion
I watched the game with the Philly feed. Tre and Seth got tangled up on a cut through the lane and emotions were high. Alaa, the Philly anouncer, a former Duke player, said something like, "I know Coach K would be on those two guys by now!"
Seth was 8-10 for 22 points (season high) and he drilled a 3 in overtime to keep Philly ahead. Tre was 2-6 for 4 points, 3 assists, 0 TO. Philly was fortunate to win against a hard-nosed San Antonio club fighting for a playoff spot. However the win puts the Sixers 1/2 game ahead of Brooklyn for the top spot in the East, with 8 games to go.
Embiid reached his 70% threshhold of games played so he now qualifies for the stats leaders. He's a close second to Jokic in PER, which doesn't look at defense where Embiid has a big advantage.
PER does include rebounding, steals and blocks, so yes it does include defense. But its probably harder to characterize numerically than offense, hence the comment.
For example, there are no 'defensive assists' where you might help a teammate get a steal or a rebound, or to draw an offensive foul or alter a shot, etc.
Gigantic few days for the Zion playoff push, with Pelicans playing Warriors twice and Spurs traveling to Utah for two games.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Search no further than tonight’s box score for the reason the Pelicans can’t keep Ball. This was a huge game tonight, and he was absolutely pathetic. 1-9 from three point range, and 3-18 for the game. That just isn’t going to cut it. I still say he and Bledsoe both need to be jettisoned in the off-season.
The staff of The Ringer put together a list of the Top 25 players in the NBA and included a trio of Duke players, including Jayson Tatum (17), Kyrie Irving (16), and Zion Williamson (13).
I thought it was an interesting look at the current landscape atop the NBA. If anything, Kyrie seems a little low on here to me while maybe Zion is a little too high.
Next season, we could see RJ Barrett making a push towards the top 25 while Tatum and Zion could get closer to the top 10. Brandon Ingram has to be near the top 25 based on his production. He's having a better statistical season than last year, when he was named an All-Star. There is a ton of talent from Duke in the NBA right now.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/5...s-nikola-jokic
538 has a nice article about JJ Redick today and where his career is at this point. They seem to think that he can be a really useful piece for the Mavs in the playoffs and that his time in the league is far from done.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...edicks-career/
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
It's easy to discount Zion's historical season because the Pels are not a good team. He is now 96th percentile on offensive EPM, which is elite, and 70th on defensive EPM. He's no longer a bad defender, and in fact a significantly above average one. He is fourth in PER, scoring in ways people didn't think were no longer possible -- inside at an incredibly efficient rate. And he's only 20 years old!!
In my mind he's certainly a top 15 player, and probably a top 10 player. Imagine how much better he would be if he had good shooters around him.
Without those, teams can design defensive schemes exclusively around Zion. One of the podcasts I listened to (think it was the Ringer) mentioned reading another team's scouting report on the Pels and Zion was basically the only thing on that report.
The Pels are best when Lonzo is hitting shots, but the problem is Lonzo is not consistent. Some of it can be blamed on injuries but he's injured a lot.
You all know how I feel about the coach. But the team is also ill fitting.
Pels would do better with a Dave Bertrans or Kelly Olynyk instead of a Steven Adams and Jaxon Hayes.
Instead of Eric Bledsoe, a Seth Curry or Duncan Robinson or...a freaking JJ Redick.
Lonzo obviously has potential, but he's injured so often and can go on cold shooting slumps. With SVG's pace of play, Pels would be better served with a Mike Conley type. OK, maybe Conley is unrealistically good, but this team did have Jrue Holiday once upon a time and those two are about on par with each other. Look at how much better Jrue plays now that he's on a good team with a good coach.
With Bledsoe, Lonzo, Ingram, Zion and Adams, this team is actually well equipped to play a fast pace and run. But no, with SVG at the helm, this team plays slow and in the half court.
Maybe the blame should be put on the GM.