Dennis Smith= Cancer
- Thread starter DeanFor President
- Start date
I had to verify that because I simply couldn't believe it, Mike. That's mind boggling. What's even more amazing is that he has 11 more than Joel and Nate combined. And they're our top two assist guys.
He's a high lottery pick and a very likely star in the NBA, an incredible talent. TBS, he got what he wanted from college, a chance to be the focus of his team and display his immense skills. Mission accomplished.
Not to mention he has a couple triple doubles this season, kid is special talent. Can you just imagine a back court of Joel and DSJ for us this season, Joel & Justin spot up shooting and DSJ driving and kicking?
I think he was told the team would be centered around him from day one. He wasn't going to get that guarantee at UNC, nor would I want him to. So he wasn't coming here. I'm good with that.
Yeah, that was a selling point,k that he would get that one and done feature role. But what took us out was the fact we had such talent at the PG and 2 guard spots and especially Joel at the point. He was not coming to UNC to back up Joel berry and every opposing team recruiting against us hammered that and the NCAA stuff. UNC and duke's back courts were loaded, NC Sts back court, especially the PG spot was wide open for him to start, that was the decision making factor.
...which once again shows the subjective and very often overrated nature of that particular stat. Who makes their team better? No need even bothering to answer
...which once again shows the subjective and very often overrated nature of that particular stat. Who makes their team better? No need even bothering to answer
gary, you my bud but you are a trip sometimes! Ya saying that assists don't really matter that much and you know they do. LOL
It is absolutely true, Dave, and that's yet another reason why looking at box scores doesn't tell ya the whole story. C'mon man, It's not that hard a concept.
1. Assists are the most subjective and an inconsistently kept stat in basketball, going back to the "Corchiani Assist" that State stat guys were notorious for.
2. Sometimes they have little to do with a passer's contribution. Example: In the dook game 7th dribbled himself too deep into no-man's land (as he is prone to doing) so Luke popped out from the paint just to bail him out and caught 7th's grateful pass with his back to the basket 19 feet out. But then Luke surprised me, you and everyone in the gym by deciding to turn around and fire a long jumper. It went in... so 7th gets an Assist. That's not meant to disparage anyone and that's fine (7th had a couple of nice dimes), the point is that nothing in that particular pass was designed to or likely to create a scoring opportunity. That's just the way it often is: Arbitrary
3. In stark contrast, JB hits Kennedy with a trigger-zone entry on the block, but since the defender is coming at him, Kennedy decides to power-dribble and take it under the rim for an easy reverse. Now, by proper interpretation that is an Assist, but the stat guy chose not to give him one. Again, subjective.
4. On an unselfish team that shares the ball your PG will have fewer Assists. Why? Because guys who receive his passes are more likely to make the extra pass. Basic logic. That doesn't speak badly of your PG, it speaks well of your team.
5. Very often the passer doesn't get rewarded. If you hit a Big in prime scoring position and he misses a quick shot but tips in his miss there's no Assist. We do that... a lot.
6. Finally --- and this applies directly to the subject of this thread --- DSJr gets a lot of his Assists (ironically) just because he monopolizes the ball so much. In other words, instead of keeping the ball moving in an actual offense he pounds it and jukes and jives looking for his own shot and by attrition will get some dishes for no other reason than everyone thinks he's gonna shoot. In fact, watching him closely he actually often hurts his team, because for every Assist he gets, think how many other offensive opportunities that they might get from sound ball-movement that end up pissed away by him pounding the damned rock for so long.
Assists are a great thing, and on the aggregate are useful numbers, but as individual stats they can be, and often are, very misleading when viewed without context. Coaches care about the ball getting to the right place at the right time. If an Assist gets credited to player-X in the process, hey that's fine, but it's not the be-all and end-all. The bottom line is making your team better.
This post above mine just happened. Wow.
