HOW HARD COULD
IT BEES?
IT BEES?
-VS-
Game Time Start: 7:00 PM EST
Where: The Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
Officials: M. Callahan, L. Richardson, H. Workman
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, New Orleans Notes
Television: FOX Sports Indiana / FOX Sports New Orleans
Radio: WFNI 1070 AM / WWL 105.3 FM, WODT 1280 AM
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PACERS Danny Granger - left knee tendinosis (out) HORNETS Anthony Davis - stress reaction left ankle (doubtful) Eric Gordon - sore right knee (out) |
Small Market Mondays #3: 808s and Bobcats Buon giorno, friends! I'm in an absolutely ecstatic mood this morning, because two of my absolute favorite NBA-related things happened this week. First, the Pacers broke yet another record by showing those rambunctious big market Canadian rapscallions that there actually is another facet to this wonderful game called "defense". But that wasn't even the biggest news this week (and honestly, with the sheer number of records the Pacers break, when is it?) -- there was also a blockbuster trade which shocked both the championship picture and our entire beloved league to its very core! To summarize the trade that fantasy GMs across Arkansas are still talking about in hushed whispers, the Bobcats shipped out legendary sharpshooter Matt Carroll for 2003 NCAA champion Hakim Warrick. Yeah, I know. You've probably been completely over-exposed to all the various in-and-outs of the Hakim Warrick/Matt Carroll trade. Happens. But kindly lend me your ears for a second, as I've fired up ye olde Synergy Sports machine to help you understand it even better. In case you're unfamiliar with Synergy, it's some sort of computer-internet wizardry where you type in a player's name and it tells you all these fantastical things about numbers and "statistics" and liberal mumbo-jumbo like that. Now friends, I have to give you a disclaimer: math isn't exactly my strong suit. But you're going to have to bear with me here. The first thing that stood out to me is Warrick's career 49.4% shooting percentage -- that means if he take 10 shots then there is a very good chance that he'll make at least 2 of them. Cowabunga! However, something else caught my eye: when taking the opposing defender to the rack off his patented bicycle kick slide-dribble spin move, Hakim Warrick scores a sizzling 2.7 points per possession! On the other hand, Matt Carroll is a very respectable 38.4% three point shooter over his career. But you need to unskew those numbers, compadres! Because that's his three pointer percentage, you need to multiply it by 3 to get his "true" shooting percentage, which comes out to a super rad 109.7% true shooting rate! WOW! And how can we forget about his defense? In Matt Carroll's career as a lockdown defender, opponents who suffer from fatal cardiomyopathy while taking a shot against Carroll have shot 0-50 against him, and rumor has it that at least five of them tragically passed away after being faced with Carroll's bruising defense back in his no-good hooligan high school days. In the end, it's a style change for both teams, but one of those rare win-win blockbusters that everyone can feel happy about. Phenomenal trade. |
Where the Commish was Needed Badly In what is a recurring theme in the "Gordon-less" era of the Hornets, the team couldn't close out their opponent or complete their comeback because they lacked thet proverbial "end of shot clock" player. We have that, in theory. Problem is, he's (hopefully) rehabbing his busted knees in LA. After Anthony Davis converted two and-1s on consecutive possessions (one of them an awkward floater), the Hornets were able to creep to within two. Sadly, it was right around this time that the Hornets needed Gordon. The offense sputtered, and the team needed someone who could easily break down the defense create good scoring opportunities for the team. Vasquez wasn't going to be that guy -- he usually needs 2-3 screens just to get to the free throw line extended. Even still, he has to time his motion so that the second screen hits the defender exactly right to free him. Mason and Aminu certainly weren't going to be those guys. Neither of those players has any discernible weapons in half court sets. Ryan Anderson has shown a propensity to drive well to the rim following a shot fake after a flash to the three point line. Sadly, this really isn't a dependable "end of the shot clock" play. In all honesty, Anthony Davis was our best bet at creating a shot 1-on-1. He could take either Udoh or Sanders on dribble drives off the high post. What we saw however was Vasquez struggling to find space to drive. He would find a slivervof space (trailed by a stalking Udoh) where he flipped a high arcing layup that looked more like a pass to a wide open Anderson below than a shot attempt. Anderson saved the day with a two handed push tip to cut the lead to 2 again. This was after Ellis hit a 22 foot two point jumper, a win for the defense -- it's a 22 foot two point jumper, it's early in the shot clock, Ellis was making 33% of his shots from that range for the season and has been historically around that percentage for his career, and he was up to that point in the game, 1-4 from that range. Of course, Ellis went on to make another contested fade-away to the left, one footed, swishing it right through the rim. It was as if Ellis had suddenly activated the "closer" signature style (in NBA 2K) where his 17-23 foot shot attribute was supposed to be 70 but sky rocketed to 95. The Hornets would only score 3 more points -- Ryan Anderson's fadeaway cut the deficit to 2. More importantly, had Gordon been playing, we wouldn't have needed Anderson to create his own shot after the jumper from Ellis. Gordon could have answered right back. What can we pickup from this game? 1.) Vasquez for all his ability to run an offense and to orchestrate a fastbreak cannot defend quick PGs. (Way to go Sherlock!). I think that was painfully obvious from the start, but it was made more apparent in the last 2 games. Russell Westbrook and Brandon Jennings were able to consistently get to the basket and wreak havoc. 2.) Hornets will have a hard time playing against good 3 PT shooting teams. OKC and MIL rank highly in 3 PT% with OKC clocking in at 3rd with 41% and MIL at 13th with 36.2%. Here is a breakdown of our last 8 opponents 3PT eFG% (rank), their average 3PTA, their actual 3PTA against us and the game result. As you can see, in all 8 games, we forced our opponents to shoot more than their average amount of 3s. The point margin against teams that are above average in eFG? A whopping -9.5. Against teams that are below average? +3.25. Considering the fact that most (if not all) of the top tier teams - namely MIA, NYK, OKC, SAS, LAC, MEM and MIL - are all above average in 3 PT eFG, then I think this is a strategy that will make us lose a LOT of games against top tier teams, and it's pretty clear that this is not a strategy that should be in place when we decide to be contenders. 3.) The Anderson/Davis tandem? It can work. I especially love the Vasquez/Anderson/ Davis Screen-the-Screener action late in the 4th (especially if you replace Vasquez with Gordon). If I remember correctly, Anderson would get a down screen from Davis from the left baseline (facing the basket) and immediately set a screen for Vasquez. This play actually resulted in a quite a few scoring opportunities. It resulted in a good drive for Vasquez (ending in a wide open Anderson tipping the ball), it resulted in an and-1 basket for Davis at the baseline (after a screen), and it also ended with a 3 PT for Anderson. If Davis can bulk up without sacrificing precious agility, speed and leaping ability, hat duo will have more success than any other big man combination we have. 4.) Anthony Davis is more polished offensively than defensively. I'll be completely honest - I'm underwhelmed by Davis' defensive contributions. He hasn't been the patrol man that I expected him to be. I expected our D with AD on the court to be stifling -- defenders track their assignments, they know where to go, and offensive players are funneled into the waiting embrace of Anthony Davis' pterodactyl arms. Sadly, this has not been the case. Anthony Davis has been more role player than leader on the defensive end. He's late on rotations, he gets caugh...CONTINUE READING AT AT THE HIVE |
Pacers Mike Wells @MikeWellsNBA Jared Wade @8pts9secs Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s Tom Lewis @indycornrows |
Hornets John Reid @JohnReidTP Jimmy Smith @JimmySmithtp At the Hive @atthehive Hornets 247 @hornets247 |
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