GIVE DENVER A KICK
IN THE NUGGETS!
IN THE NUGGETS!
-VS-
Game Time Start: 7:00 PM ET
Where: The Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
Officials: M. McCutchen, C. Kirkland, D. Richardson
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, Denver Notes
Television: FOX Sports Indiana / Altitude
Radio: WFNI 1070 AM / KKFN 104.3 FM & 950 AM
NBA Feeds:
*NBA Audio League Pass (available free to NBA All-Access members)
*NBA League Pass Broadband (subscription req'd)
*NBA League Pass Broadband (subscription req'd)
REMINDER: Per PD policy, please do not share a link to, describe how to search for, request a link to, or request a PM about streaming video of a NBA game that is not coming directly through the NBA. Not even in a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know-what-I-mean" round-about sort of way. Thank you
|
|
PACERS Danny Granger - left knee tendinosis (out) NUGGETS Wilson Chandler – Left Hip (out) Julyan Stone – Right Hip (out) |
Jared Wade: Paul George’s Great Passing Against the Blazers I’ve mentioned a few times that last night’s win over the Portland Trailblazers might have been the best passing game I’ve seen Paul George ever have. Some video: The first three dishes shown are obviously excellent: the rise to shoot then dish to George Hill at the rim; the two-handed overhead bounce pass to a cutting Ian Mahinmi; the over-the-top entry to David West. Each led directly to an easy two points. The others are a little more subtle but also help illustrate his growth as a decision maker. Because that is often what is more important as a passer than anything. We oooh and aaahhh at the the highlight assists (like the one George threw to Mahinmi), but even if you’re Jason Kidd, those types of finishes are few and far between. What is more important is consistently making the right read and furthering the offense’s advantage over the defense. That’s what we see in the rest of the video. Some of George’s passes don’t even lead to made buckets. But they all show the decisiveness that he plays with at his best. It’s all instinctual. There is no dilly-dallying. He just sees a teammate who is in a position to exploit the opponent and delivers a quick, accurate pass that allows his teammate to get off a good shot. The second-to-last dish (at the 1:13 mark) is the best illustration of Paul’s growth as a creator. He starts the play on the weakside wing and makes a flex cut to the opposite block, where he receives an entry pass while being guarded by Nic Batum. He catches a little far out on the baseline...CONTINUE READING AT 8p9s |
Don’t bogart that ball, McGee - Video Scouting Report When JaVale McGee is on the court he uses a big chunk of Denver’s possessions. According to Basketball-Reference.com, among regular rotation players, he has the highest usage rate on the team at 23.9 percent. Despite this, he also has the third lowest assist rate at 3.6 percent. Kosta Koufos has the second lowest, 3.1 percent, and Kenneth Faried the lowest assist rate, 2.0 percent. Naturally, all three of the Nuggets’ main frontcourt players earn their keep around the rim, finishing plays and putting back offensive boards, the big difference between McGee and the other two is that he actually spends a significant amount of time with the ball in his hands. Compare his usage rate with that of Koufos, lowest among rotation players at 12.4 percent, and Faried, third lowest at 18.6 percent. (A surprising side note here is that Andre Miller is second lowest with a 17.6 percent usage rate that’s very modest considering how much he handles the ball). In short, Kosta and Kenneth should be given a free pass for their low assist rates, because the vast majority of the time, when they get the ball, they’re right there at the rim, and the best thing to do is immediately put it in the basket. This is not always the case with JaVale, who handles the ball in the post much more than the other two. Examining the data from MySynergySports.com, we can see that in many ways the shot selection of all three players is fairly similar across the board. However, there are three play types which one player uses significantly more than the other two: Faried and Koufos take more shots off offensive rebounds and cuts, respectively, than their frontcourt counterparts. Both of these play types, of course, necessitate taking the ball to the rim. There is no place for passing there. McGee, however, has a higher percentage of post-ups than the other two, a play from which he has the option to pass or shoot. But pass he does not. This season McGee is averaging less than half an assist per game. More starkly put, in 13 games he has dished out a single lone assist in five different games, and zero assists in the remaining eight games. It’s also worth noting that three of his assists this season were made in transition, and just two made in the flow of an offensive set (one from the top of the key, and one from the low post). As a general rule, once JaVale gets the ball in position, he gets tunnel vision straight to the basket, and everything else on the court fades out of sight and out of mind. All of this might not be as great a problem if it weren’t for the fact that JaVale is scoring a measly 0.5 points per possession on post-ups. Compare that with Marc Gasol’s 1.09, Tim Duncan’s 0.99, or for that matter Andre Miller’s 1.05 PPP from the post, and it’s easy to see that McGee still has a long way to go in getting a handle on the moves he learned from Hakeem Olajuwon last summer and putting them to positive effect. In the meantime, as he finds his way through that process with the guidance of the coaching staff, he needs to improve his own and his team’s efficiency by making a concerted effort to dish it out more often from the post when the occasion calls for it. This would result in fewer wasted possessions, as probable missed shots got replaced by plays kept alive for more open, higher percentage shots. Perhaps just as importantly, if opposing defenses know that JaVale always shoots and never dishes to cutters or shooters, then they are not kept honest. They can collapse on McGee with double or even triple teams with no fear of getting punished for leaving the perimeter unguarded. He can potentially earn himself better shots by forcing defenses to respect his ability to find open shots for his teammates. What follows are breakdowns of the five clips in the video at the bottom of this post. (If you open the video up in Youtube, you can jump to any clip by clicking the times in the description). All we can do is hope that the Nuggets film crew is working closely with McGee to show him similar footage and stress the importance of the kinds of points we’re making here. Clip 1 – Missed running hook shot This is one of those cases where McGee is so determined to make his move to the basket that he completely fails to survey the court. The first time he gets the ball on this possession, he does the right thing and passes out of the hard double team. But the second time around, in his haste to take a shot, he doesn’t recognize that the defense has collapsed into the middle, and misses the opportunity to dish it out to either Jordan Hamilton or Andre Iguodala, both of whom are wide open. As a sidenote on this clip, Danilo Gallinari sets a very nice screen on Kevin Love to give JaVale room to operate. It would be great to see him set these kinds of hard screens more often on pick and rolls with the point guards. Clip 2 – Missed short range jump shot In this clip, Tiago Spillter does a good job of preventing JaVale from getting position, holding him to the side of the key where he gets the ball from Andre Miller. McGee makes a nice spin move to shake off Splitter, but similarly to clip 1, the defense has sunk into the paint. There are two help defenders lurking nearby ready to close in on JaVale, which they promptly do when he makes his move. affecting his shot and most likely causing the miss...CONTINUE READING AT ROUNDBALL MINING COMPANY |
Pacers Mike Wells @MikeWellsNBA Jared Wade @8pts9secs Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s Tom Lewis @indycornrows |
Nuggets Benjamin Hochman @nuggetsnews Jeremy Wagner @RoundballMiner Aaron J. Lopez @Lopez_Nuggets Pierre @JaValeMcGee34 |
Comment