How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

[Heisenberg]

There's a lot of youtube clips citing examples so it'd be a hassle to copy and paste, plus it deserves the hits, so you'll have to follow the link. Talks a lot about how we used West to initiate offense out of the high post last year.

http://www.sbnation.com/2013/10/10/4773868/david-west-video-breakdown-indiana-pacers-2013

[RamBo_Lamar]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

Also, in transition West makes the most beautiful outlet passes I've ever seen
from a Pacers big:

Simply outstanding!

[Major Cold]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs



Teams can't stop this play. When Hibbert gets the screen on hte baseline they can't even hold him off the cut.

[McKeyFan]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

I know preseason means nothing, but we have tried initiating so far this year with PG instead of West. It's not working so far. I have serious doubts whether Paul can pull it off. He definitely has the court vision, a rare quality, but he doesn't have the handles yet. At least that's easier to develop than court vision, but I'm not sure he can do it this season. The off season was the time to pick it up.

When we initiate with West very good things happen. It's just difficult to have a power forward start your offense.

[Anthem]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

Teams can't stop this play. When Hibbert gets the screen on hte baseline they can't even hold him off the cut.

That clip is supposedly about West, but look at the number of different ways that Hibbert scores around the basket. He gets complimented for his polished post moves, but you could argue he should get more. The number of ways he scores on the same play is impressive.

[Major Cold]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

Look how many times Lance's guy sinks and digs in on him. If Danny is shooting well this season. We will see more open shots.

Lance does a great job at spacing though. But that corner three is open when teams scout this and address it more.

[Hicks]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

Look how many times Lance's guy sinks and digs in on him. If Danny is shooting well this season. We will see more open shots.

Lance does a great job at spacing though. But that corner three is open when teams scout this and address it more.

It'll also be interesting to see if Lance has improved his own jumper, too.

[yoadknux]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

Really nice read and love the videos. The only thing that seemed pretty off:

Granger and Darren Collison did a lot of playmaking, and West did more scoring.

[pacer4ever]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

I know preseason means nothing, but we have tried initiating so far this year with PG instead of West. It's not working so far. I have serious doubts whether Paul can pull it off. He definitely has the court vision, a rare quality, but he doesn't have the handles yet. At least that's easier to develop than court vision, but I'm not sure he can do it this season. The off season was the time to pick it up.

When we initiate with West very good things happen. It's just difficult to have a power forward start your offense.

PG24 initiated the offense plenty last year. He and West are the two guys who get us into good stuff. In fact the point in the season when the offense got pretty good(I mean not terrible like the start of the year) was when PG24 started the offense.

[imawhat]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

It'll also be interesting to see if Lance has improved his own jumper, too.

Interestingly enough, his free throws look much better but his jumpshot looks worse IMO.

[naptownmenace]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

I'm seriously wondering how well the offense would run if we just ran the offense through David West every time down the floor.

Could he be our Anthony Mason/Larry Johnson type of Point-Power-Forward?

[aamcguy]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

I think there's a difference between West initiating the offense and passing well as part of it. I've argued all of the past year that our "point guard" was manned by the combination of Hill and West. Not meaning that they take turns at running the offense, but they play off of each other really well. As hill gets better this dynamic will only improve for our team.

As to this being a new skill for West, I would have to disagree. We saw him making slick passes and playing a facilitator role immediately when he arrived here. If he didn't show it on the hornets, it's because they didn't him the opportunity to do so.

[DangerGranger3pointranger]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

I just wish the rest of the NBA viewed him as a threat, cause I just think he deserves more credit.

[Coopdog23]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

He and Roy are two of the best passing big men in the league. They both see the floor very well

[Pacersalltheway10]

Re: How David West has become one of the NBA's best passing bigs

Look how many times Lance's guy sinks and digs in on him. If Danny is shooting well this season. We will see more open shots.

Lance does a great job at spacing though. But that corner three is open when teams scout this and address it more.

statistically, the most efficient shot on the court.