In his last nine games (after he was DNPd for 7 straight) since his return to the lineup Vando is shooting 50%, 44% from three, and even dishing an assist a game. He’s finished on open feeds, and dunks. He’s doing all right out there on offense, nowhere near his D, but not bad.
Agreed. But notice I used the word “consistency.” If he keeps this up, I’ll become a believer. For now, it’s been a solid stretch of games for him.
Major credit to Vando for not pouting when he was benched and coming back when called upon and playing really well.
Let’s see if JJ has the stomach to do it to Rui in a career contract year (beaks into 20Ms now or never … and highly unlikely, maybe for even more than making now) …. and if he responds the same way.
Strangely enough, do you consider asking Reaves to come off the bench with him, but maybe close out the game? We definitely have some roster calls to make coming up regardless of if there are moves or not by the trade deadline.
Vando is a fan favourite and a really good defender - all of us like him. If he is shooting 35%+ from 3 and can finish a little bit, of course he can play. If he goes back to being a negative on offence, especially in the playoffs, then yes he is unplayable.
tbh, guys like vando have to shoot 40+ or better from three (because they are given ALL DAY to do so every trip down), or they have to be able to finish in the paint. his problem is that he's not been a threat from any spot on offense. he could continue to be a non-shooter if he was a guy that the defense had to fear would get a bunch of paint points, or was a passing wizard who could screen and find guys like draymond. if he's not doing the latter stuff, he basically has to hit nearly half his threes in order to affect defensive attention (like bruce bowen used to in SA). anyway, this is why you can see guys who hit a respectable clip from three still be minuses on offense. league average points per shot is 1.09. theoretically, if you just left vando open every trip down, and he took a three, you'd be a below league average offense. this is ignoring the fact that this would never happen for various reasons. the point is a vando three--even if he's hitting at 40% is probably one of the shots a defense is STILL most likely to want to give you. then you get into volume--has vando ever hit 4 threes in a game? nobody's scared of this, so they make it harder on your primary offensive options. and this conversation isn't just about vando--it's about any player that teams are willing to leave wide open basically everywhere. you better be steven adams or young russell westbrook or something. i'm still a vando fan, but it is definitely true that good defenses will make it hard on you when he's out there, and for his entire career he's never been able to fully counteract that with his good defense. last year, in limited minutes he was a slight positive overall. last time before that was in 21-22 with minny. he just hasn't improved much on offense.
I think he's starting to understand that he just has to be solid on offense and capitalize on his opportunities and he can stay on the floor.