The only obvious difference I see in the stats is his % of close looks vs. 10-16 foot looks. In his career, 19% of his FGA are from 0-3 feet. This season, it's only 10%. Conversely, only 11% of his career FGA are from 10-16', but it's 23% this season. He's actually a very good career shooter on 10-16' shots, but he's off to a very slow start (14%)
Thats what a deep playoff run and team usa run will do to you. Especially a player who has admitted that he's barely finding his NBA legs. We need to give him like a week off or something.
Dagger to my stomach HIM’s lost it. …. wasn’t that classic line typed in LB’s first year of exisistence?
The dude balled out for most of last year, the playoffs, and team USA. It's not a multi-year sample but I would be shocked that a guy without a significant injury or age issue that this simply isn't fatigue. He definitely looked like this last year for a stretch mid-year where it looked like he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and was out of sort.
Not looking good yet. The Magic were hunting him hard in the 4th. 2nd game in a row he needed to be benched..
Little bit better At least he found ways to score closer to the basket. Still doesn't look right and I'm not sure he will until he gets some rest. I wish we'd sit him the next Orlando game (we won't). He'd play Wednesday against the Clipps and then not again till Monday against the Heat. This is not good.
He just looks exhausted to me. His shot is short. His legs are gone. He is getting destroyed on D. Worst of all he is making bad decisions/passes out there. Just out of gas. I'd like to see him either just go home and rest for a week or come off the bench at the least. He needs to recharge.
Austin is in a bit of a funk. I don't know if he's that exhausted or not, but he is pressing a bit. I'd give it another 3 games or so, before thinking about changing it up some. Austin, Rui and Wood are a potentially potent 2nd unit too though.
I'm not buying the fatigue story... Reaves is 25 years old. If he's tired at that age, then it's an indictment that he isn't doing something correctly. It could probably just be an adjustment period. Last year, Reaves wasn't expected to do much and teams weren't aware of his game fully. This season, teams are likely honing in on him during film sessions knowing how he likes to score and picking on him defensively since Reaves isn't exactly the most athletic player in the league. I think Reaves will be fine and probably is still getting used to the extra pressure in being what is likely the 3rd option on the team and a new rotation of players that he isn't familiar with.
You don't have to buy it, but it's definitely a thing. To varying degrees it's also been evident with Banchero, Bridges, Brunson, Haliburton, and Hart. (numbers are rounded to nearest whole and compared to last season's numbers) Banchero: FG% -5%, 2pt FG% -5%, 3pt FG% -13%, FT% -18% PPG -8 Bridges: 3pt FG% -5%, PPG -5 (Cam's crazy start to the season could be a factor to the down ppg) Brunson: FG% -11%, 2pt FG% -23%, FT% -16%, PPG -4 Haliburton: 3pt FG% -7% Hart: FG% -20%, 2pt FG% -22%, 3pt FG% -14%, FT% -29%, PPG -5 Down shooting percentages are a good indicator the legs aren't there. Sure, it's not bothering everyone and some have used it as a spring board into the season. BUT it's impacted enough of his Team USA teammates to where he's not an outlier.
Doesn't matter what the numbers show in a 4 game sample size. 25 year old's don't fatigue like that. FIBA basketball happened over 50 days ago. If anything, it allowed them to stay fit and ready for the season. Just to counter your 'it's definitely a thing', you act as if we don't have sample sizes for players coming out of the Olympics/FIBA who don't have any fatigue issues. Are you just going to pick out the players who fit your position and ignore the many who don't? So let me get this straight, a 25 year old is fatigue after playing 22 minutes per game for 8 games in the summer that ended 50 days ago? C'mon. That's silly. Down shooting percentages is a good indicator that shooters have bad stretches. What's Gabe Vincent's excuse for his bad shooting? Because he is also fatigue? It's just easy to blame FIBA basketball when it isn't an indicator. Players have bad shooting stretches, it happens. That doesn't mean it's from fatigue. Just reading your stats example, you provide zero context. Banchero is a very streaky player and one of the most inefficient bigs in the league. Bridges PPG is down because he went from taking 19 shots per game to 14. Brunson is shooting 48% from three... funny how you left that out but seemingly use it when it is convenient for other players. Haliburton leads the league in assists with nearly 13 APG. So because his three point shooting is down in a 3 game sample size, he's fatigue because of FIBA? So wait, you use three point shooting as your main focal point for Haliburton but then you ignore it when Brunson is shooting 48% from three? Hart is taking 4 shots per game... If he just made two shots extra, he would be shooting over 55% from the field.. He has only shot two free throws per game... made one, miss one. So if he had made both, he would be 100%. Those are the sample sizes you are using to justify them being fatigue? Lol....
Then there's no point in talking about the positives or negatives in anyone's performance thus far if it's an insufficient sample size. Let's shut the forum down until a sufficient number of games have a discussion. Hell, let's shut down twitter while we're at it. I'll tweet Elon. He went from a regular season and post season load that he wasn't ready for and had to find another gear as that Memphis series went on. From there to Team USA to training camp and pre-season. Not all bodies or all off-season rest and ramp up schedules are the same. There's not a universal rest and recovery schedule... that's not how the human body works. Please see final paragraph of the above post. Literally addressed that.
