Summer League Stat Watch ( My Best Attempt!)

I have my stats compiled I just have to write them up. I'll get to it at some point today.

Quickly I'll say this was Randle's best game by a wide, wide, wide margin. He was almost a different person out there. Russell and Black played decently. Clarkson may have lost them the game single-handedly in the 4th quarter. I really want to see Mumford and Mitchell in camp. Buycks doesn't belong in Summer League let alone the NBA.

 

Those numbers reflect mine pretty well actually.

 

Game 4 (First Playoff Game):

Effective Screen Setting was dominated by Tarik Black, but I was disappointed overall with the team's effort. Tarik lead with 9 Effective Screens set and was decent at getting his body on his man. Upshaw's per minute ESS must be off the charts. He had six, but almost every screen he sets is a great one. He's big, gets his body wide, and makes guards navigate around him. It's excellent. Nance Jr. did decently with five, but a lot of his didn't land nicely. I thought Larry probably played his worst game (which still wasn't terrible). Clarkson and Mitchell chipped in with one and two ESSes respectively. Randle ended up with three which is disappointing for him. Julius is a wide load and when he sets a good screen, he almost always clears up space for Jordan. There was a play they ran a bunch of times in the fourth where Julius sets a soft screen and D'Angelo gets him the ball with an open lane. Then Julius has a free lane to either dunk the ball, draw the foul, or throw the ball to the open man (I say throw instead of pass because his passes come in HOT). Julius rarely actually made a strong effort on the screen though and it was really just a way to free him up at the top of the key.

Effective Box Outs were atrocious for the team. Black lead the way with only seven box outs and keep in mind at least four of those came on free throws. For this stat I'm sure some of you will watch the game and see more rebounds and a guy will be in front of a guy, but that's not a box out to me. A box out is actively seeking contact with your opponent, arms wide, and moving your feet. We did a terrible job of this as a team last game. Outside of Tarik, no one had more than five. Nance Jr. had only three which is tremendously low for him (I suspect the jumpshooting PF he was defending really threw him off). Randle and Mitchell each had two which is low for them. Upshaw had only one which is really bad for him as well. He tends to rely on his size for rebounds, but he's out of shape so it's more difficult to come down with the ball than he anticipates. He loses rebounds that way.

Effective Close Outs are run-outs to jump shooters and closing to either their face or their shooting hand. The person who has done this the best on the perimeter is D'Angelo Russell. He's got surprising length and he does a very good job of running to shooters and trying to change their shot. Russell ended up with seven ECOs which is pretty impressive. The rest of the team did decently at this actually. Clarkson, Randle, Nance Jr., and Mitchell each did a good job with three. Randle could have had a couple more, but was a little lazy at times. Jabari Brown had two and he usually does a decent job of getting out to shooters. Mumford had one which is pretty good for his size.

Ball Watching was rampant in this game. The biggest offender: Jordan Clarkson. He looked a little like Kobe has the last few years; trying to do too much and overplay too much defensively so he gets caught ball watching. He was back cut four times in this game, I think three of which went for scores at the rim. His defensive lapses in the fourth were a big part of why the team lost the game. Not surprisingly the two youngest guys in Russell and Randle got caught three times each. Russell was beat back door a few times and once on an offensive rebound. Randle is CONSTANTLY ball watching and again lets guys cut in front of him in the paint or get to the rim for boards by not keeping an eye on his man. It's something he really needs to work on. Mitchell had two ball watching instances and Tarik got lost in transition once giving up a wide open lob attempt that luckily didn't connect.

Changed Shots was pretty decent yesterday. Tarik Black came up with five by being a load inside. His activity level wasn't quite as high as it's been, but he's still got long arms and good athleticism. Julius Randle changed a couple shots inside, which is good for him. This summer he hasn't been a threat as a help defender in the paint. He still wasn't great, but any instances of changed shots from him is a good sign of development. Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson each had one changed shot with very strong perimeter defense. Tony Mitchell was incredibly active in the paint and while he's not always in control, he works really hard and made a few guys miss inside. My favorite though was Robert Upshaw who changes shots with his aura inside. There was a layup attempt that came off from a Dallas player just because Upshaw was in the vicinity. It was actually a poor defensive effort from Upshaw, but he faked like he was going to block the shot and the Dallas player missed a wide open layup. Upshaw finished with three changed shots.

Hedging and Rotating a majority of the time refers to how well our players a) switch effectively on a pick and roll and b) hedge out on the guard and get back to their man. In that respect Tarik and Julius were fantastic. They did a flat out great job of switching on screens or hedging on it long enough for the guard to recover. Their size and speed confounded Dallas point guards at times. Black at 12 effective H&D points and Julius had 11 effective H&D points which is night and day compared to what he has done before. Tony Mitchell also did a great job using his athleticism on pick and rolls and on drives and he ended up with eight EH&D points. Russell and Clarkson had four each as the two of them used their size to great effect switching screens out on the perimeter. Larry Nance Jr. actually struggled in this aspect which is unusual for him with only two points. I think the threat of that stretch PF really made him struggle and shook his game up a bit. Anthony Brown and Xavier Munford each had one point. Upshaw was a pretty unique case in this because man does he show some promise with three EH&D points. There were two specific moments where he blitzed the pick and shuffled his feet out to the three point line keeping the smaller and quicker PG in front of him. It was frankly phenomenal. I mean that size that can show hard on a screen and keep up with a guard? That's Defensive Player of the Year type of stuff BUT... he's not in shape yet so he had trouble recovering back to his man after our guard got back. He forces the ball handler into a tough position, but then backs off when our other defender gets there. What he should do is stay and double and use his length to force a long pass that Russell, Randle, or Clarkson can get to. Instead he sags off, tries to recover to his man but is too late and either fouls or gives up an easy shot. Still though, it's some electric stuff and it really really shows the kind of talent he has.

Overall: I saw great signs from Randle in this game. His focus was just better, his decision making was a hundred times better, and he made the game easier on himself and everyone else. Munford didn't do much and missed an easy layup, but his activity is good and his decision making was strong. I'd give him and Mitchell camp invites. If Mitchell were able to hit that damn jumper he'd be an NBA player. Tarik was abused by Tyler and I think it's pretty clear he's a bench player, but he still does a lot of good things. Jabari Brown is looking more and more like a rotation player to me. His ability to draw fouls (and ones that are fairly legitimate) is impressive. That kind of thing can really bog down opposing teams and get them in trouble while getting us back in the game. Jordan needs to get back to doing the little things again: hustle for boards and all that. He still looks good, but he doesn't look as good without the ball in his hands. Got to work on his off-ball effectiveness.

 

That's awesome, real! Love the detailed writeups to accompany it all.

I'm concerned by Randle's defense - not his capabilities, but his general approach. I pointed out that when I watched that game from college, his effort enraged me, so I turned it off after he was benched in the first quarter. It was one game, I know, and it was like two years ago now, but we're seeing more of these signs. I'm sure he's still not in the flow of the game; he's essentially a rookie coming off an injury - two strikes against a player trying to get the feel for the game. I'm concerned, but I'm hopeful.

I love the little things Upshaw does. Do you really think he should stay and double after a switch? I'm asking from a theory/strategy POV. I really don't know the answer. If he stays and forces a TO, that's great, but if the ball handler makes a pass from there, we're short-handed. I thought that forcing the team to re-set and do so with less time is the preferable move from a bb theory POV, but I'm not an expert.

 

Thanks!

Randle's effort is definitely a concern, but that's what Byron and Kobe are for in his "rookie" season. They won't let him get away with shoddy effort on that side of the ball. He's also admitted he needs work in that area so I'm not necessarily concerned yet. I think he'll turn it around on that end. Last season he was already looking a little better in Pre-Season than he did in Summer League. I think as he gets his sea legs back, he'll improve slowly but surely.

As for that strategy, I meant it as one specific to that game. Once he gets his legs underneath him I believe he'll be quick enough to show really hard on the screens and recover all the way back to his man at the rim. In those games though he showed really hard and just wasn't able to get back into the paint to his man again even though he'd try. By trying to get back he undid all the pressure he had just put on the ball handler which gave them room and an angle to pass the ball back out and towards to rim before he could recover. As a principle I'm usually against blitzing the ball handler on picks because bigs will almost always get beat that way. Very few of them are able to blitz and recover (Noah comes to mind). I think he can be one of those guys eventually though if he keeps his head on straight and keeps working hard.