Building Blocks

[OldSkoolCool]

His leak out was good. I just wished we saw a play run specifically to get him a three. Not an isolation at the break...

Also as gangly as the guy looks, he still moved fairly quick. If he wasnt so jumpy when guarding Wiggins he would have faired much better, and he nearly recivered against someone who is freakishly athletic. Small victories I guess

[Fully]

And today Bruno was again used in garbage minutes to run an ISO play instead being used as a spot up shooter.

Well done Casey at completely fn up player development again. Bruno is a catch and shoot player. Make sure he can do that at an NBA level before anything else. Please.

You're absolutely right. Bruno is ruined forever because Casey didn't draw him up a three last night.

[Axel]

You're absolutely right. Bruno is ruined forever because Casey didn't draw him up a three last night.

Pretty extreme hyperbole. OSC has a valid point, in the limited minutes Bruno has played, it's all ISO or PnR ball handler. Why force the kid to create off the dribble?

[OldSkoolCool]

Pretty extreme hyperbole. OSC has a valid point, in the limited minutes Bruno has played, it's all ISO or PnR ball handler. Why force the kid to create off the dribble?

Which after 5 minutes of looking into the kids talent/scouting report, you can easily tell that coming into the league he should be groomed as a catch and shoot player first.

I have no faith in our coaching staff...

[Jrice9]

Pretty extreme hyperbole. OSC has a valid point, in the limited minutes Bruno has played, it's all ISO or PnR ball handler. Why force the kid to create off the dribble?

I guess one argument is that they know he can shoot ok, making him stand in a corner and shoot is not working on areas of improvement?

[Axel]

I guess one argument is that they know he can shoot ok, making him stand in a corner and shoot is not working on areas of improvement?

I would say that having him stand and shoot would allow him more opportunity to focus on the defensive end of the court, and also proper spacing on offence, and reading defenders - skills he will need more to be able to play next year as opposed to Iverson style development of purely off-the-dribble skills.

He isn't going to be Durant, with the ball in his hands most of the time any time soon. He needs to learn to play off the ball to be effective for us in the next year or two.

[Bandit]

256 players have played over 1000 minutes or more this year in the league..

In terms of assists per game, JV ranks 250th out of those 256.
In total assists, JV ranks 254th out of 256. (He's played 1800 minutes btw, nearly double the qualifying mark)
In assist percentage, JV ranks 255th out of 256 players.

But hey, counting stats are for Casey lovers so let's dig into the advanced stuff…

205 players have played over 25 minutes per game this year…

JV is 204th of 205 in assists that directly lead to free throws for a teammate.
JV is 204th of 205 in secondary assists aka the hockey assist per game.
JV is dead last in assist opportunities per game, killing any notion that JV is making a good pass and his teammates let him down by missing the shot.
JV is dead last in points created by assist per game.

So yes, literally one of the least prolific passers in the NBA by definition… by every passing metric you can find.

But you saw him make an assist one time, so I guess I don't watch the games.

And by the way, I like JV. His awareness is trending in the right direction like you'd expect a young player to do. But no, he's still a bad distributor as it stands right now. But then again these are the same people who said Tim Duncan was not a very efficient player over his career.

You have to be kidding me. I know what the numbers say, but the numbers can never put everything into context.

Tell me in all honesty that you think the top big passers in the NBA would have the same numbers they do if they played with the raptors in this system. If they literally replaced JV and was put in the same situation. If you can honestly answer yes then there's no point in us having a conversation.

And yea, I saw him make a few assists. Whenever he was given the opportunity to do it. Let him play Noah's position in the bulls offense and all of a sudden he won't be such a horrific passer.

And how can someone as intelligent as you seriously think the answer to everything lies in the numbers? Numbers tell us the result based off of how things are, so of course his numbers suck because the way he's used and what the team does with him sucks.

His ability to pass the ball is there, as is his awareness. But it doesn't matter how well he can pass it when the whole team stands there doing nothing because there is absolutely nothing positive to come from that.

[Axel]

Nice thing is, no matter how you view our current roster, we have good pieces (either to keep or to move) and flexibility.

It's not like the days of yesteryear when our building blocks conversation essentially looked like this:

[Primer]

256 players have played over 1000 minutes or more this year in the league..

In terms of assists per game, JV ranks 250th out of those 256.
In total assists, JV ranks 254th out of 256. (He's played 1800 minutes btw, nearly double the qualifying mark)
In assist percentage, JV ranks 255th out of 256 players.

But hey, counting stats are for Casey lovers so let's dig into the advanced stuff…

205 players have played over 25 minutes per game this year…

JV is 204th of 205 in assists that directly lead to free throws for a teammate.
JV is 204th of 205 in secondary assists aka the hockey assist per game.
JV is dead last in assist opportunities per game, killing any notion that JV is making a good pass and his teammates let him down by missing the shot.
JV is dead last in points created by assist per game.

So yes, literally one of the least prolific passers in the NBA by definition… by every passing metric you can find.

But you saw him make an assist one time, so I guess I don't watch the games.

And by the way, I like JV. His awareness is trending in the right direction like you'd expect a young player to do. But no, he's still a bad distributor as it stands right now. But then again these are the same people who said Tim Duncan was not a very efficient player over his career.

Did you watch the game last night? JV got fed the ball too far away from the basket, and was doubled as he was backing down, so he kicked it out for a Ross 3-pointer. It was a nice pass and decision, the eye test tells me he can pass just fine.

JV's assist numbers are probably so low because he gets the ball on offense so very little. If he got 16 FGA per game like Vucevic, I'm sure his assist numbers would rise to a respectable level for a center. Instead he gets 8 FGA per game and the offense is almost never ran through him. Basically, your argument would hold a lot more water if JV was getting more touches on offense, and touches early in the shot clock so he has time do pass it out if he can't get a clean look.

[OldSkoolCool]

I would say that having him stand and shoot would allow him more opportunity to focus on the defensive end of the court, and also proper spacing on offence, and reading defenders - skills he will need more to be able to play next year as opposed to Iverson style development of purely off-the-dribble skills.

He isn't going to be Durant, with the ball in his hands most of the time any time soon. He needs to learn to play off the ball to be effective for us in the next year or two.

Spot on

[DanH]

JV's passing - something to consider:

In Casey's offence, when a big initiates the play, it is a power forward, not a C. Patterson and Amir both have career high assist rates here with Casey the last few years (past couple for PP). JV has only ever played in Casey's system, but his assist numbers have gone down as the system has been further developed. Hansbrough has, by far, career lows in assist rate, the same rate as JV. It's a system thing. Actually, almost everyone outside of the PF's has a crazy low assist rate, but the centres are by far the most impacted.