Game 18: Toronto Raptors @ Orlando Magic - Tuesday, November 20th 7pm ET, SN1

[LJ2]

Guys, we have a superstar on the roster now. We just need to get to the playoffs and Kawhi will take over a la LeBron.

[3inthekeon]

Which is where Melo is right now .... but will he do it? Toss up.

Rudy can and does play good D, Melo can't and doesn't..

[thead]

I'm not particularly worried about any one loss at the moment given the early season injuries that appear to be adding up

[thead]

Yup.. that's the stat I'm most worried about. 3-4 sucks. Need to be much better.

I'm not going to get too excited by this until somewhere around the all-star break. If we are still around 500 against good teams I think that would be a better indicator. Super small sample size here.

[Bendit]

Casey's role for him was to iso and be the star. It wasn't until he went through the Kings (which he called hell) that he learned to be humble enough to accept a supporting role, even before he got hurt. Now Pop is making it work for him and DeMar (and DeMar also learned how to be less selfish on the court).

Which is where Melo is right now .... but will he do it? Toss up.

[golden]

No conclusions yet, just posting current trends

It's not a 'trend' yet, it's just data. But if it continues, the only stat we'll need to check are 'posts per day' in the Nick Nurse thread.

[DanH]

Nobody's panicking.. but we really need to do better against good teams.

Orlando is a good test. They are above .500 and on that list. Hope we get to 4-4 by the end of tomorrow.

See, this is exactly the point. You think Orlando will be on the list at the end of the year? I don't. So who cares right now? Are we really treating Orlando as some sort of test that will indicate that our team is elite? If we lose to them it is a very bad loss, same as the Detroit one was, and both teams being over .500 right now doesn't change that. And if we beat Orlando, their record will go to 9-9 and they'll be removed from the list of teams with winning records, so our record won't change. While if we lose they stay on the list and our record gets one loss worse.

I don't mind this sort of approach to analysis. I extremely mind it with these samples.

Yes, we need to be better against top teams. No, the record against .500+ teams 15 games into the season is not remotely indicative of whether we are performing better against top teams this year versus last.

[MixxAOR]

Memphis 5 times better than Golden State then confirmed

No conclusions yet, just posting current trends

[inthepaint]

There are currently 17 teams with winning records. Here are their records in the 75 games played between them. pic.twitter.com/x0NxtPGtU8

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) November 19, 2018

Memphis 5 times better than Golden State then confirmed

[MixxAOR]

NBA 2018-19 Team offensive and defensive efficiency, starters vs bench, October vs November pic.twitter.com/PJShDS2dHv

— Ed Küpfer (@EdKupfer) November 19, 2018

[MixxAOR]

NBA 2018-19 Offensive and Defensive Efficiency ranks against Top, Middle, and Bottom Ten ranked opponents. pic.twitter.com/yMVgcMpnPN

— Ed Küpfer (@EdKupfer) November 14, 2018

[planetmars]

It's a little early to be looking at this at all. Talk to me about stuff like this in March.

Nobody's panicking.. but we really need to do better against good teams.

Orlando is a good test. They are above .500 and on that list. Hope we get to 4-4 by the end of tomorrow.

[DanH]

Yup.. that's the stat I'm most worried about. 3-4 sucks. Need to be much better.

It's a little early to be looking at this at all. Talk to me about stuff like this in March.

[planetmars]

There are currently 17 teams with winning records. Here are their records in the 75 games played between them. pic.twitter.com/x0NxtPGtU8

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) November 19, 2018

Yup.. that's the stat I'm most worried about. 3-4 sucks. Need to be much better.

[MixxAOR]

There are currently 17 teams with winning records. Here are their records in the 75 games played between them. pic.twitter.com/x0NxtPGtU8

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) November 19, 2018