Everything Valanciunas

[Axel]

256 players played over 1000 minutes or more this past 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 played 1800 minutes btw, nearly double the qualifying mark)
In assist percentage, JV ranks 255th out of 256 players.

205 players played over 25 minutes per game last 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.
JV is dead last in points created by assist per game.

Edit: I also don't think you know what assist opportunities per game means.

I'm struggling to replicate this data (perhaps provide the link?), cause when I use 1000 MP from last year, JV ranks ahead of 10 players in APG, and Total Assists (not 6 as your post indicates). His Ast% is ahead of 5 players (not 1).

JV also played 2096 minutes last year according to BBRef, so perhaps your site has incorrect data?

~~~

I think the system we played is much more at play than you are admitting. Is JV a passer? No, certainly not. But this whole "historically bad" business is misleading on two fronts; 1 - historically bad usually means so bad that is lines up with the worst of all-time, but JV was really in the low end of "normal" range for centers; 2 - our team didn't have much in terms of assists, so isolating a single player (especially a big) without providing the rest of the team as comparisons is off.

The team, as a whole, ranks 9th worst in Assists per game at 20.7 (lowest in league was 19.8). JV contributes 2.4% of the team output. Other end of the spectrum, GSW was best with 27.4 APG, and Bogut contributed 9.8%. 10th best (Cleveland), Mozgov is 3.6%. Miami was last, and Whiteside is 0.5%.

The lowest non-bigs (PF/C) on the list of players starts at 2.1 Assists per 100 team possessions (35th from bottom of list) - right at 2.1 is Terrence Ross.

Lower than JV on every one of these measures (per game, totals, per possessions, %) is Tyler Hansbrough.

[Snooch]

This is a really great point and I don't think should be glossed over. When JV has the ball, I don't think

Honestly, when I read to the bolded, there is no sense in reading any farther, cause you know you arent going to find any attempt of a support of the claims about to be stated.

[Snooch]

When running some reports from both NBA.com/stats and bball reference for all center qualified players playing at least 25 minutes a game and playing in at least 30 games we get 34 qualified entrants.


This is how JV stacks up.

Assists (raw) 33
Minutes - 28th
Front Court Touches per game - 29th - tied
Time of possession - 23rd

Assists per touches - tied with Dwight, Mozgov, Jordan, Drummond and Lopez - 27th

So this shows that is a direct correlation between opportunity and production.

Now I am not saying that JV is a great passer or anything like that, but he is matched up with alot of guys who would not be called the worst passers in the nba when you strip down the raw data and give a level ground to compare it on.

[white men can't jump]

but its not completly debunked. *sigh*

you only read what you want to read I guess. JV defense is still his weakess. I dont know how your not grasping this smh

I think people just ignore this because it lacks any kind of real perspective in its criticism of JV. JV is a 23 year old C who just finished his 3rd year. How many bigs are great defensively by their 3rd year? And how much of his treatment supposedly because of his D is "fair"?

Saying JV isn't good defensively really doesn't contribute anything to the discussion. He's not as bad as a lot of people think. Saying he's bad in p'n'r is ridiculous. What C is good at p'n'r D? Even in Dwight's best years, the way you tried to attack him defensively was in the high p'n'r. And he was a three-time defensive player of the year. Gasol's even worse. Pretty much any C will be bad if they get isolated in a 2-man game with a p'n'r. It looks even worse if you don't ice it and/or if the guard has no clue how to play D at all.

JV has more growing to do defensively, but there's no aspect of his game on that end that makes him such a liability that he can't be on the floor if our perimeter D and system are stronger. When I watch JV play D the main problem is exactly the one that is often closely related to inexperience...he's not always fast enough to his help spot especially when it comes to defending the weak side, and tied to that he doesn't always get the chance to set himself up to go straight up (though sometimes this is just him twisting in the air kind of needlessly). And he's not going to get better at it any faster if he's constantly benched, which is even more annoying since so much last year had to do with ridiculously poor D from our guards.

If the criticism's logic is "JV can't defend the p'n'r or the 3 pt line therefore he shouldn't play", then pretty much no C in the world should ever be on the court.

---

Defense is a team thing, and not many people are going to look good if there are multiple bad defenders on the floor at once (something made worse in our system which asks guys to often be overaggressive). It doesn't matter how good a guy is. Jordan is considered by many a DPOY talent, yet the Clips D sucked hard last year because even though he could control the glass fairly well and was a threat to block anything in the paint, they had shit perimeter D and no good defensive players really on the bench. One guy cannot singlehandedly make/break your D, and on the flip side of this when it comes to discussion, one guy cannot singlehandedly destroy it and be your constant scapegoat.

[golden]

256 players played over 1000 minutes or more this past 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 played 1800 minutes btw, nearly double the qualifying mark)
In assist percentage, JV ranks 255th out of 256 players.

205 players played over 25 minutes per game last 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.
JV is dead last in points created by assist per game.

Edit: I also don't think you know what assist opportunities per game means.

People really underestimate the impact of the offensive scheme. Even if you gave JV more touches last year, he was still going to take the ball to the basket because Casey didn't want his team passing. Just like DD, Lou, etc..., weren't passing the ball, since they've been instructed not to. On offense, Caseys priority was keep turnovers low and get to the FT line - which he mistakenly assumed was "playoff basketball".

And to that end, Jonas executed Casey's game plan very well - his TOV% (12.4) is way lower than Bogut (22.1) and on par with Marc Gasol (12.2) and his Free throw rate per FG attempt (.423) is slightly better than Marc Gasol (.410).

Stats aside, just watching the games you could see that when JV received the ball in the post, it was almost always a straight-up ISO clear-out with no guards in proper position to receive an outlet pass to re-set the post-up. No real option to pass, by design, I believe.

A perfect example of scheme vs. player affecting AST% is Andrew Bogut under Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr. Bogut went from 9.3 AST% under ISO-heavy Jackson to 15.4 AST% under ball-movement heavy Steve Kerr at similar USG%.

But then, we have our own perfect example of Vasquez, who led the entire NBA in assists (no small feat) having his game morph into a poor man's version of Lou Williams under the "no-passing" edict.

[Superjudge]

I thought Raps had 1 all-star.

JV should not be the focal point on offense. He hasn't shown that ability.

Definitely agree he needs more touches.

Whole team needs more on and off ball movement.


Your last paragraph is misleading to say least. During DDs absence JV averaged about 1.1 more shots per game. That narrative is not in line with what actually happened. Casey merely plugged in Ross or Vasquez or Lou and team ran same plays with same sets and similar outcomes.

Stop using the term "narrative" please.

[mcHAPPY]

Stop using the term "narrative" please.

A wise man once used it in description of my opinion.

I've been in love with the term ever since.

[Just Is]

People really underestimate the impact of the offensive scheme. Even if you gave JV more touches last year, he was still going to take the ball to the basket because Casey didn't want his team passing. Just like DD, Lou, etc..., weren't passing the ball, since they've been instructed not to. On offense, Caseys priority was keep turnovers low and get to the FT line - which he mistakenly assumed was "playoff basketball".

And to that end, Jonas executed Casey's game plan very well - his TOV% (12.4) is way lower than Bogut (22.1) and on par with Marc Gasol (12.2) and his Free throw rate per FG attempt (.423) is slightly better than Marc Gasol (.410).

Stats aside, just watching the games you could see that when JV received the ball in the post, it was almost always a straight-up ISO clear-out with no guards in proper position to receive an outlet pass to re-set the post-up. No real option to pass, by design, I believe.

A perfect example of scheme vs. player affecting AST% is Andrew Bogut under Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr. Bogut went from 9.3 AST% under ISO-heavy Jackson to 15.4 AST% under ball-movement heavy Steve Kerr at similar USG%.

But then, we have our own perfect example of Vasquez, who led the entire NBA in assists (no small feat) having his game morph into a poor man's version of Lou Williams under the "no-passing" edict.

Easily one of the best example of Casey that we have.

[Superjudge]

A wise man once used it in description of my opinion.

I've been in love with the term ever since.

hahaha

You exist to make me weep.

[Superjudge]

A wise man once used it in description of my opinion.

I've been in love with the term ever since.

Narwhalative!

[SkywalkerAC]

It's confirmed. Jonas got Ebola or swine flu.

Valanciunas is out for Lithuania vs. Estonia match this evening. #EuroBasket2015

— Paulius Cubera (@PauliusCubera) September 9, 2015

Doctors doing what they can, but small possibility exists that Valanciunas can miss crucial #Eurobasket2015 group D game against Czech Rep

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) September 9, 2015

Doctors doing what they can to save him.

At least those that wanted him to lose 20 lbs might get their wish.

[SkywalkerAC]

I thought Raps had 1 all-star.

JV should not be the focal point on offense. He hasn't shown that ability.

Definitely agree he needs more touches.

Whole team needs more on and off ball movement.


Your last paragraph is misleading to say least. During DDs absence JV averaged about 1.1 more shots per game. That narrative is not in line with what actually happened. Casey merely plugged in Ross or Vasquez or Lou and team ran same plays with same sets and similar outcomes.

Are you only an allstar if you made the team the year before or something?

[mcHAPPY]

Are you only an allstar if you made the team the year before or something?

Yes. Otherwise you're a former Allstar.

[Snooch]

Yes. Otherwise you're a former Allstar.

that is a difficult concept for some to grasp it seems.

[Primer]

that is a difficult concept for some to grasp it seems.

Especially when said all star was nowhere fucking close to making the all star team this past season. It's not like Lowry who played at all-star level the past two years, and only missed the game in 2013-14 because coaches did a coin flip between him and Derozan making the team when they both had great seasons.