Everything Greg Monroe

[golden]

DeRozan is not an elite scorer. I'm not talking about shooting and I'm not mixing or confusing anything, I'm talking about scoring. Putting the ball in the net, from anywhere. He's not elite. He's very good at it. The elite guys can do it from more areas and do it more efficiently than he can.

And I don't dislike JV, I do like him (I have a damn Valanciunas jersey for fuck's sake). He's just not an elite rebounder. There's a clear tier above him. There was this article on NBA Math that tried to create an overall rebounding metric and ranked him 10th in it https://nbamath.com/who-are-the-nbas-best-rebounders/. Feel free to read and agree/disagree with the methodology, but it goes towards my point.

JV definitely is a top 10, maybe even higher rebounder. So is DeMar as a scorer. I wouldn't call either elite in those 2 categories because there is a clear group that's better than them at it, that they're not a part of.

What's your criteria? Mine is that anybody who can put up an ORTG of 110 or better @ a USG of 30% or better is an elite scorer (min: 1500 MP). Only 13 different players have done it in the last 4 seasons (Giannis, Steph, Durant, Lebron, Lillard, Wall, Russ, Kawhi, AD, Harden, IT, Kyrie & DeMar). DeMar did it 2 seasons ago and was just a hair under 30% USG this year because of culture reset and was a hair below, 3 seasons ago. He's right there in the mix for efficient scoring at high usage, aka, elite scorers.

http://bkref.com/tiny/PVer9

And what's even more ironic is the article you referenced because it values contested rebounds. I suppose that means that DeMar's scoring is even more valuable because he takes more contested shots than most high USG scorers.

The article makes no sense, because it kills a guy like Marc Gasol (former DPOY) who gets a lot of his rebounds by being in the right place and boxing out his guy earlier. If nothing else, that rebounding article is valuing low IQ players (Drummond, DAJ, KAT, Dwight, Hassan,...) who make up for their dumbness and poor positioning, with athleticism.

[white men can't jump]

Also, to add an angle the stats would almost surely fail to capture, role and opponents matter.

JV rarely gets to play against reserves or smaller players. So you have to take that into consideration when measuring against other rebounders. He doesn't get the minutes against worse rebounders that some of the other guys do. Most teams still start their best rebounder at C, and few have great rebounders on the bench. JV plays almost exclusively against the former.

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[Hotshot]

DeRozan and Gay on one team again. Those poor Spurs fans don't understand what they're in for this winter ha, ha...

The thing most people fail to understand the big picture is that The Raptors are projected to compete for 1st overall spot in the East and The Spurs will be competing to get into the playoffs in the West in a very tight race where 10 teams could have a winning record.

You literally cannot afford to have a long bad stretch in the west, if you aren't in the top 3 teams.

[Puffer]

Someone should play the Raptors Republic podcast "Taking a Flyer on Greg Monroe," in case he needs motivation to workout over the off-season. They were laughing about how much Monroe lowers their win total. I can't believe the gushing coming across the internet as the hosts were talking about the Celtics. It's hard to believe the Cletics haven't won the last three NBA championships in a row. Judging by the comments, they seem set up to win the next three. Forget their regular season performances, becasue, afterall, they are just saving themselves for the playoffs.

Hard to take. Of course they are a good team, but were the podcasters trying to establish a reverse jinx?

[Shaolin Fantastic]

What's your criteria? Mine is that anybody who can put up an ORTG of 110 or better @ a USG of 30% or better is an elite scorer (min: 1500 MP). Only 13 different players have done it in the last 4 seasons (Giannis, Steph, Durant, Lebron, Lillard, Wall, Russ, Kawhi, AD, Harden, IT, Kyrie & DeMar). DeMar did it 2 seasons ago and was just a hair under 30% USG this year because of culture reset and was a hair below, 3 seasons ago. He's right there in the mix for efficient scoring at high usage, aka, elite scorers.

http://bkref.com/tiny/PVer9

And what's even more ironic is the article you referenced because it values contested rebounds. I suppose that means that DeMar's scoring is even more valuable because he takes more contested shots than most high USG scorers.

The article makes no sense, because it kills a guy like Marc Gasol (former DPOY) who gets a lot of his rebounds by being in the right place and boxing out his guy earlier. If nothing else, that rebounding article is valuing low IQ players (Drummond, DAJ, KAT, Dwight, Hassan,...) who make up for their dumbness and poor positioning, with athleticism.

I actually like your use of the 110 oRTG and 30% usage barometers. I think it's good for identifying very good scorers. But even within that bracket there's a massive difference between guys like Durant, Steph, Bron, etc who have TS%s in the 60s at that volume, and DeMar who's barely above league average. Not to mention the distribution of their shots.

Why exactly is DAJ a low IQ player? Ditto for Dwight? He's a low IQ guy off the floor, he's always been a guy with great awareness on the defensive end (you don't win DPOY without that). I will agree that the methodology is flawed because guys like Lopez and Gasol who don't actually secure the board themselves get shafted by it. It'd probably be more valuable to look at how much better a team's rebounding is with a guy on vs. off the floor.

[Yuri Gagarin]

Id love to know the teams +/- when ibaka plays center. Could someone find out?

[DanH]

Id love to know the teams +/- when ibaka plays center. Could someone find out?

Over the course of 278 minutes (3.5 MPG), the Raptors had a +11 net rating with Serge at C (109 ORTG, 98 DRTG) last year.

[MACK11]

I would add that GM is a good character/team guy as well ... have never heard anything negative about him and pushes back on the physicality as well. Remember he got into a relatively minor spat with someone on the Raptors a couple of years ago (thinking it may have been JV).

Does anyone know why he did not latch on back with Boston?

According to Boston fans, he was just awful on defense. Like so bad he could barely get any pt in the playoffs with a limited roster

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[Apollo]

According to Boston fans, he was just awful on defense. Like so bad he could barely get any pt in the playoffs with a limited roster

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From a statistical standpoint his advance stats show that he was well below his regular season career watermark on defense last season in the playoffs. I don't know what was going on with him but for now it might be best not to dwell on that one season too much. Consider the idea that perhaps he's here to allow the important guys to get rest games during the regular season on the lead up to the playoffs. Hopefully they don't need him at all during the playoffs...

[inthepaint]

From a statistical standpoint his advance stats show that he was well below his regular season career watermark on defense last season in the playoffs. I don't know what was going on with him but for now it might be best not to dwell on that one season too much. Consider the idea that perhaps he's here to allow the important guys to get rest games during the regular season on the lead up to the playoffs. Hopefully they don't need him at all during the playoffs...

Yeah I'd prefer if we didn't have to use him in the playoffs. I hope we get back to the traditional 8-9 player rotation, in which he wouldn't be in. That said, it's nice to have him around in case or overall foul trouble or injury.

[DanH]

I expect we'll have a very broad rotation in-season, but that should narrow to a tight one come the playoffs based on matchups. But depending on the matchup, it will be a different tight rotation, so we need to try to use as many pieces as we can for now.

[Bendit]

According to Boston fans, he was just awful on defense. Like so bad he could barely get any pt in the playoffs with a limited roster

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Some plausible reasoning why Monroe was replaced after the first few games in the playoffs. Matchups can do that. He is going to be a depth asset on the Raptors.

https://hardwoodhoudini.com/2018/04/...-monroes-role/

[planetmars]

As long as we use Monroe as a Bebe replacement we will be fine. If we use him as a Poeltl replacement than I think we'll regret it.

[Just Is]

While I would have (and still) preferred Wood get that last spot; I do like this signing due to Monroe being a poor man's JV which would allow easier time to fit in should injuries happen. Additionally; he does have size which is a good thing as well as being a good rebounder (something this team really has been missing outside of JV and Lowry). He's likely not going to see much (if any) time on court outside of rest games, blowouts or injury. I do anticipate he's replacing Bebe and not Poetl.

Additonally; he is a great passer so that helps as well.

[golden]

I actually like your use of the 110 oRTG and 30% usage barometers. I think it's good for identifying very good scorers. But even within that bracket there's a massive difference between guys like Durant, Steph, Bron, etc who have TS%s in the 60s at that volume, and DeMar who's barely above league average. Not to mention the distribution of their shots.

Why exactly is DAJ a low IQ player? Ditto for Dwight? He's a low IQ guy off the floor, he's always been a guy with great awareness on the defensive end (you don't win DPOY without that). I will agree that the methodology is flawed because guys like Lopez and Gasol who don't actually secure the board themselves get shafted by it. It'd probably be more valuable to look at how much better a team's rebounding is with a guy on vs. off the floor.

If you're comparing Derozan with: Steph, KD & Lebron, then you're pushing your definition of "elite" way beyond the normal boundaries to "generational". So now you've got to discount legit MVPs like Westbrook & Davis and legit scorers like Kyrie and Lillard, who are in the same tier as DeMar. AD, Russ, Lillard and Kyrie aren't elite scorers?