ESPN says Dame is 7th on the player ranking list

[Draco]

I'd give Lowry/DeRozen 2nd. They have been amazing this year and are superior defensively. They might be the only team in the league with a worse PF rotation than us.

 

[Draco]

Damn. What the hell happened to Afflalo?

The problem for him is nothing really changed; he actually ranks a tad better now. Last season in 2014-15

#363 Aaron Afflalo -2.93

 

[Natebishop3]

I'd give Lowry/DeRozen 2nd. They have been amazing this year and are superior defensively. They might be the only team in the league with a worse PF rotation than us.

I think Dame is better than Lowry. Nobody around here wants DeRozan, so are they really better?

 

[Draco]

I think Dame is better than Lowry. Nobody around here wants DeRozan, so are they really better?

They are older too; so it depends are you talking about production this season or what I want in a duo going forward in future years?

I never wanted to give up long term value in a trade for soon to be free agent DeRozan. Thats very different than how he's played this season.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

The defensive RPM is kind of odd too because its dominated by centers and bigs. Besides Kawhi all of the players in the top40 are C's and PF's.

I have a hypothesis about that. Despite what RPM is trying to do, you can't eliminate the fact that when you're off the court, your backup is in. If your backup is actually better at something than you, it'll invariably show, no matter what you try to do to normalize that. Henderson and Crabbe come in for Dame, and are much better than Dame at defense in that they're actually pretty darn good at defense.

As for the best RPM guys being C's and PFs', most starting centers have shitty backups, same with PF's. There's so many garbage bigs hanging onto rotation spots, it's depressing.

But guards and wings? Lots of teams have good guards and wings, but usually the backups are gunners like Jamal Crawford who think defense is what happens between four point attempts. Our backups are better on defense than Dame, so Dame's Defensive +/- looks atrocious. He's not good, but our bench mob is great, so his +/- suffers more than CJ's (who is replaced by Dame when he rests).

 

[Draco]

I have a hypothesis about that. Despite what RPM is trying to do, you can't eliminate the fact that when you're off the court, your backup is in. If your backup is actually better at something than you, it'll invariably show, no matter what you try to do to normalize that. Henderson and Crabbe come in for Dame, and are much better than Dame at defense in that they're actually pretty darn good at defense.

As for the best RPM guys being C's and PFs', most starting centers have shitty backups, same with PF's. There's so many garbage bigs hanging onto rotation spots, it's depressing.

But guards and wings? Lots of teams have good guards and wings, but usually the backups are gunners like Jamal Crawford who think defense is what happens between four point attempts. Our backups are better on defense than Dame, so Dame's Defensive +/- looks atrocious. He's not good, but our bench mob is great, so his +/- suffers more than CJ's (who is replaced by Dame when he rests).

Maybe there is some of that; but in today's game there are plenty of extra bigs and a real lack of 3+D wings.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Maybe there is some of that; but in today's game there are plenty of extra bigs and a real lack of 3+D wings.

Are backup bigs as good as their starters? I've been watching a lot of shitty backups this year. We might be unique in that our backup center is Ed Fucking Davis and our bench has two 3+D wings.

 

[Natebishop3]

They are older too; so it depends are you talking about production this season or what I want in a duo going forward in future years?

I never wanted to give up long term value in a trade for soon to be free agent DeRozan. Thats very different then how he's played this season.

I think Broussard is talking about right now, at this moment, in this season.

Dame/CJ are averaging
46.9 ppg
11.3 assists
7.9 rebounds
2.2 steals
43.5%
38.5% from three

Lowry/DeRozan
44.5 ppg
10.5 assists
9.2 rebounds
3.3 steals
43.9%
36.6% from three

 

[illmatic99]

Thing that gets omitted in comparing backcourts is CJ's ability to handle and create offense for others. Neither Klay nor Derozan can run the P&R like CJ can. That's a game changer.

 

[Natebishop3]

And here is the comparison between Dame/CJ and Lowry/DeRozan in February:

Dame/CJ
51 pts
11.3 assists
7.6 rebounds
2.8 steals
44.9% fg
41.3% 3pt

Lowry/DeRozan
46.2 ppg
10.7 assists
8.8 rebounds
2.9 steals
46.6% fg
42.3% 3pt

 

[KingSpeed]

What is his RPM since we were 15-24? Of course it was bad before then.

 

[Draco]

I think Broussard is talking about right now, at this moment, in this season.

Dame/CJ are averaging
46.9 ppg
11.3 assists
7.9 rebounds
2.2 steals
43.5%
38.5% from three

Lowry/DeRozan
44.5 ppg
10.5 assists
9.2 rebounds
3.3 steals
43.9%
36.6% from three

Yeah Dame CJ are certainly better offensively and I think most would agree with that.

Lowry is an excellent defender and DeRozen is solid so for many that makes them a better overall duo and I think I'd lean that way too. Both have been so good there is a real case either way.

 

[Draco]

What is his RPM since we were 15-24? Of course it was bad before then.

I think it wasn't much different than where its at now. Kind of surprised it hasn't risen more now that you mention it.

 

[Dan Marang]

Do you know exactly how it's calculated though?

This article gives a very loose explanation...

I've mentioned it a few times- no matter how a stat is framed, if you can't have it independently vetted/verified by professionals within that world don't trust it. Beyond that- RPM and DRPM are stats that are heavily skewed by team performance, not individual. If you look at Plumlee's PPP vs Lopez last year, it's night and day difference statistically- however the Blazers for all of their roster turnover over have only seen a +4.7% increase in total PPP allowed when everyone not named Aminu has been outperformed by last seasons player. There's a lot about "team cohesion" being done in the analytics world that is hoping to solve some of the grey area that RPM is bull shitting it's way through.

While I wouldn't discount Stotts' team philosophy wholly, how does one account for the Blazers having one of the best defenses in the league over the last 21 games, yet Lillard being ranked that low? When it doesn't reward a strong swing in a very positive direction over a long period of time (1/4 of a season) then there may be something wrong with the formula... just sayin'.

 

[rasheedfan2005]

Saw Chauncey billups say he has lowry at 7th and lillard at 12. I used to like that d bag.