Time to start Simons

[CupWizier]

I think you're right, though the last year or two of Mike Rice were kind of painful...

I was never bothered by Rice as he knows the game and had a quirky sense of humor as well. Sure I have had favorites over the years but I have never understood why posters make such a big deal over who the commentators are. Calabro and Hurd are fine with me and Hurd is very well spoken and knows the game and even though a different role he is the Mike Barrett of the two while Calabaro is the Mike Rice of the group with some of his quirky sayings and mistakes. I really don't pay all that much attention to them as they fulfill the need. I watch a lot of games on NBA TV with other teams home broadcasters and trust me, we are better off than many teams.

 

[Hoopguru]

Calabaro is highly regarded amongst all broadcasters (radio & TV) much like the Shonz.
He has one of the better broadcast voices there is in the business too.

 

[dviss1]

Hope you’re doing well man.

I am. Busy AF. Hope you're things are going well for you.

 

[dviss1]

I was never bothered by Rice as he knows the game and had a quirky sense of humor as well. Sure I have had favorites over the years but I have never understood why posters make such a big deal over who the commentators are. Calabro and Hurd are fine with me and Hurd is very well spoken and knows the game and even though a different role he is the Mike Barrett of the two while Calabaro is the Mike Rice of the group with some of his quirky sayings and mistakes. I really don't pay all that much attention to them as they fulfill the need. I watch a lot of games on NBA TV with other teams home broadcasters and trust me, we are better off than many teams.

Mike always said some borderline racist shit a lot.

"You know those Europeans"

I never liked him.

 

[Tince]

I'm curious, so, NBA champions and their assist/game ranking:

2000-01 - Lakers 9th (Shaq, Kobe)
2001-02 - Lakers 9th (Shaq, Kobe)
2002-03 - Spurs 22nd (Duncan, Robinson, Manu, Parker)
2003-04 - Detroit 15th (Thomas, Dumars)
2004-05 - Spurs 17th (Duncan, Manu, Parker)
2005-06 - Miami 17th (DWade, Shaq)
2006-07 - Spurs 11th (Duncan, Manu, Parker)
2007-08 - Boston 8th (KG, Pierce, Allen)
2008-09 - Lakers 2nd (Kobe, Pau)
2009-10 - Lakers 15th (Kobe, Pau)
2010-11 - Dallas 2nd (Dirk, Kidd)
2011-12 - Miami 21st (Lebron, DWade, Bosh)
2012-13 - Miami 7th (Lebron, DWade, Bosh)
2013-14 - Spurs 1st (Duncan, Manu, Parker, Kawhi)
2014-15 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Klay, Green)
2015-16 - Cleveland 13th (Lebron, Kyrie, Love)
2016-17 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Durant, Klay, Green)
2017-18 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Durant, Klay, Green)
2018-19 - Raptors 13th (Kawhi, Gasol, Lowry)

the lowest ranked team in assists was that Spurs team in 2002-03. But they had 2 HOF big men and the one-on-one skill of Parker and Manu (who got to the FT line a lot). That was also a different era. The 3rd Miami championship team only ranked 21st, but Lebron and DWade were just dominant in iso and Chris Bosh was a perennial all-star big man

In the last 13 seasons, there's only been one champion that wasn't in the top half of the league in assists; in 8 of 13 seasons, the champion was in the top-8 in assists; and in 6 of 13 seasons, the champion was either 1st of 2nd in assists. The NBA has evolved and it has become more and more important that a team be good at passing offense. They don't necessarily have to be top-5 but it sure helps. And for damn sure, they can't be as crappy at passing offense as Portland is

But what's even more apparent, and just about everybody knows this, is that to be a champion you need elite talent. Forget about all-star talent, I'm looking at that list and I only see one team, Cleveland, that didn't have at least 2 Hall-of-Fame players on the team; sometimes they had 3 or even 4.....

and that points at what the hell are the Blazers are doing....? Every single one of those teams had at least one player that was better then Dame. Dame is close to the level of a couple of them, and certainly on the level of several of the sidekicks. But none of those champions had a #2 or even a #3 with as little talent as CJ and Portland has locked up CJ for 5 more seasons. They are settling for mediocrity. It might be higher-level mediocrity, but no team with CJ as the 2nd option is winning a championship, especially not when Portland sacrifices passing offense in order to feature CJ and his one-on-one-dribbling extravaganza

You should be commended for the data you pulled together, excellent job.

I've read multiple studies that have a much larger sample sizes and in none of them did assists to win% have greater than a 0.5 correlation. Anything under 0.5 correlation is considered "low". I know looking at your data set, it might look like that is even a strong correlation, but it isn't. This took me years to comes to grip with as I always believed more assists HAD to be better. The reality is that more assists had a low correlation and even the assist stat itself does not prove anything about how effective an offense is. Roster make-up /the ability to have players who can convert on a pass also matters.

Having said that, there is a clear correlation with having multiple all-stars and winning an NBA championship. You are right that Dame would not be the best player on all most any championship team. Detroit myabe (you listed the best players for the 1990 Pistons by mistake). This goes back to the real issue that it appear we agree on, Olshey has not given Stotts or Dame a championship roster, he's given him a 1st-2nd round roster (when healthly) and in some years (2015-16) not even that.

 

[TBpup]

@wizenheimer ...nice data on the assist/NBA Champs. It's not an accident that ball movement and player movement creates better shots and good players make easier opportunities. I would submit last years Raptors team only had 1 HoF'er as well to go along with LeBron's team in CLE. But yes, it usually takes more talent.

 

[jlprk]

I became a big Simons fan over a year ago, but even I think he's getting the right number of minutes this season, and certainly shouldn't start ahead of McCollum (who I wanted traded years ago).

(After a couple of years of arguing with fanboys about Olshey, Stotts, McCollum, Leonard, etc., I give up, then years later you finally agree with me, but I'm too tired to claim ownership. The latest is that I'm saying that you overvalue Collins.)

 

[royo]

I became a big Simons fan over a year ago, but even I think he's getting the right number of minutes this season, and certainly shouldn't start ahead of McCollum (who I wanted traded years ago).

(After a couple of years of arguing with fanboys about Olshey, Stotts, McCollum, Leonard, etc., I give up, then years later you finally agree with me, but I'm too tired to claim ownership. The latest is that I'm saying that you overvalue Collins.)

Starting McCollum from bench would make our bench better I don't know what's the point of playing stuff we play rite now. If we gonna lose to Suns, it's better to do it with young guys to develop them.

 

[Binx]

The ISO play was on full display last night. It’s one thing to lose every night, but it’s another thing to lose while playing an ugly style of basketball.

 

[royo]

The ISO play was on full display last night. It’s one thing to lose every night, but it’s another thing to lose while playing an ugly style of basketball.

It is also not to smart to play same shhh if we gonna lose anyways.

 

[TBpup]

The ISO play was on full display last night. It’s one thing to lose every night, but it’s another thing to lose while playing an ugly style of basketball.

Yet it was so non-Iso early on when we built a big lead. They reverted back to it when things started to get close. All those open shots off of ball movement quickly disappeared. How odd...