What's up with Deni?

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Rastapopoulos

Rastapopoulos

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Is it just me or has he had a string of sub-par games? His three point % is certainly in the crapper, so maybe that undercuts the rest of his game...
 
Injured his hand
 
This guy takes a LOT of abuse the way he plays and drives relentlessly into the lane, love it but he does at times take a beating
 
He was "questionable" before last night's game.
 
Defenders are figuring out it's better to chase his shot from behind (and over the top) than to try and get in front of him. (Plus clogging his driving lanes so they can get a hand on the ball before the gather.) Deni employs so much Euro step action and deceleration on every drive, he's almost always releasing the ball below the rim. I'd like to see him change that up to throw off the defenders' rhythm.

The passing has been somewhat careless of late, which likely can't be attributed to hand, knee, etc. But, he's a "wear your heart on your sleeve" kind of guy, so an emotional funk probably affects his play more than is ideal.
 
This may be a symptom more than a cause but I’ve noticed they’re giving him the ball less up top. More plays for Ant and Grant recently.
 
is anything really up with him or has he kind of regressed to his norms? Was that stretch of 15 games or so when he posted stellar numbers real or was it a bit unsustainable? I truly don't know

I will say this: he probably is dinged up a bit right now but the way he plays I'd be surprised if he wasn't dinged up by the all-star break every season. It's bordering on reckless and he crosses the boundary every once in a while

upload_2025-2-9_8-40-37.png

upload_2025-2-9_8-40-58.png


based upon the entire season, it sure looks like he's generally settled into the norms he established last season and his first 4 seasons.

per100 he's scoring 2 more points on 1.2 more shots; but that works out to 1.37 points/FGA last season and 1.39 this season. Staying with the per100 stats, it sure looks like he's going to consistently have around 11 rebounds and 6 assists. His steals and blocks are up this season, but so are his turnovers. He may be trying to do a little too much with the ball.

switching to advanced, his PER is up 6% this season, but that's understandable as his usage is up 8%. The rebound, assist, and turnover rates pretty much match the per100 numbers

the biggest difference I see in all these numbers is that he may be shooting too many three's. Look at his Per100 3ptFGA and 3ptAttempt rates. There seems to be a pretty solid correlation to higher volume and lower efficiency. In every season but last season, his attempt rate was over 40%. The one season he shot over 34% on three's he had an attempt rate under 30%. That explains why his FTRate is way above his career mark but his TS% is worse than last year. And by the way, he has a pretty good TS%

the one stat I don't really get is that his FG% at the rim has dropped from 73.7% last season to 66.0% this season. That a significant drop and coupled with his 3pt numbers may indicate he needs a little better shot selection

He just turned 24 a month ago. Just entering his 5-7 year prime. At minimum I'd expect him to improve incrementally each year. Maybe not across the board but in most areas. The chatter about him being a future all-star may have been a bit premature, It's possible but he'll need to make a significant leap up one season.

I think his best bet, for health and efficiency, is to become a little less Turbo and a little more cerebral. that will probably happen naturally
 
wizenheimer said:
is anything really up with him or has he kind of regressed to his norms? Was that stretch of 15 games or so when he posted stellar numbers real or was it a bit unsustainable? I truly don't know

I will say this: he probably is dinged up a bit right now but the way he plays I'd be surprised if he wasn't dinged up by the all-star break every season. It's bordering on reckless and he crosses the boundary every once in a while

View attachment 71116

View attachment 71117


based upon the entire season, it sure looks like he's generally settled into the norms he established last season and his first 4 seasons.

per100 he's scoring 2 more points on 1.2 more shots; but that works out to 1.37 points/FGA last season and 1.39 this season. Staying with the per100 stats, it sure looks like he's going to consistently have around 11 rebounds and 6 assists. His steals and blocks are up this season, but so are his turnovers. He may be trying to do a little too much with the ball.

switching to advanced, his PER is up 6% this season, but that's understandable as his usage is up 8%. The rebound, assist, and turnover rates pretty much match the per100 numbers

the biggest difference I see in all these numbers is that he may be shooting too many three's. Look at his Per100 3ptFGA and 3ptAttempt rates. There seems to be a pretty solid correlation to higher volume and lower efficiency. In every season but last season, his attempt rate was over 40%. The one season he shot over 34% on three's he had an attempt rate under 30%. That explains why his FTRate is way above his career mark but his TS% is worse than last year. And by the way, he has a pretty good TS%

the one stat I don't really get is that his FG% at the rim has dropped from 73.7% last season to 66.0% this season. That a significant drop and coupled with his 3pt numbers may indicate he needs a little better shot selection

He just turned 24 a month ago. Just entering his 5-7 year prime. At minimum I'd expect him to improve incrementally each year. Maybe not across the board but in most areas. The chatter about him being a future all-star may have been a bit premature, It's possible but he'll need to make a significant leap up one season.

I think his best bet, for health and efficiency, is to become a little less Turbo and a little more cerebral. that will probably happen naturally
Click to expand...
I’m not at my desk but didn’t he have his best games when Grant was out of the lineup?
 
Turbo needs a tuneup...he's got a motor that relies a lot on youth but age is undefeated...he'll have to pace himself to get through an 82 game season and a playoff run. I don't think Deni knows how to pace himself yet. Will Barton didn't either.
 
I don't think the lack of clarity is helping him. Ant/Grant constantly hunting their shots is leaving less room for Deni to push the ball and gain momentum.
 
Natebishop3 said:
I’m not at my desk but didn’t he have his best games when Grant was out of the lineup?
Click to expand...


I don't know. Looking at the 2-man lineups, they were about the average:

upload_2025-2-9_10-40-42.png

he was better with Camara, Simons, Ayton, and Sharpe than he was with Grant

kind of interesting looking at the 3-man lineups:

upload_2025-2-9_11-2-38.png

notice the 2nd worst, and that the other 3 worst line-ups had 2 of 3 players in common. Looking at both of those lists, pretty obvious Simons is not good for Sharpe
 
He was listed as questionable for yesterday’s game with an injured hand. Sometimes playing through injury you don’t have your best games. Which might explain the 2 subpar games.
 
wizenheimer said:
I don't know. Looking at the 2-man lineups, they were about the average:

View attachment 71118

he was better with Camara, Simons, Ayton, and Sharpe than he was with Grant

kind of interesting looking at the 3-man lineups:

View attachment 71119

notice the 2nd worst, and that the other 3 worst line-ups had 2 of 3 players in common. Looking at both of those lists, pretty obvious Simons is not good for Sharpe
Click to expand...
It’s pretty obvious to me who should be starting. Maybe we are stealth tanking by playing our trash ass veterans.
 
MickZagger said:
He was listed as questionable for yesterday’s game with an injured hand. Sometimes playing through injury you don’t have your best games. Which might explain the 2 subpar games.
Click to expand...

No, we have to find a new target. Deni is the target, he's a bum!
 
wizenheimer said:
I don't know. Looking at the 2-man lineups, they were about the average:

View attachment 71118

he was better with Camara, Simons, Ayton, and Sharpe than he was with Grant

kind of interesting looking at the 3-man lineups:

View attachment 71119

notice the 2nd worst, and that the other 3 worst line-ups had 2 of 3 players in common. Looking at both of those lists, pretty obvious Simons is not good for Sharpe
Click to expand...
Just using a venn diagram approach to this it's pretty obvious that Scoot, Shaedon, Tou and Deni should be getting the majority of minutes in the games together probably with Ayton at center.

I say that we're so deep that Chauncey should have two lineups that platoon. Scoot, Shae, Tou, Deni and Deandre all together for 30 minutes of the game playing the system that Chauncey keeps saying is the way he wants things (player and ball movement on O with everything being trapped, blitzed and switched on D). Then when you sit all five guy at the same time for 18 minutes a game you go to Dalano, Ant, Jerami, Rob if he's healthy Kris if Rob's out and Clingan, you let this lineup play zone defense and just run a whole lot of ISO shit. We would likely be a huge plus with the first lineup and not a big enough minus with the second unit to lose us the game.

Like line shifts in hockey. This worked well for the Clippers one year where they did this with The Bench Mob and I think it could work well for us. I think it would actually help Jerami and Ant's trade value because their per 36 numbers would go up and Joe could tell other GMs and even communicate to the media that we are focused on the youth and making sure every player is put in the best system to succeed.

It's never going to happen but given the pieces we still have and how inconsistently Ant and Jerami allow Chauncey's supposed system to be run, this would be a way for Chauncey to continue to let Ant and Jerami do whatever the fuck they want and still have a team that resembles Chauncey's values for the majority of the game. Some might want Clingan with the rest of the youth but I think he needs more time and would thrive cleaning up on the offensive boards for the ball hogs and making the paint a no fly zone in a zone defense scheme.
 
wizenheimer said:
I don't know. Looking at the 2-man lineups, they were about the average:

View attachment 71118

he was better with Camara, Simons, Ayton, and Sharpe than he was with Grant

kind of interesting looking at the 3-man lineups:

View attachment 71119

notice the 2nd worst, and that the other 3 worst line-ups had 2 of 3 players in common. Looking at both of those lists, pretty obvious Simons is not good for Sharpe
Click to expand...
Seems like many of us have thought the Simons Scoot guard duo would be terrible defensively but it's actually the Simons Sharpe combo that is the worst.

Scoot can play SG better than either Sharpe or Ant? He's also the best PG of the three, and the youngest.
 
wizenheimer said:
I don't know. Looking at the 2-man lineups, they were about the average:

View attachment 71118

he was better with Camara, Simons, Ayton, and Sharpe than he was with Grant

kind of interesting looking at the 3-man lineups:

View attachment 71119

notice the 2nd worst, and that the other 3 worst line-ups had 2 of 3 players in common. Looking at both of those lists, pretty obvious Simons is not good for Sharpe
Click to expand...
Does Chauncey have this data? I guess POR is tanking after all but too little too late. oh Cooper...
 
Blazinaway said:
This guy takes a LOT of abuse the way he plays and drives relentlessly into the lane, love it but he does at times take a beating
Click to expand...
You LITERALLY just described my posting style and S2 experience on the day to day!
 
Maybe it's not so bad as I thought. Last ten games:
upload_2025-2-10_16-23-34.png

Check out Toumani's +/-!
 
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