2015 NBA Draft: The Freshmen Centers

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The role of the center is in decline in today’s NBA. With analytics valuing the 3-pointer over back-to-the-basket offense the best teams are filling their center rotations with defensive-minded rim-protectors and stretch 5s whose range can pull the opponent’s rim protector away from the rim. At least that’s the conventional wisdom. It is probably correct. It is also possible there’s a shortage of elite centers. This table shows how the center position has changed in this decade. It shows the … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: The Freshmen Centers

2015 NBA Draft: Top 2 PGs Mudiay and Russell

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There are some excellent PG prospects in the 2015 draft. The best are a couple of 19 year-olds, one who played college ball and one who went overseas. Those are the two I’m going to look at here, D’Angelo Russell of Ohio State and Emmanuel Mudiay who played his post-prep ball in China. First a look at their pace adjusted numbers: PG Prospects 2PP 3PP P40 A40 S40 RSB40 A/TO Emmanuel Mudiay 514 342 19.4 6.4 1.7 8.5 1.8 D'Angelo … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: Top 2 PGs Mudiay and Russell

Are Porzingis and Hezonja Worthy Top 10 Draftees?

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Before I get to the top 2 foreign prospects I wanted to show some history of players who came to the NBA from a foreign league vs. players from American college and high schools over the past 14 drafts. That takes it back to the 1998 draft when Dirk Nowitzki became the first player to be drafted in the top 10 from a foreign league. The chart below shows the success percentage of American and foreign players drafted top 10 from the 14 drafts after from ’98 to ’11. I stopped at 2011, because we … [Read more...] about Are Porzingis and Hezonja Worthy Top 10 Draftees?

2015 NBA Draft: Justise Winslow

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I find Justise Winslow one of the most intriguing prospects available in the 2015 NBA draft. He started his freshman year slowly, eclipsed by not only a stellar crop of freshmen centers. As a perimeter player he was behind the likes of D’Angelo Russell and Stanley Johnson.  He was the 3rd most visible freshman on the Duke team, behind Okafor and Jones. His start was OK, but nothing really worth noting. Through the non-conference schedule the assessment would have been: Decent start. Let’s see … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: Justise Winslow

Thibodeau Quick Thoughts

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1.  Thibo-Done:The big non-Finals news of this week in the NBA is the Bulls firing of Tom Thibodeau.  This has been rehashed several times but is still an interesting subject to look into.  Did the Bulls do the right thing?  Is Thibodeau too nuts to work for an reasonable organization?  Are the Bulls are even acting reasonably? Hard to say but let’s briefly rehash the mostly uncontested facts and see where it leads us: - Thibodeau is indisputably a very effective coach.  Neil Paine over at … [Read more...] about Thibodeau Quick Thoughts

NBA Finals Preview

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1.  Finals Time: After a mostly forgettable playoff season, we finally have the matchup most expected/wanted---Golden State v. LeBron.  As we discussed during the playoff preview, the Warriors have been so dominant that they are a prohibitive favorite to beat the all comers. Is there a scenario where the Cavs could beat GS? Let’s look at the reasons for the Cavs to have hope: LeBron:  Stephen Curry might’ve been the best player in the NBA this season statistically but LeBron James has … [Read more...] about NBA Finals Preview

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