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Morey on Ish Smith: 32 beautiful passes and 1 ugly one

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Carl Herrera, Nov 8, 2010.

  1. Carl Herrera

    Carl Herrera Contributing Member

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    http://twitter.com/dmorey

    [rquoter]

    Executed the game plan for the W. Consistency is key to turn the corner. @yaoming progressing well. Ish w/32 gr8 passes & only 1 bad so far.


    [/rquoter]

    Interesting tweet by Morey-- informative not only about Smith but also about how the team evaluate plays and players.

    About Smith: I think we all have a feeling that he's playing very well and the team looked good with him on the floor the last couple of games. However, Smith's traditional box-score stats are not all that amazing, even in the assists department. The 34/1 great/bad pass ratio seems to be something that reflects his performance more accurately.

    People talk about assists and assist/TO ratio when evaluating a passer, but good/great passes don't always result in assists and bad ones don't always result in TOs.

    One big factor is luck. Other factor include the fact that what an "assist" is depends on the scorer's judgment (people have complained that the Jazz's home scorer was particularly generous in awarding assist to Stockton) and the rule that you don't get an assist when your pass leads to a teammate drawing a foul and hit FTs.

    It's good that the team is essentially creating stats that attempts to be free from luck and other biases. It's never going to be 100% bias proof, but it's better than publicly available data.

    One thing I want to note is that to the extent that people criticize the "advanced stats" on the basis that publicly available stuff like +/- and "win share," ORtg, DRtg, etc. are flawed in one way or another, we need to keep in mind that the Rockets go beyond the publicly available stuff and keep track of things that are highly labor intensive to keep track of. Just imagine the amount of tape that the Rockets staff watch (and probably rewatch) and score in order to get the great pass/bad pass numbers for each players (I'd imagine they do this not only for their own team, but for all other teams in the league as well).
     
    #1 Carl Herrera, Nov 8, 2010
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2010
  2. Rasselas

    Rasselas Contributing Member

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    Nice insight. Agreed.
     
  3. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    we all know it is done like in NBA 2k10 where you get a letter grade for breathing wrong :rolleyes:
     
  4. Stack24

    Stack24 Contributing Member

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    He is using NBA 2K11 to tell him bad passes and good passes so he gives out the rating that way haha

    But in all Honesty, from game one to this past game he has improved a lot. I was like who is this fool in game 1 and screaming at his choices, but given time to play he is developing nicely into a PG that doesn't make mistakes and limits risks.

    He does have a few boneheaded shots but something I can live with if he is running the offense efficiently and just fitting in where he needs to be.
     
  5. ClutchCityReturns

    ClutchCityReturns Contributing Member

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    Honestly, he's a lot like a young Rafer Alston that knows he can't shoot.

    And that's actually a pretty solid PG.
     
  6. RV6

    RV6 Contributing Member

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    what passes were counted?
     
  7. Stack24

    Stack24 Contributing Member

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    That is key, he KNOWS he can't shoot and only looks to that as a last resort. He will be a very serviceable guard in my opinion. He is a bit small and doesn't have the grit of Lowry but he definitely making his case for playing time.
     
  8. greatpacha1

    greatpacha1 Member

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    lol...he shoots a lot!
     
  9. thething

    thething Contributing Member

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    Ish is like a smaller, quicker, and weaker Rajon Rondo. He doesn't have the scoring ability of Rondo but he has the passing skills. If he can develop that floater he could be a very good PG.
     
  10. Stack24

    Stack24 Contributing Member

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    He doesn't force them, he takes what the defense gives him...he's definitely not looking to shoot and if the defense relaxes on him he is going to take an open look.
     
  11. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    Hopefully people that criticize other players for their pedestrian assist numbers will get a greater understanding of the PG's role in Houston's offense.

    Ish looks great, and is not getting massive assist numbers, but he is doing the job.

    DD
     
  12. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Contributing Member

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    He's more like Pistol Pete.
     
  13. durvasa

    durvasa Contributing Member

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    Minus the "Pistol" part.
     
  14. Raven

    Raven Member

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    Let Calvin work with him!
     
  15. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    He shoots a lot, it is the hitting them that he has a problem with......

    Ish is getting a lot of shots.....and people aren't whining about them...yet....

    :)

    DD
     
  16. Stack24

    Stack24 Contributing Member

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    Agreed, our offense is not based on simple 1 pass then shoot mentality that will probably get a lot more assists for the PG. We are running an offense with a lot of player and ball movement that will cause the assists to be really spread out between everyone on the team.

    Having said that just because the assist numbers between 2 players might be close doesn't mean they are running this said offense with complete efficiency.
     
  17. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    No doubt, the roles of all of our PGs are different, well 2 of them are the same in Ish and Lowry and AB has a different role when he is in.....

    Still it is great to have that contrast in styles to go to whatever is working best on an individual night.

    DD
     
  18. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Contributing Member

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    This is an argument FOR Ish, not against him...
     
  19. albuster

    albuster Member

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    Wow. Great analysis.
     
  20. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    There is no argument against him, the guy is doing a very nice job for a 3rd string undrafted rookie Free agent.

    Let's hope he keeps it up and can shoot better than 25%, because you know people are going to be all over him as soon as teams start packing the paint and leaving him wide open......he has to hit a wide open shot.

    DD
     

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