Thabo Sefolosha is a free agent this offseason

He was destined to be a Rockets. CD said so.

 

have you ever seen this guy scored lately? His offense is non existent, and his D is a bit overrated nowadays.

 

Say no to Thabo Suckalotta.

 

Yeah, I was disappointed when Memphis got him from the Celtics. Ariza or Lee would be perfect on this team.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Sefolosha on free agency: &quot;I like winning. I want to be in a good place with a chance to win something.&quot;</p>&mdash; Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) <a href="https://twitter.com/DarnellMayberry/statuses/473173404494098432">June 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Thabo Sefolosha leaving the door open, but sounds as if he's played his final game for the Thunder.</p>&mdash; Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) <a href="https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/statuses/473174384329236480">June 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Picking up OKC's garbage seems to be totally what you want in title contention.


This was sarcasm if you can't tell.

 

Not interested, but Jackson on the other hand….what is his situation? If he can be taught to pass….because he has the Westbrook Jr. thing down.

 

A year ago when he was playing as as starter for OKC, i thought man...he's good. He fits perfectly on that team. Play tremendous defense and has a consistent 3. And you wish to have someone like that on your team. And then all of a sudden he's out of the lineup...so i don't know what happened there.

 

Welcome to H Town!

 

our back up 3 needs to be an offense 1st type of guy.

 

Thabo = the Swiss Ronnie Brewer.

 

If you trust nba.com and espn DRPM stats (I know some don’t and with good reason), Sefalosha's numbers are both good and bad, so I am posting his defensive stats and 3pt% below for the last three seasons:

Thabo Sefalosha…DRPM*……ORPM*…..DefRtg**…..DefRtg (OKC)……xRAPM (Def)***……3Pt%**
2013-2014….......…….+1.90………-0.99……….101.0……......….101.0…….....……….+1.12……....….......31.6% (10th best on team)
2013- 2012………........xxxx…….….xxxx…………97.6……….........99.2…………….......xxxx…....…….....…41.9% (2nd best on the team).
2012-2011…….…........xxxx………..xxxx…………93.6………........100.0………........….xxxx………...........43.7% (best on the team)

* http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/DRPM/position/2
** http://stats.nba.com/teamPlayers.ht...eType=Advanced&PerMode=PerGame&Season=2011-12
*** http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/teams/OKC.html

Thabo’s 2013-2014 Regular Season DRPM of +1.90 is 5th best of the 90 SGs in the league (that's elite). As a reminder, Harden’s current DRPM is not very good at -2.82 (78th of 90 SGs in the league) and Parsons’ DRPM of +0.55 is good, but, not elite. So whether he's utilized as our backup 2 or 3, his presence on the court, at least defensively, results in a huge improvement over what we have now. For example, some believe that Troy Daniels' recent playoff heroics has earned more playing time but his DRPM of -1.52 is not good (58th of 90 SGs). I think most of us agree that his poor DRPM matches what we see with the naked eye. So if we are really serious about improving defensively, we really can't backup Harden, a poor defender, with Daniels, another poor defender, unless there are four good defenders on the floor. While Gracia's DRPM of +0.48 is good (13th of 90 SGs), it's not Sefalosha good, so I don't know if Garcia (if he stays) is the answer either.

For sure, Sefalosha’s DefRtg has worsened over the last three seasons but so has the OKC team as a whole (see chart above), and his 2013-2014 DefRtg is worrisome. In 2011-2012 his Def Rtg of 93.6 (elite) was best on the team by a wide margin and much better than the team DefRtg of 100.0. He posted a 97.6 DefRtg in 2012-2013 (still very good) and was second best on the team behind Thabeet, and, that 97.6 was still much better than the team DefRtg of 99.2. But his 2013-2014 DefRtg of 101.0 (same as the team DefRtg), while not bad, is the worst of his OKC career and ranks behind Colllison, Fisher, Reggie Jackson, Jeremy Lamb, Serge Ibaka, Jones, Robertson, Thabeet, and Perkins. His 2013-2014 DefRtg is # 10 on the team; something that has not happened in the previous two seasons, where his DefRtg was first or second best on the team). I don't know how these things get done, but if I were looking to sign him, I’d want to know why his defense declined this season.

Also worrisome is his 2013-2014 3pt% of 31.6%. That's a huge drop from the 41.9% and 43.7% he posted the two previous seasons. As of now, TDaniel is our best 3pt sniper at 48%; CParson is at 37%; Harden is at 36.6%; Beverley is at 36.1%; Gracia and Lin shoot 35.8%; Casspi shoots 34.7% and Canaan is shooting 32.7% (via nba.com). So Thabo's 31.6% suggest that he might be an offensive liability on this team. But in the end, the Rockets need better defense, especially perimeter defense, and Thabo provides that. It's not like the Rockets need more points to win a championship (even Morey agrees with this). So Thabo's acquisition results in better perimeter defense. Isn't that what we need most to advance? Even Thabo's worst DefRtg of 101.0 (this year) is better than anyone on our current roster. And we don't really know yet whether that 31.6% is an indicator of things to come; e.g., it could be due to the everyday shooting anomaly that happens to lots of nba players.

 

Sign Thabo and then we can put Harden on the bench like OKC!

 

Ideally, Harden should cover for Harden's deficiencies on the defensive end. Hiding players will work in the regular season, but when it comes playoffs, the other teams will focus on the weak link.