Omer Asik did not play less than 10 minutes a game. He averaged almost 15 MPG last season and played in every game. We are not talking about some end of bench scrub here, but a regular rotation player. For players in his role, the per 36 minute stats are usually not misleading at all and quite sustainable when the player ups his minutes.
The lack of offense from Asik is not a problem as long as other players on court can do his load. history proves the like of Rodman and Ben Wallace can be a solid piece of a championship team BUT the Bulls team had Jordan, and the Pistons team was such a locked defensive team, they made opponent to shoot at lower 40s%.
Man this dude is SOLID. Plays hot potato at times but he does everything a big should. Brightest spot on team thus far, and I mean more than Harden has been. Totally under appreciated by some.
The most interesting numbers I see from Asik are the following: 1. Personal Fouls/36 minutes: 2.55 this season. Down from 4.5 last year and 5.6 as a rookie. 2. Blocked shots per 36 minutes: 1.27 this season, down from 2.5 last year and 2.0 as a rookie. It seems that Omer has become less aggressive in chasing blocked shots in order to avoid fouling, but still affects/alters plenty of them. It has been an effective strategy.
Good observation. I wonder if the coaches advised him to just jump vertical to affect shots and focus more on positioning and getting the defensive board.
Chicago is a well setup defensive team, with a very good defensive coach, our defense sometimes seem ... chaoic, I think Asik can be a top defender in the right system.
Whoops that was a typo, it should have said 20 minutes. My perception is that the projections always suffer quite a bit of degradation over a real 36 minute run. The fact that omer seems to have hit those projections and even surpassed them with the increased minutes is very impressive to me. That said, i will defer to your knowldge of 36 minute stats. I know percptio aint always reality : P
Some examples of when young players got more minutes and kept up their per minute average: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/randoza01.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wallabe01.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/muresgh01.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/lewisra02.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gortama01.html Typically, NBA players are in good enough shape to do in 25th or 30th minute what they can do in the 10th or 15th. Unless there is a special reason why or if the guy's original sample size is really small, guys rarely falls off a cliff statistically solely due to increased minutes.
If Asik can keep up his insane FT shooting%(for him anyway), and can keep his FG% at ~50%, that will do wonders for this offense. Hopefully, his stamina can keep with with the extra minutes with all the pounds he shed in the offseason. Can you believe that Asik might actually end up being the best FA on the market? The other guys were Gordon, Hibbert, Lopez, Batum, Dragic, Lin, and AK47... maybe missing someone. But of those FA, the one true defensive center, inside presence, get signed for $8mil/yr? That's pretty ridiculous given how overpaid centers have been over the years.
Agreed. Once he gets going in the paint you just have to hope he makes a clumsy play or foul him. Guy is starting to be a handful around the basket.
good point, coz he actually lost aggressiveness in contesting shots. that because everyone expects him to get better offensively. hopefully he'll get back to that block maniac which he has naturally as soon as he reaches a decent offensive level.
He's still protecting the basket, even if he's not accumulating lots of block shots. Over-aggressiveness on blocking shots could be counter-productive, because (as Carl noted) he'll get into foul trouble more quickly, and it could also put him out of position grab the defensive rebound.
loved watching asik. he's showing patience around the basket on offense and well, his defense and rebounding is pretty obvious.
Of the 3 big acquisitions the Rockets made, Asik is slowly becoming the most impressive grab by Morey. He may never be the best center in the NBA but he for certain is showing up like he could be one of the best.
dang...now i wish Maori had locked him up for 5 years...in 3 years he's gonna want another big payday
ppl who criticizes Asik have low bball IQ quite frankly, Ive been wanting this guy since trade rumors came up about the Bulls wanting CLee for him a couple years ago Love love love that we have this guy, Rockets fans need to count their blessing that we have the Turkish beast Now we need to give him some more help at the 4 spot and we'll have a true playoff contender
