There are so many snakes in the grass coming out against KD, we have to do some pest control. NBA released gravity stats for the first time. For those doubting the easy money sniper and blaming him for our problems: Curry 19.9 Durant 17.2 Edwards 16.7 Doncic 16.1 Harden 15.2 SGA 13.7 https://www.nba.com/inside-the-game/player/gravity?dir=D&sort=AVGGRAVITYSCORE?cid=NBA:article:OwnedSocial:X:X:App Download:App Acquisition:AppInstalls:t-cont:social:social:appdownload&ko_click_id=ko_51dgxfvz1d0qx7o13 The problem is not Kevin Durant, just like none of those players are the problem on their teams.
Sweet Jesus. Reed is 2nd on the team and 31st in the league. Meanwhile Amen is last on the team with a negative ranking. And he averages more minutes than any other NBA player with a negative ranking. This encapsulates everything I've been saying about him. He completely derails our offense. AND HE'S OUR STARTING POINT GUARD! Insanity.
The court is relatively small when you factor in the size & speed of NBA players. A player with gravity opens up opportunity for his teammates even if he himself is not having a great shooting night. He also causes the defense to overreact - no one fouls Amen on a closeout because they don't care whether he shoots.
If this is a meaningful ratio, that means other Rockets should have a lot of open shot opportunities. Which could mean the ball and the players are not moving around enough on KD possessions.
And yet the suns are better without him. You guys can cherry pick whatever stats you want. I'm looking at results everywhere he goes.
He’s still a good player, but he’s a shell of the guy he used to be. He also only helps himself, so now that he’s fallen off it doesn’t impact the team the way it used to.
KD is usually great but he has one very big problem: Turnovers. Sometimes he makes the softest, most careless passes when defenses are amped up. Like everyone else, he must adapt and be stronger with the ball at those times. I forget which game it was, but it seemed like KD made 5-6 consecutive passes that were deflected by a defender. Where is his head at those times? Down the stretch against the Kings, 4-5 consecutive times KD ran down the shot clock to ~8 seconds while standing in the corner hemmed in by the half-court line and sideline. When two defenders came to double, he was completely trapped, was too far away to make a meaningful pass to anyone and the Rockets did not get off legit shots in those possessions. This is why the game went to OT. KD was the donkey for the Kings loss. I love the KD trade and I'm very glad he's on the team, but his decision-making at times is so poor it makes me want to scream. Part of it is on Ime and the other players because KD is enemy #1 for opposing defenses and the Rockets still haven't figured out how to take advantage when opponents load up on him.
They were 3-17 in the games he was absent from last season. If they just built a better team around him and Booker instead of trading for Beal, they could have made a nice playoff run.
Right and they arent now with him gone. I know all the stats. I knew all of them before we got him and I said this would happen. Complete with us failing and you guys bringing in these exact stats lol He changed the dynamic of that team just like he did this one and so he will have stats in his favor. Just like Lebron and Westbrook and other old heads but they cant lead a team. You guys fell for fools gold and youre still falling for it. Meanwhile the Suns are celebrating saying they won the trade because they did. But hang on to that stat if it makes you feel better.
Another reason box scores and stats are overrated. They are a tool, but they almost never tell the story. Context is impossible with stats and they can be manipulated to make any point you want to make. If stats are that great, why are people so upset? We are top five in offense and defense. Durant, Sengun, Jabari, and Reed are outplaying last year statwise. We are 1 game behind the pace we set last year with a more difficult schedule to date. The eye test is telling almost all of us that we are not contenders this year. We looked at stats and said wow this Durant guy is a great shooter from 3, all-time great, he will provide the spacing and closer we need to put us over the top. Stats didn’t tell us that he can’t initiate an offense or that he really is terrible when double teamed. Stats didn’t tell us that Ime has no clue on how to run an offense. Stats don’t tell us about Reed being man-handled on the perimeter and how terrible he has been on defense. They tell us Amen is shooting terrible, but they don’t tell us how many times he is getting into the lane and missing bunnies. They show that Sengun is close to a triple double every game, but has been putrid on defense this year. It’s not talent we are missing. The eye test tells us our coach sucks at offense and is too Narcissistic to change. The eye test tells us that Durant is a bad fit for this team. I’m sure that some stat somewhere says that running Holiday and Reed at the same time is a good idea or that the double bigs play great defense. Panicking and trading our young players and draft picks for an aging vet to make us relevant with this crap coach is insane.
I’m starting to think we’re missing Brooks a lot. He gave us two legit perimeter defenders, and he was an average-ish outside shooter. I’m sure the Rox anticipated DFS being a Brooks replacement. But to your point, Amen just got to run around, play the dunker role, and lock in on D without a bunch of responsibility.
