I was watching the Memphis game yesterday trying to figure out why they're doing so well. I came to the realization that most of Memphis' starters and major role players are two-way players. Also, the few that are somewhat limited on one side of the ball(Battier) tend to be defensive rather than offensively leaning. Then I got to thinking about Morey's approach to evaluating players. It seems to me that his statistics lean heavily on the offensive side of the ball. Think players like Brooks, Landry, Martin, Scola, and Miller. Could this be a major flaw in Morey's stats? Why didn't we go heavily after players like Tony Allen and Tyson Chandler this last offseason instead of Brad Miller? Thoughts?
We did go after Tyson Chandler, the trade just fell through. And we had no need for Allen since we had Battier and just acquired Lee. I think the analysis does skew toward offense, but I don't think Morey is ignoring defense either. The big difference with Memphis is they have a big man that helps to anchor the defense, and their other big man is better than ours (at this time).
Two way players? The Grizzlies have 3 one way players (z-bo on O, Young and Allen on D...Allen can drive but he can't shoot for ****) in the starting lineup and another one off the bench (Shane, of course).. Gasol is good for both, so is OJ, but he is inconsistent at times offensively.
Why did Morey help Memphis make the playoffs at our expense? With each Memphis win, Morey looks worse and worse.
While the talent you list is accurately portrayed, it's easy to label a team led by Adelman as O-centric, and thus I wouldn't lay it all at Morey's feet implying he ignores defensive statistics.
Do you really think Memphis wouldn't have made the playoffs without Battier? I have no doubt they would have, given the way they played at the end. Now, I don't think they defeat San Antonio without Battier, but whether Memphis or San Antonio advances isn't something that really affects the future of the Rockets one way or another. And who are the two way players on the Grizzlies? Conley? We have Lowry. Gasol? Well, no ****, the Rockets are having problems with getting a tall center. News at 11. Randolph? I guess he's a better defender than Scola, but he's not that great there. OJ's pretty much the only real example, and that's an example of yay tanking as well as the fact that he's very inconsistent.
Battier, Ariza, Lee, Artest, Lowry were all brought in by Morey, and are all known more for defense than offense.
If Oj Mayo is a two way player then so is Courtney Lee. Lowry > Conley at everything. Randolph barely better defensively than Scola and isn't better at defensive rebounding either. He's kinda the definition of one way player like Scola is, he just happens to be better. If Young's offense puts him in the two way player category then KM's D surely does as well, lol. So they basically have Gasol and Allen. Oh wait, is it some big secret that we need a 3 and a 5???
San Antonio is an old washed up team that can't play any defense. The Thunder are practically a 2 man team for all intensive purposes. Just a little help from a few others here and there. It's not like the Grizzlies are playing against really tough competition in the playoffs.
Morey has said he values two way player, Courtney Lee and Lowry and Patterson are prime examples of that. Martin's offensive prowess and uncanny ability to get to the line are what make him invaluable to Morey. If you give Morey 2 drafts I bet all his choices will be two way players.
I don't base my analysis on one season. Were you one of the ones who thought AB was a top 20 scorer in this league? Their career defensive rebounding numbers are almost identical. Anyway, he's still barely better than Scola this year and even then he's not even top 10. Wake me up when he's better than Boozer at least or within one lightyear of Camby, then we can talk about him being closer to a two-way player since he contributes so little elsewhere defensively.
What defensive rebounding stat are you referring to? Randolph has been top 10 in defensive rebound% in 3 of last 5 seasons according to basketball-reference including this past season. This season, Randolph's DRB% was 26%, Scola's was 22%. That's a pretty big difference. For his career, Randolph's DRB% is 23.4% and Scola's is 22.1%.
I think Memphis have more players with room to grow. I see peopleb have brought up conley and lowry, but look at how conley has played in his 1st playoffs vs lowry in his first playoffs. I dont think conley will ever live up to his draft position, but neither did Bibby, but he was a very good player even when he was on a poor grizz team. I think morey is more safe with his selection of players which limits their upside. I like Patterson, but his talent is no better than Arthur who went late in the 1st rd. I dont know if it has anything to do with metrics or anything as much as morey is a safe,cautious guy.
I didn't mention him being a two-way player, so let's stop moving the target. Here's a lesson in context: Zach Randolph was 18-19 years old when he first entered the league. Luis Scola was 28. Somewhere along your mathematical calculations, did it ever occur to you that maybe using career rebounding numbers would produce an anomaly? You know, considering you're counting ZBO's first two years where he hardly played and was almost 10 years younger than Scola's first few years? That's to say nothing of the fact that what they were doing even five years ago is completely irrelevant -- you said 2011 Zach Randolph is not a better defensive rebounder than 2011 Luis Scola. I think it's time you re-thought that.
