Western Conference Finals: Dallas Mavericks vs Oklahoma City Thunder

*Fixed it for you! :grin:

 

Jeff Green is listed as 6-9.

There is no way in hell Durant is 6-9.

All that being said, the Thunder is in a ridiculously good position right now. Even if they don't win the championship this season, their best players are all still below 23.

If Westbrook puts his ego aside and comes off the bench (whiles Harden starts), then the Thunder would have the league's best 6th man. That or Westbrook starts to play into the offense more and move the ball around.

I'm most surprised by Harden's court vision. The guy could easily average 18/5 if given more minutes.

 

We're comparing lifetime averages of decade+ veterans to Durant?

 

Yawn, hopefully all the Westbrook nuthuggers can be a little more objective about his gameplay now. No one was hating on Westbrook, anyone objective could see Westbrook has a tendency to ballhog and play out of control at times.

 

Yeah doesn't make much sense. Plus T-mac/Iverson the last 3 seasons hardly played any games or reduced minutes so that probably messed with their averages, bringing them down.

 

Yea but Dirk was playing very passive the first 3 quarters and didnt

get aggressive till the fourth. Terry was just bad

Harden won the game for them even then the mavs couldve taken this game

Mavs will steal one at OKC

 

playing the hot hand is something he learned from Rudy T

 

Come on, people. Of course it's ridiculous. I am trying to point out that "volume shooter" is an inappropriate label for Durant.

If in 3-4 years, he's already a better shooter than an entire career of chuckers like Iverson and McGrady, he's clearly not the low-% chucker that would normally get the label "volume shooter."

People do not normally have their high FG % in their first few years -- that would be the exception.

 

Actually, numerically, no; for example, two of Iverson's first three years in the league made for two of his lowest seasons of FG%. And overall, he was pretty consistently in the lowest-40's, year to year.

McGrady was more all over the place with a steady decline in % -- that's atypical. In part, Tracy used to drive a lot, and in part, he completely came unravelled physically, year to year.

Most jumpshooters see their % creep up a bit in mid-career, suggesting Durant may well get a little better when he reaches his prime.

But who cares about the label "volume shooter." I'm ready to drop it.

 

if you watch durant play and think he's a volume shooter you need to pull your head out of your stats, which the stats don't even support the argument. the guy shot above 47% the previous two seasons. what do you want?

 

Westbrook Benching:
I think any of us with a "purist" take on PGs knew that needed to happen. He's a really good player, and can develop into a great one, but he's trying to be like Derrick Rose or Chris Paul but missing the mark and doing more of a Starbury impression. I like him, I'm rooting for him, but he's got to buy into the team concept and adopt a mindset of facilitator.

Steve Francis once betrayed his game by mentioning aloud to the media his confusion about passing the ball if he was the best offensive option on the court.

Durant "Volume Shooter"
Whoever sincerely thinks that needs to study the game more.
29 ppg on 20 shots in the postseason. That's terrific efficiency.

You want a volume shooter in the playoffs, look at Carmelo (26 off 22 shots, 1.18 pps) or Westbrook (23/19, 1.18) or even Rose (28/23, 1.22)

The unofficial Volume Shooter Meter
1.5+ PPS - you can't feed this guy enough
1.4+ PPS - true franchise player production
1.3+ PPS - fair
1.2+ PPS - something needs to change
1.1 PPS - Out and Out Chucker shooting your way out of games

Going with regular season numbers, I'd call out Monta Ellis (24/20, 1.2pps) and Andrea Bargnani (21.4/17.8, 1.2 pps). No surprise their teams blew with them leading the way.

Makes you appreciate Dwight Howard more (1.7 pps) - sad the Magic haven't figured out that he needs to take more than 13 shots a game.

 

What does that have to do with him being a volume shooter? I'm not saying he's inefficient. He's just one-dimensional. When Durant gets the ball, more than likely he's going to put it up. His shots per touch ratio is staggering when you factor in all of the FTs he takes too (somewhat questionable IMO given that he's a jump shooter, but that's the league's problem, not his). This makes the offense predictable, and, I suspect, easier to adjust over a series.

 

volume shooting is about efficiency, being one dimensional is a whole nother conversation. and as a matter of fact of iverson and mcgrady weren't one dimensional as much as durant is

 

The good thing for Brooks is Westbrook wasn't the only starter that didn't play in the 4th. If he had been the only starter benched I think then I would worry about losing him mentally.

 

Volume shooting is about volume. It basically means that when you touch the ball, it's going up. If you happen to hit most of your shots it's not necessarily a bad thing, except that it makes the offense predictable and less effective when the defense sends doubles.

 

Did Shawn Marion do his job yesterday? Mav's do have a weakness, they don't have wing play. Caron Butler would have helped.

 

Then call him a one-dimensional scorer

A volume shooter, by definition, is a player that gets his points only through a high volume of shots.
See Also:

(1.06 pps, one of the worst you'll find in the history of the nba)

 

probably combination of him having to spend most of his energy anchoring the defense plus his terrible FT% (I wonder what's his true shooting%?)

 

Strike 2 - you just gave the definition of a black hole

See Also:


11-1 shot:assist ratio

Yinka Dare's 54-1 ratio sets an unbreakable record, but I don't know if he qualifies with 2 shots per game over a 110 game career.