I think he was really high on Budinger like DD. Maybe it's backlash for benching his favorite player lol
Personally, I mostly like advanced stats because it's so much better than box scores. Box score stats are so much more misleading of player performance it's not even funny. For example, with just box score I had to look at the following in detail to value a player's scoring: FG%, 3pt FG%, FT%, percentage of shots as 3s, percentage of FTs attempted. And I would do some estimation with mental math to get a good idea of a player's scoring ability. TS% make it so I don't have to analyze such things in detail. I don't care that each advanced stat doesn't quantify a player's entire value. I just care that they capture much more than the box score, which is what player values were mostly based on in the old days. That and winning championships.
I usually like Hollinger's takes. Not always agree, but he's always informative. I was surprised by the flopping comment. I guess the presence of Scola and Martin got him to say that. But I don't think the Rockets has a reputation of flopping in general. Maybe I am just too big a homer. I thought the Ariza-Parsons comparison wasn't that good. Ariza is notorious about forcing dumb plays. Parsons is a lot smarter and his court sense is better than Ariza.
Lowry, Martin, Scola are all floppers, and they are the 3 players most people associate with the Rockets. Parsons has some flopping potential as well, though. Usually the smart players make the best floppers.
That was my initial thought as well. He predicted Budinger to be the breakout star of the season and more or less said Lowry would fall back down to earth. Seems as though he’s just grumpy because he doesn’t watch enough games and got things wrong.
What makes someone a good flopper? I believe it when Kyle flops because it looks like he's getting hammered by the opponent when he does it (for the most part). Chris Paul, on the other hand, is almost never believable because his are so exaggerated that he makes it seem as though someone was trying to kill him when it's clear that he was barely touched. But the refs generally believe CP3 more for some reason. I definitely agree that the Rockets have well-established floppers on the team, but I would not put them ahead of the Clippers in that department. I have never been so disgusted by the Rockets flopping that I couldn't watch a game, but that has happened almost every time I watch a Clippers game this season.
Actually, you missed my point. It's not a box score stat vs. advanced metrics argument. To fully understand a player's scoring ability you still have to analyze their game in detail. TS% is not enough. The same goes for any other stat (reb% for rebounding, per minute stats, etc.). I like Hollinger but he knows far less about the game of basketball than say a Hubie Brown. You should look at stats (box score or advanced) and say "I really need to watch this guy" not "I have a good idea of what this player is" because you don't.
Advanced stats are just like old stats in that they can give you a blunt approximation of something you've seen with your own eyes. There's never been a case where the stats told a story that did not exist first on videotape: if someone's skill in something or another was undervalued, that was because the EYES undervalued them rather than that particular skill's inability to be visualized. Basically, if the stats tell you something that you think is wrong, then either you are wrong or the stats aren't telling the whole story. Some people will be annoyed with amateur evaluators of the sport (of which we are ALL members, seeing as how none of us are being paid to do this) that spout out statistics willy-nilly. I think in only two cases can you really make an argument that we fans are being irresponsible. The first is when we don't even WATCH the games and use the stats. That to me is the biggest sin of a basketball fan; if you don't watch games then you shouldn't even talk. I have a friend who does this, and it has just made me learn to tune him out every time he wants to express an opinion, no matter how good he is at expressing it. (Kinda like how watching Fox News has perpetuated sexism by making me not listen to blonde women even more.) The second case is when we pick and choose certain stats to back up false claims out of a blind emotional decision we've made to take on a certain view. The absolute classic that we could all remember here is when DD tried to bring up "PER against" (?) as a measure of showing how Chase Budinger played good defense. This is the much more common error we fans make, and it's oftentimes disputable that we're even making this mistake when we first make it. Usually such statements have to wait until the posterity of their ridiculousness can be truly appreciated. Except in the DD/Bud situation of course. Anyone with vision better than 20/200 could see that Budinger was horrible at defense, and our new coach upon taking over promptly concurred. Although I imagine that if you are that blind that without glasses it would just look like one blur blowing past another blur.
yall are in a state of denial. everything he said was correct, except for maybe Parsons who he didn't give enough credit for his defense...but besides that there is nothing he said that was false.
The Lowry comment was knee-jerk. Made right after Lowry's bad game. And Lowry's being run into the ground. The Parsons comment was also jacked up. At least Hollinger didn't pull out his I-live-in-Portland-paradise, I-don't-know-why-anyone-would-live-in-Houston comments. He's good for that at least twice a year.
The Rockets haven't even been flopping that much this year... Martin's not doing it much because he's not getting calls, and Scola hasn't been doing it as much as normal (from what I've noticed) because... well I have no idea why, but it seems like he's cut back. No one else is really a flopper.
Not only that, but a "bad game" for Lowry is still damn near a triple double where he makes two of his last three shots from the field in a close game (both threes), has only two turnovers, and plays very solid defense.
