I've been wondering recently about players who average a good number of assists. It's important to distinguish between someone who gets lots of assists and someone who is a good passer. I'll use polar opposites just to make a point. Battier is a very good passer. He doesn't do anything flashy, but he spots the right guy to pass to, and he gets it to them in a way that they can comfortably catch it. Stephon Marbury, on the other hand, was always able to get assists. I never understood (before) why he was considered such a selfish player if he's scoring at a nice clip and also among the assist leaders. The difference lies in what it takes to get each assist. For some, like Steve Nash, he is racking up assists because the primary thought in his head is "where are the holes in the defense?". Whereas for a player like Marbury, he instinctively believes that getting assist means he's nto selfish. However, I've come to realize that just as you can be a selfish scorer, you can be a selfish passer. You can kill the number of attempts your team has at getting a high quality shot by taking the ball hostage so that YOU can be the person who creates a basket. Case in point, Tracy McGrady these days. He is a damn good passer (instinctively), but he has been critisized so much that sometimes I feel he forces some of the passing. He holds the ball, and eventually ends up creating a good play. But he increases the amount of time and team effort that should have gone into getting a basket. The right way to do things is to find the right play, whether it wil llead to a basket or not. To trust that your teammates will find the right play when it's the right TIME. Tracy is at his best when he's in attacking mode, and passes come naturally as a result of his instincitve passing out of double teams or finding the open guy in the corner. He is not the guy who should be holding the ball, unless it is to attack the basket. So I say let Tracy loose. He should be attacking the basket repeatedly and let passing come naturally rather than let it dominate his thoughts. Scola, Battier and Yao are all good passers. For us to be succesful, we have to follow Adelman's team concept with a tweak - T-Mac and Yao will attack aggresively to create chances. They should dominate early in the shot clock and they shouldn't have decided before they receive the ball that they're either going to shoot or pass. That's a key component of the Adelman offense. Don't think, just watch and play very quickly. What do you guys think? I think Tracy's assists are becoming detrimental to the team as it reduces the number of team assists. I'd love to see a statistic on the correlation between Tracy's assists and the team's assists. Off the top of my head, I think the correlation is negative - the more Tracy racks up assists, the less assists we have as a team (obviously team including him).
Great post.... Tracy has never been one to just make a simple ball swing........ He trys to get an assist or a basket on every touch he gets, and that is not the way to play this game...... Make simple and quick passes, and trust in the Adelman... Tracy and Ron need to make quicker decisions, PERIOD. And Tracy needs to play some DAMN DEFENSE!!!!!!!!!
And Battier's passes are always forgotten by those who call him an offensive liability. He isn't the one who actually makes the finally attempt just doesn't mean he is doing nothing.
But when yao gets the ball on the post, he also stops the ball, looks to attack or waits for the double team and pass too. I belileve that's he's been taught to do. I think it's just a matter of how you think of yourself. If the player believes his ability to attack, he will stop the ball and look too attack, or pass when double teamed.
It's not as easy as you would think knowing there is a double team on you at all times. You can see that from Yao as well (although Yao is not a particularly good passer). Both players tend to hold the ball because they don't want to make rush passes that cause turnovers. When you have a doube team coming, players need to know where it is coming from, or else the ball is easily intercepted. Still, I think Rafer needs to hold the ball more. I'm tired of seeing him give up the ball to McGrady, he IS the PG and he SHOULD orchestrate an offensive plan on the court.
When T-Mac hits over 50% of his FG's and 90% of his FT's while going to the line close to 10 times a game, he can hold the ball as long as Yao. One thing is clear though. He has never done that in his career. He is not at his career-best and some people argue that he's declining. So to hope for that is not advisable. There is nothing that T-Mac CAN'T do, but we have to begin making educated decisions abotu what he WILL do.
Just let us know when he is able to attack the basket because other then that he is a stand still passer with a chance of pump faking creating a foul shot.
I am fairly comfortable with Yao holding the ball right now. He is efficient. I don't know if you guys noticed, nowadays he uses his elbow a lot when turning, which leads much less TO's and a high fg%.
Good post, but you have to trust your teamates to actually make the play to pass it. Right now, Tmac wants to be "The guy" and we don't need that, we need him to be part of "The TEAM".... DD
I disagree. I think we need him to be "the guy" but he's just incapable of doing that. In the regular season with him playing terrible, we can settle with him being part of "the team" but we need SOMEONE to be "the guy" in the playoffs.
but he doesn't have to be 'the guy' all game. That's what he tries to do. He's either 'the guy' or not in the offense at all and if you notice t-mac getting at least a touch on offense usually results in some effort from him on the defensive end. (That's probably why JVG got decent effort from him on both ends of the court in the 04-05 season.) T-mac has to learn, maybe he should watch a lakers game. Kobe is only the guy for maybe 1/7 plays in the 1st to 3rd quarter if they even need that. Kobe leaves all his little tricks and acrobatics for late game closeouts. He becomes 'the guy' in those last 4-5 minutes but is still helped by his team. In the knicks game after t-mac hit 2-3 shots in a row for our team with 5 minutes left I thought he was taking over and gonna take us home but there seemed to be a disagreement on the court because the next possession was a long air bomb by alston and then a air ball in the post by hayes without tmac touching the ball. So it seems like the team effort and the t-effort are at odds. T-mac has to choose, be 'the guy' for a major part of the first 3 quarters or be the guy in the 4th.
did he say Scola and Pass in same sentence? in 46 games and 1,320 min. Scola has just 59 assist in comparison in 33 games and 1,174 min Artest has 94 assist in 46 games and 985 min Landry has 35 assist in 43 games and 566 min Chuck has 24 assist its alot of times when we kick the ball to Scola and if he is not triple team..he will shoot it...maybe he is just focused on his move and the basket...but alot of times ...i be like kick it out...people be wide open...and yes I understand that our PF position is not geared to pass when Landry and Scola are in the game
No you don't ....you have a focus, but you trust your teamates. Just like Hakeem when the Rockets won it...he trusted Max, Kenny, Elie, Horry...tons of people to take that last shot but more importantly to make the decision of who to pass to if they were covered as well. Right now, Tmac doesn't have that level of trust. When he trusts his teamates to make the proper pass at the tipping point of the game, then he will be there. He ain't there yet. DD
Totally agree. TMac: Please trust your teammates that they will make the right plays. I know you trust them to shoot because in numerous occasions I saw you drove then passed out for the open man. But your teammates are capable not only to shoot, but to make plays too. The ball will come back to you as the offense flows and your end up to be the most appropriate person to pass to. It's not on you, remember, it's on the team.
t-mac says he doesnt want to be the guy, but in the game he always acts like he's the guy. always holding onto the ball for 10 seconds, and walking up the court so everyone can see him
the problem isn't can he trust his teammates but can they trust HIM. Yes it is preferred to have a superstar player who trusts his teammates but first things first. We need a superstar player.
playing time is not ball possession time though. Assist is a stat that is strongly related with the ball possessions.
Battier = passes it because he can't do anything with the ball unless he's wide open. Tmac = passes it to the player in good position to score.
