I keep hearing that the ball is moving better without T-Mac. Is there any actual evidence for this? I think more players are getting involved and scoring in double digits to make up for T-Mac's scoring. That's fine ... but how do really measure the ball movement of the team? One way might be to looking at percentage of made field goals assisted. You would think that must have gone up considerably, from all the talk. But actually, in this past 6-2 stretch by the Rockets, their Ast% is 56.8%. For the season, it's at 57.9%. Specifically in games that McGrady has played, it's at 58.7%. We could look at it even more closely than that. According to 82games, when McGrady is on the court the percentage of assisted FGs is 60%. When McGrady is off the court, the percentage drops to 55%. This really isn't a surprising result, considering McGrady is easily our best passer. His ability to survey the court and pick out the open man from nearly anywhere in the half court is unmatched by any non-PG not named LeBron James. Think about it -- who's more likely to get an assist off a drive to the basket: T-Mac or Rafer/Luther?
Is there any aspect of basketball that you can accept WITHOUT stats? Just by watching the games, the ball movement is clearly better. Granted, when Luther gets his hands on the ball it's pretty much a crapshoot as to what the outcome would be, but the way the ball is moving around, it's been pretty damn good.
As was intimated by another poster -- T-Mac is absolutely right. Before all this mass hysteria with trade rumors and questions about T-Mac fitting into the new offense, *the* issue was not McGrady in the new offense. The issue was role players standing around watching T-Mac all the time instead of moving and executing the offense. As far as I'm concerned, that is *still* the issue. The role players have shown that they can execute and move the ball without T-Mac. Great. Now let's see them do it when T-Mac is on the floor instead of standing around.
Interesting numbers durvasa. I wonder what the percentage was in those games before Tmac went out where the offense looked better. Specifically the first half of the Chicago game. I think the thing that has changed the most isn't necessarily moving the ball "around" faster, but setting up the offense much faster off a rebound. It seems that during this stretch we are getting more fast break movement, even if it doesn't lead to points it gives us more time to move the ball around because we start our offense at 20 secs on the shot clock instead of 15-16. Also I think we have moved Yao back under the basket more often and have the tweak in the offense when Yao is posted up on the strong side we now have Scola and Chuck coming across to set a screen so that the defender helping on Yao has to come out to help on the pick and roll. If not they are wide open under the basket, or the guard can drive the lane off the screen to an open shot.
They stand around because McGrady is the initiator and the facilitator of the offense and it's pretty much what they HAVE to do--stand around the perimeter and wait for McGrady to decide whether or not he wants to shoot or pass the ball. Without McGrady, the players HAVE to move around. They can't stand idly because of many reasons including giving the opponents time to pretty swarm Yao moreso.
Exactly, this is how the players when Yao was playing last year without McPippin. And look at what the record has been with McPiipin out. That's why it's funny with the TOFs say that Yao can't carry the team and they BLAME Yao for his teammate's deficiencies. But when it's the other way around, they blame the team and not their hero. Very hypocritical...
You are absolutely spot on. And no, to whoever replied to this post, the roleplayers do NOT "have to" stand around. That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. If they kept moving, setting screens, making cuts, then McGrady WILL find them just as well as anyone that is playing right now. Better, in fact. This is actually a good one.
Its not really TMAC been out its the fact that Adleman made adjustments to the offense we run, instead of pounding it in to Yao or TMAC when we first get the ball we let the other players swing it around, find open shots, and only pass it to Yao when they can't find them. Thats how Yao has been getting alot of easy baskets lately.
Standing around means that they wait for their open shot once McGrady decides to penetrate and draw the double team. Battier does it, Alston does it, Head does it. When McGrady's in the game, that's pretty much their job--find the open spot for the 3--which, in instances, means that they stand around. It's not just about getting the ball passed around--it's getting better, higher percentage shots after getting the pass. What's going to have a higher chance of going in? A lay-up or a 3 pointer?
If it's so clear, then you can explain what it is. And if you can explain what it is, then it's also possible to quantify it. And if you can quantify it, then you can better understand the impact of it. Do you disagree with any of that? I said what I've observed. More guys are involved in the offense, and more guys are scoring. Yao is being used more in the low post. Rafer is penetrating more. We're running more curl plays for Luther Head. Oh, and we also happen to be playing some pretty terrible defensive teams in this recent 6-2 streak. I don't know if any of that qualifies as "better ball movement". It means we're depending on more guys to score, but not necessarily that this will translate to better quality shots against good defensive teams.
ball movement and off ball movement have been great....i think most improvement goes to off ball movement..Yao has become more aggressive near the rim and with rebounds... They just needed Tmac out of the lineup for a bit so they can build confidence and know they can contribute besides standing in one spot ready to shoot 3's in the mean while having the hands on their hips waiting for that moment.
Precisely. Everyone seriously doubting whether tmac's return will make this team better need ask themselves only one question: would you rather have luther head starting or tmac? because that is the only change we're going to see in the starting lineup, and there isn't a single thing luther head does better than tmac. its the other players that need to remember that they have a job to do in the nba besides just spotting up for the occasional 3. rafer just needs to keep attacking the rim, yao needs to keep beasting, chuck hayes needs to keep up the D, scola and bonzi off the bench need to stay strong. it would be nice if shane battier would pick up his game too, since he's the only one who hasn't seemed to improve in tmac's absence.
Maybe I'm blind. Everyone is saying how the ball is moving better without T-Mac, and some are taking that idea and actually concluding we're better off without him. I just want to step back and really examine this notion of improved ball movement. As Hayesfan pointed out, the ball looked to be moving pretty well against Chicago (a good defense team, unlike New York or Memphis or Washington) just before T-Mac sat out. I want to understand what we really mean by "ball movement", and then try to look at the extent to which it helps our offense. I think it's an important question, if we're at all interested in the direction of our offense when T-Mac returns.
Well... to be fair to Luther, he IS a damn good shooter. He also runs that pass-and-cut play with Yao better than anyone on the team. All that said, yes, obviously McGrady will be a big improvement... But I love Luther, too.
You could also say that more passing has opened up more holes in the defense for people to attack. There are many more factors in passing. To base an increase in passing on one single stat is not accurate.
the best answer is that not the ball moving better. it is coz the players moving better. all role players used to stand around the 3pt line still and watch magic from tmac's action. now they don't have any espn hightlight to watch so they realized they have to move or to create shots by themselves. suddenly, they knew they can do penetration. they can shoot.
