NBA Power Outage: Passing time By Terry Brown Wednesday, January 15 Updated 11:20 AM EST ...setences omitted... PASS-FIRST TEAMS 1. Utah Jazz Numbers: 52.1% (96.3 ppg on 25.1 apg) Comment: If it ain't broke, then don't stop picking and rolling and rotating the ball to the open man. Stockton to Malone, I know. Stockton to Malone, you know. Stockton to Malone, we all know. But the Jazz have two guys, Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko, shooting 51 percent and 53 percent, respectively. They've got a third, Calbert Cheaney, who's shooting 49 percent from the field 50 percent from three-point range. As a team, they're shooting a league-leading 47 percent from the field. As a team, by no coincidence, they're also averaging a league-high 25.1 assists per game. As a team . . . did you hear me mention Stockton or Malone once? System, system, system. Right on down to the peach baskets and short-shorts. How else could you explain a 37-year-old backup point guard averaging 4.7 assists per game with the likes of Scott Padgett and Jarron Collins on the floor. Last year, it was John Crotty to Quincy Lewis. Next year, it might be me or you passing to the guy to your immediate right or left. 2.. Minnesota Timberwolves Numbers: 49.7% (96.4 ppg on 24 apg) Comment: Kevin Garnett leads this team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks. So if he's going to fight his way through zone, quasi-zone, and regular man-to-man defenses that quickly turn into double teams and sometimes even triples before ever getting the ball and then first looking for a teammate with a better shot before ever taking one of his own, then the least any of his teammates can do is the same . . . minus the double and triple teams. Funny, but we've criticized this 20-10-and-5 guy in the past for not taking over games at the end and we'll probably do it again now that he's closer to 22-13-and-6. 3. Sacramento Kings Numbers: 48.7% (100.1 ppg on 24.4 apg) Comment: Two-handed chest passes by the book aren't enough. Bounce passes barely qualify. It's a game to these guys. Around the back, no lookers from power forwards to point guards, not the other way around, will get you, maybe, three or four handclaps from the home crowd. Show us something we haven't seen. But a simple one to the open man will get you high fives all around from the team, hugs, kisses and perhaps even your name tattooed on point guard Mike Bibby's body if we can find any more space. No team celebrates unselfishness like this one. And no team can say it scores the second-most points in the game with the second-most assists and the second-highest shooting percentage. Gee, it's kinda fun to play this game the way it was supposed to be played. 4. Seattle SuperSonics Numbers: 48.5% (92.2 ppg on 22.4 apg) Comment: Gary Payton leads the entire league in assists per game, total assists and is third in assists to turnovers quite simply because if he didn't, then this team wouldn't be worth the uniforms their names are printed on. And if Rashard Lewis and Desmond Mason aren't naming their kids Gary, Glove and GP junior, then they really don't know who's been putting food on their tables and milk in those bottles. 5. Los Angeles Lakers Numbers: 48.2% (96.9 ppg on 23.4 apg) Comment: Sit down and cross your legs if you want while humming with palms faced up and eyes closed, but it sure is nice when your leading scorer, who also happens to be the league's second-leading scorer, also averages 7.1 assists per game, and your second-leading scorer, who also happens to be the league's fourth-leading scorer, is shooting a league-leading 57 percent from the field. The chicken or the egg depends largely on the bubbly. The triangle may have been responsible for nine of the last 12 championships, but it's also been run by some of the worst teams in NBA history in Dallas and Chicago. PASS-LAST TEAMS 25. San Antonio Spurs Numbers: 40% (92.4 ppg on 18.5 apg) Comment: We can only hope that Tony Parker hasn't peaked as a point guard. Last year, he averaged 4.3 assists per game and we couldn't wait for tomorrow. So far for the month of January, he is averaging 4.2 assists per game and we're wondering where yesterday went. His scoring is up. His shooting is up. But we were just kinda thinking in terms of principle and position. 26. Golden State Warriors Numbers: 39.9% (98.6 ppg on 19.7 apg) Comment: Head coach Eric Musselman has begged and pleaded and threatened to bench players if they didn't pass the ball. He substituted in 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins to make a point and gave him 20 minutes a game. But all they've done is go from 19.8 apg in November to 19.6 in December to 19.1 so far in January while still scoring more points than 25 of the 29 NBA teams with the league's sixth-worst field goal percentage. Are there are any 5-foot-3 guys available in the NBDL? 27. Toronto Raptors Numbers: 39.6% (88.2 ppg on 17.5 apg) Comment: Let's completely sugarcoat this and call up playground legend Rafer Alston from the NBDL and hope no one notices the 11 turnovers in three games. 28. Houston Rockets Numbers: 39.2% (91.3 ppg on 17.9 apg) Comment: Allen Iverson shoots too much. Kobe Bryant shoots too much. And now that Stevie Francis has the Houston Rockets playoff qualified by leading the team in scoring by more than five points, nearly doubling the next highest teammate in assists and averaging more than six boards a game despite being a point guard, he, too, is shooting too much. 29. Boston Celtics Numbers: 39.1% (94.9 ppg on 18.6 apg) Comment: At 5.3 assists per game last season, Kenny Anderson may not have been the best point guard in the world. But you'd have a hard time convincing the Celtics of that this year now that no one is averaging more than 4.4 while Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker shoot a combined six percentage points worse and Anderson wastes away on the Seattle bench at 2.8 assists per game in only 14.6 minutes. Has anyone seen the reset button?
It makes the games much more enjoyable to watch when they actually do pass the ball. I wish they could do it more often.
It's pretty sad when you consider that the Rockets have one of the best PG's and one of the best passing centers in the game. This team should not be averaging 91 ppg.
Warriors, Raptors and Celtics. It's a comforting feeling to know we are among the elite teams in terms of passing. But let's look at the bright side. We have not peaked yet. If we pass just a little bit more, we could be having a monstrous season.
Here's a quote from Mobley in the Houston Chronicle. "If you have guys like Stephon Marbury and ... Shawn Marion, guys like Steve and myself, it makes it easy for us now. We were doing it with double and triple-teams. Now it's single coverage because we have Stoudemire and Yao Ming down low." Imagine if you passes the ball to Yao? Then he could pass it back to you with no coverage! But our guards don't realize that, they see it as Yao taking up defenders to create more room for themselves. We will never win in the playoffs until we start passing the ball around to everyone. We never won with Olajuwon until he started passing to teammates.
This has been stated before but I will repeat it. This just shows that assists numbers are a poor indicator of how good a team is. You have the wolves, Lakers and the sonics in the top five and you San Antone, Houston, and the Celts in the bottom. You also none of the top teams of there division in the top 5 except for Kings.
The only problem is those pass first teams almost all own us cause we can't outscore them the way we play offense unless three guys on our side shoot lights out.
This is one area I see the Rockets need to improve MOST if they want to compete in the West and be an elite team. They hardly get much assist in there game....that means they don't pass that much and dribble a lot...one on one type game. IF they pass a lot, their record should be the top 3 in the league right NOW!!
Our guards have great talent, but they are greedy and stupid. How else am I suppose to say it. Every single Rockets game always comes down to one thing, how well are SF and CM shooting the ball that night, because the Rockets live and die on outside shooting. Little passing. Few layups, and even fewer dunks. This is Rocket ball 2003 style. Raven
woofer is dead is on it...we have to play lights out to beat those top teams, including the jazz (which is crazy)
Of course, the assist averages of Rice, Griffin, Taylor, Posey, Morris, Hawkins, and Cato added up being equal to one of our stupid, greedy guards has NOTHING to do with the lack of passing...What did a lot of people around here call Kenny Thomas before he was traded? Black hole?
Well I guess I was 1 rank off. I said a month ago Rox must be the worst team in the league in passing.
You can try to cover up our passing problems all you want but I saw the Spurs game last night against the Suns. Not ONCE did any of their guards jack up an offbalanced shots with 3 guys all over him while you have teammates open everywhere. Not once do I see their gaurds waive off Tim Duncan in the post and dribble dribble dribble until the shot clock expires and either throw up a brick or get stuck and pass it to a teammate out of position. With our talent, if we get everyone involved and play smart as a team, there's nothing stopping us.
But who dominates the ball the most on our team? Many possessions, they do not even get to touch the ball.
Scoring, Assists Per Game, High TO rate, guards' FG attempts, etc. etc. These stats distort the truth and don't tell the whole story. The real truth is that our guards always look for the open man, never take ill advised quick shots, always look to pass it down low, and try to get everyone involved in the game.
Rice can't pass the ball because the only thing he is good for is shooting threes, Griffin doesn't know what the heck he wants to do with the ball half the time he has it, and the next time Taylor passes out of the post will be the first. I probably shouldn't have included posey, morris, and hawkins because their main roles are to play defense and shoot open jumpers, but to fully place the blame our stupid, selfish, idiotic, punk ass, ball hogging, never pass the ball, gay p*rn watching guards is crazy.
We'll see how all this works out. Mo T. and Rice are out indefinitely. Posey never touches the ball and Griffin just stands there and every once in awhile go down low or try a 3 pointer. That leaves Yao and the 2 guards. Yao looks to pass way too often when he should make a quick move to the hole and not settle for the turnaround jumper. That leaves......
