Will you please read the entire post next time, I knew you would be the first person to make that mistake, my only point is to you people who say the assist statistic doesn't prove you are a good passer, if 5 of the best passers in history are proven to be 5 of the best by the statistic, WHY CAN'T IT PROVE YOU ARE NOT A GOOD PASSER. I'm not comparing Mo Talyor to any of these guys, the only point I'm making is about the statistic in general.
I am not sure at this point who I agree or disagree with, but I will say this. Assists do prove a players ability to find the open man with the ball and affect a direct score. So, by theory, it is a stat that shows this person ability to affect the score--fair to say? But, we all have to agree on a universal definition of "good passer" Is it someone who finds the open man no matter what D is thrown at him, is it someone who makes the extra pass to score, is it someone who makes difficults types of passes in traffic? Naturally, systems do make assists easier to come by, but those assist leaders consistently at the top, have the ability to do all of the above. Assists in other positions, it could be argued are real measurements, because they do not affect the score as much and therefore the numbers that are higher, prove how a player can affect the score...it is kinda like the "making contact stat" or the OB% or SAC stat in baseball...it proves that you affect the score in other ways other than your scoring or rebounding average.... So, what does this all mean? I think it is like saying that a point guard with high rebounding numbers means he is a great rebounder.....it does, but for the point guard position, you have to look at other factors when making this statement, like systems they play in. It is important, but not as when you really break the position down......
Mo T is playing great lately. However, he's probably better coming off bench. I think Rudy T probably is smarter than most of us by using Griffin and have Mo T come off the bench. For whatever reason, we don't know. As long as both EG & Mo T is effective whenever they play, it really doesn't matter who starts or not. BTW, Mo T has shown he's a better passer than EG, did any one see the give and go to Cat to finish the dunk in NY?
Here's an example. Otis Thorpe was a great inbounder. Probably due to the ease at which he could palm the ball, OT could accurately hit a player running past half-court on the inbound. Often, the person who receives the pass from OT would then find a man cutting to the basket for an easy lay-in. I'd argue that in this scenario, the best passer on the play was OT, yet the middle man is the one (if any) who records what statisticians refer to as an "assist." True, the assist leaders were good passers, but there are also good passers out there who aren't assist leaders.
And Otis Thorpe averaged more assists then Mo Taylor's best year as a player. And I don't think anyone here on this board will argue that Otis Thorpe is more a finesse player than Mo Taylor. Even Thorpe's best year with the Rockets is above 3 assists. And Thorpe is the CLASSIC power forward. Mo Taylor's first year with the Rockets as a starter, who was the focal point of the low post, on a team that finished 45-37, 1.61 assists.
OT played in a dump it in offense. Mo T played in an ISO offense. Which one do you think had more passes? A more telling statistic would be how many assists Mo gets in the current offense. DD
I didn't bring up OT to get into a MoT vs. OT debate. I was simply pointing out the ineffectiveness of relying solely on stats on assists to decipher the whole story of a person's passing abilities. There are plenty of other types of situations where a good passer finds the right guy who makes the "extra pass" that finds a person who makes the shot. Then on the other side of the coin, let's say Francis penetrates, leaves his feet, notices he's double-teamed, and at the last second gives the ball up to a teammate who sinks one. Francis gets the assist, but I wouldn't say that's a good pass. (And no, I'm not debating whether Francis is a good passer or not, just using him as an example to point out how someone can rack up assists without being what I'd describe as a good passer.)
