randawg91

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12141574/nba-why-kyle-lowry-best-pg-east Basically says that Lowry is the best PG in the east, but that it's a toss up between Wall and Teague after that. Has some good stats in it imo. A New Top PG in The East If you're a believer that the NBA is a point guard league, the Eastern Conference standings provide strong evidence for your position. Of the top four teams in the East, three are led in scoring by their point guards. The one exception (the Chicago Bulls, where Derrick Rose is third in scoring) has a former MVP at the position. And the team in fifth, the Cleveland Cavaliers, have an All-Star point guard in Kyrie Irving. But who's the best of the group? Let's take a deep look inside the numbers to find the East's top point guard. Scoring I find it instructive to graph the two primary elements of scoring -- efficiency, as measured by true shooting percentage, and volume, as measured by usage rate -- to see how players compare. Kevin Pelton I've included league averages for both categories, as well as a line showing the typical tradeoff between usage and TS% for an average player. As has become typical for modern point guards -- who finish a higher percentage of their team's plays with a shot, trip to the free throw line or turnover than any other position -- 12 of the East's 15 primary starting point guards are average or higher in usage. Four players are above average in both efficiency and usage: Irving, Brandon Knight, Kyle Lowry and Jeff Teague. Of these, Teague best combines both elements of scoring. He's got the highest TS% in the group (.604) while using plays only slightly less frequently than the other efficient high-scorers, Knight and Lowry. Teague may not be able to keep this up -- his TS% last year was just .541 -- but for now, he's the best scoring point guard in the East. Playmaking Let's take a look at a few key statistics for the top playmakers, ranked by John Hollinger's pure point rating (in this case, calculated by assist rate * 2/3 - turnovers per 100 team plays). East PG Playmaking Stats Player Team Ast% TO% PPR John Wall WAS .132 .186 .041 Kyle Lowry TOR .099 .112 .036 Brandon Jennings DET .099 .137 .031 Deron Williams BKN .093 .147 .028 Jeff Teague ATL .103 .163 .027 Kemba Walker CHA .070 .082 .026 As the eye test would suggest, John Wall is far and away the top playmaker in this group. Lowry stands out in pure point rating because he's so sure-handed. That also works to the benefit of Kemba Walker, who is below average as a distributor but turns the ball over less than half as frequently per play as Wall. SportVU data available on NBA.com/Stats suggests Lowry might be a tad overrated as a passer, since he generates relatively few secondary (i.e. hockey) assists. Intriguingly, Michael Carter-Williams of the Philadelphia 76ers actually rates third in assist opportunities (passes that would be assists if the shot were made) per play. While it's tough to say how much that ratio reflects the point guard's passing as compared to the shooting of his teammates, in Carter-Williams' case it's clear that the poor team around him is costing him assists. Defense East PG Defensive RPM Player Team 13-14 14-15 John Wall WAS -0.4 2.2 Elfrid Payton ORL - 1.8 Michael Carter-Williams PHI -2.1 1.1 C.J. Watson IND -0.9 1.04 Jeff Teague ATL -0.8 0.5 Kyle Lowry TOR 0.4 0.3 Mario Chalmers MIA 0.8 0.0 The chart at right summarizes defensive real plus-minus (RPM) leaders from this season among East point guards. Including 2013-14 ratings highlights how noisy these figures can be over a small sample. It's reasonable to conclude that Mario Chalmers, Lowry, Teague and Wall are all near the top of this group based on their consistent success. According to NBA.com/Stats, the Wizards are allowing 12.9 fewer points per 100 possessions with Wall on the floor this season, the largest gap for any of their starters. Wall seems to have harnessed his athleticism defensively, and he's got the best steal rate of this group. (Chalmers and Payton are tied for second.) Lowry is a physical defender who compensates with strength for his small stature, Teague a good recovery defender and Chalmers a talented (albeit often frustrating) freelancer. Ultimately, the best defender of the group might be Elfrid Payton, who has proved a quick study as a rookie. Thanks to his pressure defense, the Magic's defensive rating is 5.6 points lower with him at the point. Overall Putting these categories together, let's see how these players rate in a variety of all-in-one stats: • PER (per-minute) • Win shares (value) • RPM (per-minute) • Win% (per-minute) • WARP (value) East PG Value Stats Player Team PER WS RPM Win% WARP Kyle Lowry TOR 24.1 5.5 6.3 .683 6.6 John Wall WAS 20.9 3.9 4.7 .642 5.9 Jeff Teague ATL 22.8 4.4 2.7 .653 5.0 Kemba Walker CHA 18.5 3.2 1.5 .577 4.5 Brandon Knight MIL 18.5 3.2 -0.8 .587 4.3 Kyrie Irving CLE 19.6 3.9 2.6 .551 3.6 Brandon Jennings DET 18.1 2.2 2.4 .567 2.9 Deron Williams BKN 16.8 2.4 1.5 .538 2.6 While the various statistics put these players in slightly different order, they're in agreement about the best point guard in the East. In a conference with three former No. 1 overall picks at the position, it's Lowry (taken 24th overall in 2006, 17 picks behind Villanova teammate Randy Foye) who has emerged as the best point guard. Lowry has the most complete game of the group, and has carried the Raptors near the top of the East without DeMar DeRozan. Remarkably, Lowry has never been an All-Star, but that oversight should be corrected soon. Picking between Wall and Teague is more a matter of taste over the first half of this season, as different metrics favor different players. I'd lean in Wall's direction because of his superiority as a playmaker and defender and the likelihood that Teague falls off his current scoring pace. Still, Teague has proved that he deserves his first selection to the All-Star team as the leader of the East's best team. An All-Star a year ago, Irving hasn't merited a return trip. Moving to a smaller role alongsideLeBron James and Kevin Love hasn't boosted Irving's efficiency as a scorer as much as anticipated, and he remains a below-average defender. Statistically, he's struggled to distinguish himself from other score-first East point guards like Knight and Walker.

Clearly just an article looking for page views, very poorly written at that. Please don't give him the satisfaction of emailing or commenting.

Solely based on that write up, Justin Anderson looks like a great pickup for us imo

Why...

Because I honestly don't know, in what ways has ASG been such a bad ownership group?

Per the article... 1. Curry 2. Korver 3. Klay Thompson 4. Mike Conley 5. Gordon Hayward 6. James Harden 7. JR Smith 8. Jamal Crawford 9. Manu Ginobili 10. Dwyane Wade

Just an FYI, you can easily work them down to around $25 for 5 months or like $80 or something for a year. If you can't spare it, I totally understand. But it's a great deal, and you literally just have to ask and be firm with the fact that you're canceling otherwise. Just sayin.

Man, it's just unbelievable how good this team is. Just incredible to watch.

No doubt about it, that has to be a concern. Hopefully he follows in his mentor's footsteps, and sticks with us. We'll need to show him all the support he needs too.

dang we look good

If the nets don't do as poorly as some in here are predicting, am I the only one that would be very pleased to pick up Willie Cauley-Stein from Kentucky? He's the 7'0" defensive beast (ala Tyson Chandler) we've been missing at the 5.

Are we rooting for the knicks so that they end up with a better record than brooklyn or what?

Do we get both our pick as well as theirs, or do we just have the option of trading our pick with theirs? Thanks!

Some other targets: * Greg Monroe or Drummond from the Pistons (I don't know if they're even available, but I can't imagine they'd keep both of them and they already have a ton of PF's) * Roy Hibbert from the Pacers * Chris Kaman in FA * Brandan Wright from the Mavs is a young center with a lot of upside who has done very well in limited minutes * I'm still very upset we didn't go after Javale Mcgee as he's been GREAT with limited minutes..just sayin * Nikola Pekovic of the Timberwolves would be a great FA pickup * JJ Hickson of the trailblazers in FA (although he's pretty small) * Al Jefferson in FA

Pretty obvious we need either a SF (and play horf at C and smoove at PF) or a good center. IMO, we should go with a center. Someone that hasn't been mentioned much is Anderson Varejao. He's had an awesome year, and is a GREAT defender/rebounder, which is what we really need at the 5 (and he's not bad on offense either). Most importantly, he's definitely available and he has a team friendly contract. Him or Gortat would be perfect. Whoever thinks the Bulls would ever trade is Noah is insane, he's crucial for them AND they literally have no other options at center.

is that we have 10 starter quality players on our team. I am 100% confident that when our starters have to rest, our bench is more than capable of keeping us competitive. No Smoove? Fine, Korver. Teague? Put in Devin Harris. Louis Williams for Morrow, Ivan for Horf, and Horf can shift to the 5 when Pachulia needs a rest. Just really, really impressive stuff right now.

Just curious, in terms of all of the guys that we traded for with 1 year left on their contract, who all can we actually trade this season? The ESPN trade machine says that we can't trade any of them because we acquired them this year, and I was just curious if that was accurate. Thanks!

I totally agree with that. Plus, he was averaging 25 PPG on 53% shooting (2 games, I know) while he was there. Against D-league competition, but still, not bad at all.

Let me say this first, I am PUMPED about our performance recently. 9/10? Beating arguably the best team in the NBA at home? Impressive stuff. However, I think most of us can agree that this season's team was put together with the future of our franchise in mind. So why are we not seeing our 1st round pick SG at ALL? I know we have a log jam at that position, but we really need to see what we have in this kid, ESPECIALLY when you consider the decisions we'll have to make about trading vs. extending so many players by the end of the year (not to mention his very impressive summer league performance). Thoughts on when (if ever) he'll get some playing time? I just really don't want him to get the "Teague-Treatment"

Yeah McGee was just benched, making him more available now than ever. If we were ever gonna make a run for him, it'd be now

We get a cheap, true center in McGee, who is recently far more available than before, and a 1 year contract in Vesely (makes the trade work). This gets William's contract off of our payroll or squeezes a little value out of Hinrich while he's still with us. Horford becomse a PF (his true position) and Smith becomes a SF (his true position), and we're a force. Thoughts?