Analysis of DJ playing out of position.

[SalvorMallow]

We always talk about DJ playing out of position, so I wanted to dig into the stats to take a look at how he's doing in his "natural" position this year.

Greens means the natural position is better.

DJ - 2258 total possessions

PG Possessions: 813 (36%, down 4% from last year)

Diff/100:  +2.8 (+5.5 better than at SG and MUCH better than -6 last year)

DeFG%:  58.6% (this is slightly worse than his 57.2% at SG, but too close to read into it)

DRTG: 118.8 (slightly better than SG 120.3)

Top 5 lineups at PG (by possession count):

 

Top 5 lineups at SG:

 

A couple interesting takeaways for me:

• DJ almost never plays PG without Bogi on the floor. He has only had 97 total possessions this season at PG without Bogi.
• In the 97 possessions where DJ was PG with Hunter instead of Bey on the floor, the defense gets notably better, but the offense gets much much worse

 

• There is no clear indication that DJ is better on defense at PG.
• The starting lineup is really bad. 
• Hunter actually seems to be much more effective at PF. Every lineup with Hunter at SF is a negative and a huge positive with him at PF. I'll dig more into this another day.

[JeffS17]

5 hours ago, SalvorMallow said:

Hunter actually seems to be much more effective at PF. Every lineup with Hunter at SF is a negative and a huge positive with him at PF. I'll dig more into this another day.

Most interesting part of the post to me.  With all Hunter's knee problems, makes me wonder if he's just better guarding bigs now because he's strong but not quite as quick

[GameTime]

Popovich scammed us. Murray is really Mike Bibby without the jumper.

[JTB]

10 hours ago, JeffS17 said:

Most interesting part of the post to me.  With all Hunter's knee problems, makes me wonder if he's just better guarding bigs now because he's strong but not quite as quick

Never thought about that but that could be true. I never considered that his knee may be holding back his perimeter defense.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

7 hours ago, JTB said:

Never thought about that but that could be true. I never considered that his knee may be holding back his perimeter defense.

Or his ability to rebound?

 

[h4wkfan]

Unless you have a ++ rebounder at SF and C (probably SG while we are at it), Hunter will never work full time at PF. 
 

I think it’s clear that DJ is a good player just a poor fit at this point.