DRPM #s are quite something.

https://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/...RPM/position/5

https://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/...RPM/position/9

I do think the point you bring up about running the offense through Jokic and negating OKC’s ball pressure / turnover creation is pretty interesting.

I think it’s fair to say he’s running a bit hot from deep, but not outrageously so. Doesn’t look to be as outlier-y as TMac. Per 100 poss here are his 3PA numbers the last 3 years:

39.3% on 9.2 3PA
40.1% on 10.5 3PA
41.3% on 12.1 3PA

He’s been progressing nicely here. Also, he had a horrific injury that he lost a full year to and probably wasn’t the same until his 2nd year back. So that hindered his development a bit. Then he had to play huge mins with lolMelo last year cancering it up.

TMac’s year was a perfect storm of run hot shooting esp from deep and, USG increase. TMac had a 35.2% USG during his sick year whereas PG has a much more reasonable 29.7. Here’s TMac’s same 3PA numbers beginning 2 years before his outlier season:

35.5% on 2.8 3PA
36.4% on 5.0 3PA
38.6% on 7.8 3PA (outlier year)
33.9% on 10.1 3PA
32.6% on 7.4 3PA

Here, T-Mac’s seasons leading up to his outlier year aren’t nearly as impressive and he quickly craters afterward, reverting to his mediocre shooting ways. George is also a career 84.4% FT shooter to McGrady’s 74.4%, adding more to this theory. George is simply a much better overall shooter and shouldn’t see the same dip in production going forward after this year (though he could certainly decline). He’s also a sick defender so his overall value will hold up better even if he does.

It doesn’t line up as much from an overall value perspective but shooting wise I think Russ’s MVP year lines up more with TMac than PG does.

Funny you should mention RPM, here are their league-wide rankings the last four years.

Jokic's last four years : 9th, 6th, 5th, 4th
PG's last four healthy years: 13th, 37th, 34th, 2nd

Which numbers do you trust more?

I think it's less about his shooting (although the attempts jump is absurd) than it is about everything else. His rebounding, steals, assisting, all that have jumped in a major way, but more importantly his TO rate has flatlined, to the point where we are talking about something that has never really been done. I want to see it for a full season though, as this time last year his shooting numbers were amazing (43%) only to shoot 32% for the remainder of the season. We saw the same thing from him pre-injury, come out hot only to fade in a major way down the stretch. We've also seen the opposite from him, start out slow and get hot late. He even mentioned last year how he goes through stretches where his shot doesn't feel right, and it's happened in previous years.

agreed

Which of those years did Jokic make the playoffs?

DRPM has Jokic not dead last. I was impressed.

lol good one you got me.

We can't all draft all-timers and then have our organization piss them away only to keep the worst one, who happens to have the BBIQ a little better than Yinka Dare.

So TMac thought he was good so he started shooting more?

If KD wasn’t a mental midget with daddy issues, OKC would have rolled out a starting 5 of RWB, Dipo, KD, Horford, Adams in 2016/17. Pretty good for a trash organization with more conference titles in their 10 years than Denver has in their 52.

The fact that they got nothing for losing a lock top 15-20 all time player, and are back to a similar level 3 years later seems good.

"It's KD's fault".

I suppose it's Harden's fault as well?

Who'd have thunk that a mental midget would prefer to play in the Bay with a bunch of guys who ping the ball all over the place vs. Oklahoma with a player who hijacks possessions and pounds the air out of the ball?

Keep dwelling on the past, I would too. What with a team who's all the sudden looking at an old ex-superstar making 240Million, owing two firsts, and in cap hell... And STILL looking up at Denver in the standings with their low-20's core and cap flexibility.

Pretty impressive that a guy that hijacks possessions and has the basketball IQ of a potato leads the league in assists every year. You seem upset about Russ ending Denver’s season a couple years ago. Would be a shame if that happened again. I’d hate to see you resort to ad hominem personal attacks again.

John Wall has also led the league in assists, as has Rondo. It's sort of the very definition of hijacking possessions yo.

And I wasn't even upset about the shot, they were already out of it at that time. keep pumping that narrative though if it makes you feel better.

[edit] nope JW never did.

lol jwax, save yourself the trouble and just marvel at being able to watch PG13 play night in and night out, a guy that could have been playing in Denver WTF?

Russ put the Stockholm Syndrome on PG13 just as he has the OKC fanbase. It's a shame he's going to spend the latter part of his prime with an aging Westbrook being paid 45M after this one.

And I'm being serious, not just trying to hate. I wonder what he was thinking when he signed that deal rather than going to LA or somewhere else. They got wrecked in the first round, are in cap hell, and have outgoing picks for the next four years. I still don't understand the upside to that decision.

He must be having some serious fun

OKC loses its 2020 1st protected 1-20. Conveys a second if falls within that. They also lose their 2022 1st protected 1-14. Conveys 2 seconds if it falls within that. The horror!

Pretty sure you were slurping RWB as recently as a year ago. Lol @ not a superstar anymore.

I was talking about their upside, not losing the picks. When you have outgoing firsts, even though they have protections, you can't trade the following year's picks. That means if they could somehow get the means to upgrade the roster the most they could offer in draft assets is a 2024 pick... not that enticing to a team imo.

So what's their upside? They are going to pay 98M in additional payments to luxury tax, and will still be in the repeater tax next year with only 11 players on the roster and Nerlens, a big part of what they've done this year, an unrestricted free agent. Even if they lose him and fill the rest of their roster with minimums/rookies they are looking at 75M in tax.

Flyover fights itt

jmax, what is your honest ranking of the following players based on their basketball abilitie : rwb, harden, kd, pg ?

Are these real fights, or Westbrook fights where we threaten and then do nothing about it?

Lakers below 500 LOL Lebron

Kieff to replace Pat Pat. Nice.

If you want to “do something about it”, I’ll take any action up to a grand at even money on potential okc - den series.

KD, PG, Harden, RWB. Harden is so bad on D that I’d probably rather have Russ if his shot wasn’t broken.

I'll do something about it when Russ finally steps up to one of the many guys he's threatened.

Kiwi's New Balance ad is really well done

IMO OKC-DEN would be a fairly even series, dictated more by HCA than the teams themselves.

I got DEN -145 if they get HCA, -110 if the don't.

That equates to DEN -4.5 at home, +3 away.