Thread Tools

Display Modes

**Pioneer10** · 11-13-2006, 09:14 PM

82games.com took a look at a couple fo things (for example a ratio of comeback wins to 4th quarter collapses) here at:
http://www.nbcsports.com/nba/279527/detail.html

Big article but I thought this was interesting -

Quote:

Opposing Starters on the Floor:	4 to 5		2 to 3		0 to 1
Team	Time	+/-	Time	+/-	Time	+/-
vs Atlanta	49%	+396	37%	+129	14%	-129
vs Boston	49%	-7	38%	+129	13%	0
vs Charlotte	49%	+346	37%	+97	14%	-118
vs Chicago	50%	+12	37%	+46	13%	-109
vs Cleveland	49%	-89	37%	-57	14%	-35
vs Dallas	51%	-232	34%	-182	15%	-82
vs Denver	47%	-31	39%	+20	14%	-16
vs Detroit	47%	-340	39%	-224	14%	+18
vs Golden State	48%	+163	37%	+52	15%	-104
vs Houston	49%	+124	38%	+80	13%	-71
vs Indiana	46%	-88	40%	-51	14%	-17
vs L.A. Clippers	49%	-89	37%	+8	14%	-49
vs L.A. Lakers	49%	-2	38%	-233	13%	+24
vs Memphis	49%	-151	37%	-127	14%	-26
vs Miami	48%	-149	39%	-108	13%	-63
vs Milwaukee	50%	+57	38%	+53	12%	-20
vs Minnesota	49%	+132	37%	-42	14%	+61
vs New Jersey	46%	-78	38%	+20	16%	-49
vs New Orleans	49%	+293	36%	-12	15%	-51
vs New York	50%	+526	34%	+176	16%	-180
vs Orlando	49%	+64	36%	+33	15%	-3
vs Philadelphia	49%	+200	39%	+16	12%	-57
vs Phoenix	45%	-233	42%	-173	13%	-48
vs Portland	50%	+481	36%	+249	14%	+44
vs Sacramento	49%	-72	37%	+51	14%	-103
vs San Antonio	49%	-281	37%	-159	14%	-119
vs Seattle	50%	+266	36%	-12	14%	-3
vs Toronto	48%	+234	37%	+60	15%	-47
vs Utah	48%	+142	35%	+96	17%	-23
vs Washington	47%	-25	37%	-94	16%	-35

This may be the more revealing look! If you're getting creamed by lineups with 4/5ths or more of the opposing starters, you can make a case it's primarily a talent discrepancy (or your team going with the wrong starting five), but when you're getting clobbered by the opposing bench, then it's harder to shake the notion that you are getting beat in part from the other team winning the in-game substitution matchups.So Phil Jackson looks great on this angle: the Lakers were basically even when facing 4 or 5 of the opposing starters on court, but once the other team went to the bench leaving only 2 or 3 starters in the game, the Lakers took advantage compiling a nifty +233 plus/minus edge.On the other hand, Doc Rivers, who has taken some heat in Boston, saw his team similarly be about break even facing 4 or 5 opponent starters, but were outscored by 129 points when the other team was going with 2 or 3, suggesting Doc lost more than a few matchup battles last season.Still, it’s unwise to suggest a coach can ever be measured by one simple metric, and there’s lots of other avenues for exploration, including crunch time performance, post-timeout play success, timeout calling for momentum shifting and the like.Coaches are always easy targets for second guessing, so we’ll wrap it up with a quote from Red:“The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology. “In an NBA world where results are the bottom line, the quote probably rings true for many coaches in the game!

This assumes the coaches all do an equivalent job and actually want to start there best players but I always though Phil Jackson is extremely underrated in terms of his ability to put the right players in the right situation. I think the Boston fans would agree Doc basically sucks at coaching as well

**ehmunro** · 11-14-2006, 10:43 AM

They miss out on another possible explanation. A team's bench may stink to high heavens. Which Boston's pretty much does. Our bench has offensive liabilities (Shooter, Moobs), defensive liabilities (Green) and everything in between. In short, Phil Jackson couldn't get this squad past 35 wins, so it's a very good thing that we don't have him, because he'd screw up our shot at Oden.

Thread Tools Display Modes

Thread Tools

Display Modes