Tatum With the Rebound—The Week in Green
From the second Tatum hit the court docket in his first sport virtually a month in the past, one factor has caught out to me: the man has come again to the sport with a nostril for the ball that’s really outstanding.
It’s like we have got a Steve Austin Six Million Dollar Man factor occurring right here, as a result of Tatum has, from the get-go, displayed a knack for grabbing rebounds that’s really outstanding, given his profession numbers.
In 13 video games, Tatum is averaging 9.9 rebounds, which is sufficient to lead the staff by virtually a full board (Neemias Queta is second at 9 rebounds per sport over the similar time interval).
What’s extra spectacular about that stat is that it is considerably larger than his numbers from final season. Tatum’s taking pictures is down considerably from final season, as is his help whole (eFG% is down from .537 to .494, assists are 5.1, down from 6.0), however his rebounding has gone from 8.7 to 9.9 rips per sport, with all of that improve approaching the defensive glass.
With a bit little bit of luck, Tatum may finish the season averaging a double-double, one thing that he is by no means accomplished in his profession.
Importantly, Tatum’s rebounds aren’t coming strictly at the expense of different gamers on the staff.
Looking at superior stats cut up earlier than and after Tatum’s return, the Celtics have been rebounding the different staff’s misses at a 75.4% clip since March 6th. Prior to that, the staff’s defensive rebounding charge was simply 70.4%. Defensive rebounds are up by greater than 3 per sport in actual numbers.
Given that the Celtics rating 119.4 factors per 100 possessions, these further three rebounds quantity to an additional 3.6 factors per sport, and are partially chargeable for a greater than one level per 100 possession drop in opponent manufacturing in opposition to Boston.
Not surprisingly, Boston’s internet ranking per sport has gone from +7.3 earlier than Tatum’s return to +8.5 since, with no significant change in discipline purpose proportion to point higher offensive effectivity on that facet of the ball.
Tatum remains to be very a lot a piece in progress on the offensive facet of the court docket, however he appears to be content material to work into the move of the sport at that finish, not making an attempt to pressure himself again into sport form in a way that works to the detriment of the staff as an entire, however, on the different finish of the court docket, he is been the staff’s primary rebounding possibility from the get-go.
Doc Rivers into the Hall of Fame
I suppose this was, in some methods, a foregone conclusion.
The Basketball Hall of Fame appears to position a excessive worth on longevity with regards to coaches in any respect ranges of the sport, and at this level in time, Doc is the solely coach with greater than 2,000 video games beneath his belt that is not in the corridor of fame. Heck, Bill Fitch is in the Basketball Hall of Fame with 2,050 video games coached, and he is obtained a dropping report as a head coach.
But I feel that point won’t be type to Doc’s popularity. To make sure, he is obtained a reasonably first rate report, total, 1192-863 as of this date, and it isn’t out of the query that he may prime Lenny Wilkens’ report for whole video games coached. Wilkens coached 2,487 video games in his profession, and Doc is sitting at 2,055 video games. At the similar time, Doc has morphed from a coach who may get the most out of his gamers to a man who appears bent on blaming them for all the things. There’s additionally the matter of the blown 3-1 playoff sequence.
The model of Doc that’s teaching the Bucks nowadays appears a far cry from the “Ubuntu” Doc that led the Celtics to a title in 2008 and confidently hid $2,600 in the Staples Center locker room in 2010 to persuade the staff that they have been going to make the Finals that 12 months.
I sort of really feel for the man. It would not appear to be he enjoys teaching very a lot nowadays, and it makes me surprise why he retains at it. Is he chasing Lenny Wilkens’ report? Does he not need to determine life holds for him after he is accomplished teaching?
Another one bites the mud
The Lakers have shut Luka Doncic down for the remainder of the season, that means that he is additionally going to overlook the 65 sport threshold for normal season awards.
Predictably, persons are up in arms about this.
I stand by my observations from final week: There needs to be a declared minimal variety of video games performed to qualify for awards which might be fairly actually based mostly on the video games one performs, and if that minimal cuts out a participant as a consequence of harm, properly, that is simply how these items work. If you need to get an everyday season award, logic dictates that you just take part in a major variety of common season video games.
Right now, you’ll be able to take off each fifth sport and nonetheless qualify for the MVP award. Lowering the threshold to 60 video games would imply that you could take each fourth sport off, which appears excessively lenient to me, and both abolishing the restrict or decreasing it additional appears to be even much less defensible.
And in Doncic’s case, he would’ve met the threshold if he had been much less adept at incurring technical fouls.
