Worst Rotation Player right now?

[RodyTur10]

Some possibly surprising numbers from the plus-minus bin:

1. For all Kyrie's seemingly improved defensive effort, we give up nearly 10 points more (per 100 possessions) with him on the court vs off.

2. The only rotation player who's worse? Marcus Morris. His defensive on/off is 112/93(!).

3. Our best defenders by that metric? Tatum (+11) and, in a shocking development, Smart (+9).

4. Our offense is 10 points better with Smart on the floor (112/102).

5. By net plus/minus our three best players have been Smart, Baynes and Tatum, in that order. Our three worst have been Irving, Horford and Hayward.

Yes, I know, something something eye test something something small sample. But I've watched the games closely and some of this surprised me.

It's really early to make conclusions. But the advanced stats indeed show that Smart has an enormous positive impact on the team. Morris is a great offensive contributor, but Morris/Horford together as your front court seems horrific. Also the Irving/Brown backcourt is astonishing bad so far, especially during 4th quarters.

Something else that's in line with general observations that Rozier is bad for ballsharing, but excellent for rebounding.

I have some ideas about all this, but I'm gonna wait to make suggestions since it's easy to argue by the small sample argument. But I do think that a couple of players are not playing up to their reputation, which sometimes is caused by the setting in which they play.

[kmart12]

I don't think Rozier's playing great, but it's not too far off from what he was doing last year (i.e., shoot-first, low %, streaky scorer with above average rebounding ability for a guard). I think some have taken his recent playoff playoff performance and perceived that as a fair representation of his play going forward. I didn't buy it then and I don't buy it now.

Jaylen, on the other hand, should be shooting better and at least looking like he knows what he's doing. He's been off and settling as a jump shooter when his calling card since day one has been attacking the rim; the improved shooting was a welcomed addition, not the defining characteristic of his play. Unfortunately, I think he's latched on to it and lost a little bit of himself in the process. He's a weak link for me at this point.

[nickagneta]

More stats. Current leaders in defensive rating in the NBA right now:

#1 Terry Rozier
#2 Aron Baynes
#3 Marcus Smart
#6 Jayson Tatum
#15 Gordon Hayward
#31 Jaylen Brown

[RodyTur10]

More stats. Current leaders in defensive rating in the NBA right now:

#1 Terry Rozier
#2 Aron Baynes
#3 Marcus Smart
#6 Jayson Tatum
#15 Gordon Hayward
#31 Jaylen Brown

Would be a nice experiment what kind of effect a defensively focussed backcourt like Rozier/Smart would have against starting units.