Don't put too much weight in that statistical analysis. It clearly overrates offense over defense.
agreed. However, you can't ignore offense, either. You need to be a very elite defender, along the lines of Bowen or Ben Wallace circa '04, to overcome such offensive woefulness. Furthermore, these metrics have a pretty solid track record. Yes, there are sample size issues, but it's not like PJ was great during the season, either, or the past 2 years for that matter. You can whine all day about flawed metrics this, watch the games that, but the truth is there are some pretty obvious trends in PJ's play. For some reason Celtics fans are in love with guys who can't play but are old and slow, starting with Greg Kite in the 80s, moving on to Joe Kleine, and now PJ frickin Brown.
Look, I'm used to ignoramuses who just balk at the notion that stats can mean anything. But here's the thing.. I also watch the games. I probably watch more basketball than 90% of this forum, on the order of 250 games a year. I know good defense when I see it. PJ ain't it.
How is PJ playing great D? He got LIT UP against Detroit. The only time 'Sheed was effective (besides that one game he nailed 6 3s) was when PJ guarded him. He was slow as balls on rotations. He never got out to McDyess on time. He was very, very bad. Against LA, he's been equally as bad. In game 3 he made that critical error of giving Gasol a passing lane after a great defensive stand. He had to foul him to prevent the layup. He mauled him on the next possession (the one where Gasol hurled it over the backcourt) but got away with it. In the 4th Q of game 4, he let Rony Turiaf of all people pin him under the basket, who Kobe passed to and PJ fouled since he had no chance of defending the shot.
And nobody can deny he's rebounding like a little girly man out there (6.3/36min, well below his career #s). He was especially bad versus detroit (something like 4 per 36/min.. i.e. worse than Ray Allen, Rondo, Pierce, etc). And he's a foul machine, averaging 5/36min this season (it's gone up steadily since about 3 years ago, a sure sign of aging and less effective play). In the playoffs it's even worse, averaging 5.9/36min. Low rebound rates, high foul rates, and absurdly bad +/- numbers are all very clear signs of bad defense.
Want more? From 82games, his season production:
http://www.82games.com/0708/playoffs/07BOS10D.HTM. Boston defense is an absurd +5.6/100possessions with him on the floor.
I'll believe PJ played bad when you show me a stat that includes denying the ball and that he has a bad rating. I doubt you can.
? What? Listen, math hater. The onus is on you. Every single metric on the frickin' planet points to the fact that the Celtics really, really struggle with PJ on the floor. EVEN DEFENSIVELY. Even if he's the world's best ball denier (not sure where you pulled that from, nor do I think there's any real truth to it), basketball is about a lot freaking more than ball denial. It's a 5 man game and there's two ends of the floor. When you absolutely can't score a quarter as efficiently as guys like Powe or even Glen Davis and you're slow on rotations and not crashing the glass, you're hurting your team. End of story.
PJ is an OK guy to have in case of foul trouble or injuries (like we've had). He's not a good first big man option off the bench. Or a 20mpg game. He's just not. I mean, it's nice you all "like him".. I too have bad players I like for whatever reason (Ricky Davis!).. but right now I care a whole lot less about liking guys and whole lot more about winning. We already got pretty lucky when PJ had an awesome game 2. Let's stop rolling the dice (sorta like we did in game 4.. all of our runs came with him off the floor).
And please Cs just win game 5 and let PJ ride off into the sunset after finally winning a trophy.
Topic: would you bring back house , pj brown and offer posey something better?? (Read 34899 times)