I think the point you bring up misses the whole strength of his game: he is a center. Especially this year he is playing defense and not giving up anything there, then having his skill against the opposing centers. Even without a scorers mentality he makes an impact. Having that space and passing on the floor makes a difference (numbers bear this out for him).
I believe that was my point.
Oh I can see. I just don't really see what you're saying ultimately when one guy plays C. I mean I guess if you need to look at the box score and just see the stats and compare them in a vacuum (and he plays 6-7 mpg less than some of the guys you are comparing him to, a big deal when you play less than 20 mpg) but when you watch the game you can see how a C doing SF things on the floor changes the whole offense. It's a team game and he has an impact. It's why the team performs better on offense in general when he plays.
You saw it tonight. He has a team impact. A SF shooting threes doesn't have that same impact on offense, it's pretty routine. Those players aren't dragging the opposing Center away from the rim where they can help defend and defensive rebound. If you don't focus on the fact that he's a C you are missing the point with it.
I know you aren't as down on him as others and not all this is even aimed at you (more the people that even need to find peace so much watching him), but that's just the thing a lot of people still underrate with him on here and why his potential is still so high. Even as a passer and ball handler he is miles better than most Centers and that has a big impact too.
If people need to define him, he may just be a "role player", but if this team gets All Star talent like say Cousins, Olynyk could be the guy that makes a player like that truly deadly vs even the best defenses. He is a guy made to kill double teams and help defense.
But as I said previously, this is still a guy who could be a 20 ppg scorer. He has the potential.
Well said - I agree with all of the above.
Kelly is one of those guys - when you look a the box score you say "KO had a crap game". When you watch that same game without looking at the box scores, you say "wow, KO had a massive impact today!".
In fact so many times I have watched games this season where I've reacted exactly that way - I've watched the game and the whole time I'm thinking "man, Kelly has had a hand in almost every single good thing that this team has done tonight". Then I look at the box score and he has 7 points and 3 rebounds and 2 assists. But he's like +30.
He tend to do so many important things.
For example he will catch the ball at the the three point line, and the defender will run at him (because you need to respect his shot). Then he'll throw a small ball fake just to freeze the defender for the briefest moment - but that's just enough time for KO to put the ball on the floor and blow by the defender. Then he gets into the paint and 2-3 defenders collapse in on him to take away the easy layup, and he throws a perfect pass back out to Thomas who will throw the second pass to Jerebko (who's defender rotated over to Olynyk) for the wide open three.
KO has pretty much just single handedly broken down the entire offense, yet he doesn't even get an assist for it, since the assist gets registered to Thomas.
Stuff like this happens ALL the time on the court with KO, and not just on offense either. He is a game changer out there, on both ends of the floor.