You have seemed to highly rate some players that had better raw stats like Randle and Okafor (and Noel when he went on a steal and block binge) than some of the guys that maybe are doing more intangible stuff. I'm not the first person to notice this trend. Heck when I get heavy into fantasy football or basketball i start rating some guys higher in my mind overall than they probably are. It is a natural thing.
That's a very accurate representation. He overrates players on bad teams because they put up traditional numbers/fantasy stats, but fails to recognize that those players are only getting those opportunities/minutes because they're on a bad team in the first place. I honestly can't recall him ever overrating a player on a playoff team. However, let some scrub put up some stats and this guy leaves puddles of drool all over the forum howling at the moon on how the said player is better than a Smart, Rozier, Brown, etc.
Smart has gotten plenty of minutes. Smart's numbers aren't better because he is a terrible shooter, doesn't pass all that well, etc. not because he isn't getting minutes.
You forgot the second part, which is the opportunity. By that I mean placed in a position to excel. It's easy to imagine Smart producing very effectively if he were running the point and had the ball in his hands. On our team, he was placed in a position to not excel by having him off the ball the majority of the time. I can admit that's not his strength. Conversely, it's probably easy to admit that if Okafor were on our team not only might he not start, but his shot attempts would be greatly diminished. Does that reduce him as a player outside of the world of fantasy basketball? No, it's just a question of opportunity.
Smart is a terrible shooter. I don't think a different opportunity changes that fact, and in fact on a worse team probably shoots worse since he won't be given as many open shots. I'd actually expect Okafor's efficiency to increase a great deal on Boston rather than on Philly. Now he might not get 15 shots a game, but I wouldn't expect his scoring to really go down much with the increased efficiency. You see that was the thing about Okafor, he wasn't inefficient chucker, he was quite efficient, and you don't get less efficient when you play on a better team, you get more efficient. And for the record, even if Okafor came off the bench I would expect him to still get around 30 minutes a night as Johnson is only good for low's 20's and I would expect Horford to be around 30 leaving plenty of minutes for a guy like Okafor.
That is where you lose this sort of argument. Some guys just have numbers because they get big minutes, but some guys don't. You actually have to look at how the numbers are obtained, and for a guy like Okafor, they were obtained because he is excellent in the low post and has a respectable mid-range game. You don't lose that playing on a better team. Smart is just a terrible shooter. He was a terrible shooter in college, a terrible shooter in summer league, and a terrible shooter in actual NBA games. I can't see him all of a sudden learning how to shoot and flipping a switch. In fact, on a worse team where Smart has free reign, you could call him an inefficient chucker. He would look a lot like MCW did in Philly (at least offensively), though even MCW significantly increased his efficiency going to a better team.
Topic: Woj: Sixers plan on moving one of Noel or Okafor "eventually" (Read 81228 times)