Stats of the Week
Well, it was another .500 week. I thought they were going to pull off a sweep, but no Derrick Favors, that three-PG lineup Phoenix threw out, and a generally poor game for everyone not named "Alec" or "Gordon" was too much. So we have to stay happy with a 1-1 week.
As you look at the stats for the week, you'll notice something: the starters had an overall strong week, and the bench (Gobert aside) struggled. I think this will happen on and off all year, and it will cost the team wins. Mostly, I hope that Hood and Exum make steady progress over the season, moving from inconsistent to consistently strong by the end of the year.
Starting 5
Bench
Final Preseason Thoughts
I decided to look at our guys for the entire pre-season and put up some stats based on what I project minutes to be somewhat like. I think Gordo and Alec will have the most minutes (about 36 each), Trey and Favors next (about 32-34), with Enes having the least of the starting lineup (28-30). That gives Gobert about 22 and Booker about 14. Then Exum and Hood will have about 20 each.
Anyway, that's what I'm projecting. Here's the guys' preseason stats based on those minutes:
Starting 5
Bench
That's 86.8 ppg for the starting five, and 25.1 ppg for the main bench rotation, giving the team a whopping 111.2 ppg.
So the actual numbers will probably be different than this—especially when you see that the highest scoring team last year (the Clippers) scored 107.9 ppg.
But whatever. This isn't really a projection, it's looking back and seeing what the guys' pre-season numbers translate to when adjusted for likely playing time during the season.
What we see is an overall strong starting five, with Enes still a work in progress. We see a shaky bench, with Gobert the most consistently strong one. And my hunch is this is what we'll see for a lot of the season.
I think we'll see a lot of other pre-season trends continue:
Lots of rebounds, decent scoring, decent defense, a lot of turnovers, and not really that many steals or blocks—it seems funny to say this with Favors and Gobert on the team, but that's what we saw pre-season: a team focused on positional, fundamental, get back and stop transition points defense, rather than one based on a lot of gambles and disruptions.
Let the real games begin.