It's interesting looking over the stats for the different lineups. Some things I noticed:
- There's a crazy difference when you swap Raja for CJ with the rest of the starting unit. Our offensive points per possession jumps from 1.05 to a crazy 1.35. That has been our best unit on the floor.
- Our SWARM unit (#6) does pretty well out there. They score 1.2 points per possession while only allowing .9 PPP. They're also our best rebounding unit with at least 30 minutes played.
Without the 30 minute minimum, our best rebounding unit is #16 consisting of Watson, Miles, AK, Evans, and Fess.
- The best unit in PPP differential is #18 with Deron, Bell, Miles, Millsap, and Fesenko with .84 (1.45-.61). The next best unit feature Watson, Miles, AK, Evans, and Fess (#16 again) with .6 (1.49-.89)
- Our unit that struggles the most offensively is #7 which is SWARM but with AK instead of Elson. They're getting just .74 PPP.
- If you're looking at total +/-, Miles is in the top 6 units. Fesenko is in 3 of them. Millsap is in 4. Deron is in 5. Bell is in 2. AK is in 2. Jefferson is in 1. Evans is in 1. Watson is in 2. Elson is in 2.
- Finally, our starting unit is one of the worst we have when it come to PPP differential and total +/- while on the court. That would explain a lot of our slow starts. We don't really know how moving Bell to the bench would do because according to these, he only plays when Deron is in the game. We've never seen a Watson/Bell back court nor a Price/Bell back court.
Bell is in two of top 6 units though. When he's in with Miles, the Jazz play well. Missing from those units though is AK. I don't think that has any bearing on how Bell plays, but it is interesting.
moni has a solution for AK's hair.
Deron has been adamant about not playing the two guard. Sure, he's put up with it in seasons past because the team was short. This year though he's been on the court with Watson a lot in that spot and he said he likes it. What? Why? Why the change? From the Trib,
I like it a lot. It allows me to come off screens and I'm one of the best shooters we have coming off screens. And I don't have to create for myself every time. I can get some good rhythm shots.
Watson and Williams have played a total of about 60 minutes together and have had some pretty good success. I couldn't find what Deron's stats are when he's playing
A few days ago marked the anniversary of the plane crash that took the lives of the Evansville Purple Aces in 1977. The victims included all of the players, coaches, the announcer, and other personnel.
One of the victims could have been Jerry Sloan. He was hired to coach the team but resigned before coaching a game.
What a devastating loss that was for them. Some more information:
- ESPN
- Detailed explanation for the cause of the crash
- The original newspaper article
- From the 25th anniversary
You have to slow down the camera 100X in order to catch the ninja in action