Dominic McGuire Makes Everything Better, as Long as He's on the Court: Clippers 123, Wizards 108
by Jake Whitacre on Mar 19, 2009 11:14 AM EDT
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Highest Plus/Minus: Dominic McGuire (+20)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Nick Young (-31)
Best Five Man Unit: Javaris Crittenton, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Darius Songaila, JaVale McGee (+8 in the 2nd Quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Javaris Crittenton, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Darius Songaila, Andray Blatche (-9 in the 2nd Quarter)
Four Factors
| Pace | Eff | eFG | FT/FG | OREB% | TOr | |
| WAS | 92.0 | 117.4 | 54.0% | 16.1 | 31.0 | 10.9 |
| LAC | 133.7 | 68.1% | 17.5 | 25.8 | 16.3 |
Photo of the Game
(Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
Game Thread Comment of the Game: "Um, guys? With all of this high-flying, Pech may actually squeeze out an assist." by Pryme
Tweet of the Night: "A 90yo woman just did a split at center court. She's looks more athletic than @Baron_Davis tonight." by @jasonwoodmansee
Looking at the players with the highest and lowest +/- from last night, it would be easy to say that Dominic's hustle, defense, passing, and rebounding is what helped the Wizards play so well when he was on the court and Nick's shoot-first, skip the questions, and shoot again later mentality was the reason why the Wizards struggled while he was on the court.
It's the easy assumption to make, especially since their games are so diametrically opposed to each other and it makes for such a nice lesson to teach youngsters about how basketball is about more than scoring. But as I watched this game, that's not what I was seeing before my eyes. Young's statline certainly doesn't reflect what we're used to seeing when his struggles bring the team down. He hit 7 of his 11 shots on the way to 18 points. He certainly didn't shoot the team out of the game, and given that he only took 11 shots in 30 minutes, it's not like he disrupted the offensive flow of the game too much.
The only reason I can come up with for why Nick Young's +/- was so awful while Dominic McGuire's was so high is that Nick played less with Taser than anyone else on the team last night. The only thing crazier than how much Dominic McGuire was helping everyone else out last night was that he was only rewarded with so little time in the 4th Quarter.
In the first three quarter the teams played to a tie. In the nearly 27 minutes that he was on the court, the Wizards outscored the Clippers by 18, which means in the 5 minutes that he wasn't on the court, that the Wizards were outscored by 18. Despite that, McGuire only played 1:11 in the final quarter and the Clippers ended up turning a game that was tied at the end of three quarters into a 15 point victory. The saddest part is that in the 1:11 that he played in the 4th was the only positive stint of the quarter, where the Wizards finished +2. In a season that's had its share of confusing player rotations, this may have been the most confusing to date.
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Crittenton
I don’t think it was just that NY didn’t play with Taser that much, it’s that he played with Crittenton a lot. Outside of a handful of games, Crittenton’s been really struggling for pretty much the whole month.
In this game he ended with zero assists in 23 minutes. Even Mike James manages to get two assists in that amount of time. He also had zero assists on March 11, when he played 12 minutes and picked up 4 fouls. Against Utah he had more turnovers (5) than he did points (4).
If you take away the Orlando game, where he had 10 points and 7 assists, Crittenton is averaging 1.56 assists per game for the month of March, including two games where he’s gone oh-fer. I wonder now if one reason Young has had a rough time offensively is that the Wizards point guards are averaging 2.1 (Crittenton), 2.3 (Dixon) and 3.2 (James) assists per game.
Well -
At least he doesn’t rely upon assists from Crit, Dixon and James …
On the other hand, even though they weren’t on the court together much, Dominic had a nice assist to Young last night… and Nick didn’t seem to mind at all; dunking it on an Alley-oop play.
Matter of fact, 6 of Nick’s 7 baskets last night were assisted. 1 by Dom (Alley Oop dunk).. 2 by Songaila (a jumper and a Dunk)… 2 by Jamison (a jumper and a 3-pointer) and 1 by McGee (another Dunk).
Interesting that NONE of Nick’s baskets were assisted by the other Guards on the court… But Nick did dish out 2 assists last night, more than Crittenton and Dixon combined.
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
I’m just saying that NY’s usual MO is to dribble around and find his own shot, so I don’t think the team’s low assists really hurt him. The times NY scores off an assist seem to usually be on kick out 3’s.
by MR on Mar 19, 2009 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Dribbling around to find a shot
sounds more like Mike James or Juan Dixon…to me…
Unfortunately I cannot find the stat site I want to backup my theory that Nick Young is getting better at incorporating his game into the overall Offensive flow. A perfect stat to show that would be his percentage of Assisted Baskets made last year versus this year.
An increase in Assisted Baskets made would show that Nick is starting to get his buckets in the flow of the Offense. Unfortunately, the only part I can find is the <a href=" http://www.82games.com/0708/07WAS7A.HTM" >2007-2008 number at 82games.com – It shows that only 37% of Nick’s baskets were assisted last year. Interestingly, Gilbert Arenas typically shows the same kind of percentage (36-37% assisted baskets).
Here are some other Wizards numbers for Assisted Baskets from 2007-2008:
McGuire 67%
Blatche 52%
Jamison 63%
Butler 44%
Haywood 53%
Stevenson 62%
Songaila 70%
Nick Young 37%
Anyone know where I can get the assisted baskets made by player for the 2008-2009 season?
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
http://www.82games.com/0809/FGSORT7.HTM
it’s broken down though, 3pt 95% assist, 2pt jumpshot only 20, 42 inside shots.
We’ve all seen Young dribble dribble dribble contested mid-range shot. 20 percent is terrible. He’s sure emulating Kobe.
Interesting table
So for example Korver has not hit an unassisted 3 all year? or am I reading that wrong?
by MR on Mar 19, 2009 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions
You’re reading it right, Korver, Okur and Bonner are all snipers but you’ll never see them shoot a 3 off a dribble. Jamison is 100% as well.
Wow
100%?
Not a single end of quarter half court prayer that went in? Not a single jab step let-it-fly make? Not a single near turnover that bounces your way beyond the arc that you convert? Amazing. I guess those guys know what they do well.
by MR on Mar 19, 2009 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions
The Difference Is
Korver, Okur and Bonner are all snipers but you’ll never see them shoot a 3 off a dribble. Jamison is 100% as well.
Everyone listed there takes their 3-pointers almost exclusively from kick-outs – except for Jamison. Jamison jacks up at least three contested 3-pointers a game. And if I’m reading this stat correctly, this means he hasn’t made a single one all season. He still shoots a respectable 35% from beyond the arc, but imagine how efficient he would be if he stopped jacking up the contested ones.
"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier
Maybe that's out of necessity
I’m not saying that NY doesn’t dribble a lot, but maybe one reason for it is because he knows that the PGs aren’t going to get him a good look either.
Another reason could be the offense. They’re still mostly running EJ’s version of the Princeton, in which the guards are interchangeable, and as far as I know the SG doesn’t really cut to the basket a ton.
If that is true then he will be one of the draft steals of the ages
Battier was the 6th overall selection in the class of Kwame…. The Taser went what, 37th?
EG gets some credit on this one, yes?
Difficult to guage talent levels between drafts
But Battier was drafted in 2000 (Kwame, Tyson Chandler, Eddie Curry, Eddie Griffin) which was a terrrible draft… whereas McGuire was drafted in 2007, which was a terrific draft (Oden, Durant, Jeff Green, Horford, Rodney Stuckey, etc…) – So I’d say they’re closer together than a normal #6 pick vs #37….
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
Yep, practically the same thing
I remember saying at the time, if this were any other year that Fresno St. forward is in the lottery.
Draft Position Means Nothing
Battier was drafted in 2001, not 2000. That may have been a terrible draft, but it is clear that a lot of obvious talent got overlooked. Tony Parker went #28. Gilbert Arenas fell all the way to #30. 2000 was also a terrible draft (Kenyon Martin, Stromile Swift, Darius Miles, Marcus Fizer), yet some wise GM was able to pluck multiple All-Star and former All-NBA player Michael Redd out of the garbage at #43.
My point is that we shouldn’t use draft position, even when taking into account draft strength, to compare players. I think that if NBA GMs all knew that Taser was going to be as good as Shane Battier, they would have picked him long before the 37th pick.
"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier
Agreed
Taser is a good man defender, but not a lockdown one. He’s an okay help defender, but not a very good one. I’m not sure at this point he knows a lot of tendencies like “force Kobe to this spot on the floor” or “if this guy crosses left, he always comes back.”
Exactly
He has the potential and work ethic to be a great defender, but he’s not there yet, not by a long shot.
by pantslessyoda1 on Mar 20, 2009 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions
There's always the 1 or 2 guys in EVERY draft that are the exception
In 2000 it was Michael Redd
In 2001 Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas were picked in the 2nd round
In 2002 it was Carlos Boozer
But that doesn’t mean that YOUR team will be lucky, or intelligent enough to find that one or two guys….
A strong draft (like last year’s) increases the chance that your team can land an impact player, even if your team is drafting at #18….
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
Can someone educate me about NBA contracts
He has one year left on his rookie contract. Can we sign him to an extension early? Is he restricted after his rookie contract? Can we pay him more than any other team? Etc. Thanks. I’d hate to lose him.
by Palace of Good Play's Golden Toilet on Mar 20, 2009 9:19 AM EDT reply actions
I don't have facts to back this up
But to the naked eye, it sure seemed the offense was clicking early on the game. The ball was moving. If a player didn’t have an open shot or drive, they were swinging. They all made the extra pass until… Mike James started handling the ball. Then he dominated.
I know Nick has a tendency to do that as well, but last night almost all his shots came in the flow of the offense. Sometime’s he would get a pass and drive the hoop. A few time’s he worked the two man game with D-Song for the open jumper. That was the type of game you love to have from Young. And he was ≈ average on defense.
The culprit to this game was Mike James, but hey. that’s kinda good. A good solid game from the youngsters, and Mike James doesn’t cost us ping-pong balls.
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