bdonovan
12-11-2023, 03:12 PM
A player's performance is highly influenced by their teammates and coach. If you have incompatible or selfish teammates or if you have a coach who doesn't value your play/position, you're not going to reach your potential.
Look at Tyrese Haliburton on the Kings, didn't even start many games his first year and a 3rd option his second. Now running the best offense in the NBA on the Pacers.
Say what you want about the Suns, they have selfish leaders in Booker and Durant- neither are known to facilitate, both are self-oriented scorers.
Monty Williams is one of these coaches that doesn't understand how to coach big men. This seems true of virtually all former NBA players who become NBA coaches- whether it's Doc Rivers, Monty Williams or Ayton's current coach Chauncey Billups.
These are all guards/forwards who never understood the center position (and were often biased by their own playing experience). Rivers once said centers shouldn't be giving scoring opportunities, just put-backs.
Steph Curry knows how to win, period. He knows how to get the best out of the personnel. That's why the Warriors have won 4 times, with very different personnel. Look at Andrew Wiggins growth after coming to the Warriors. He absolutely is a facilitator and knows how to get the ball to people in the optimal position for them.
So does Draymond Green who is one of the best passers to big men in the league; he's shown he can do that with Wiseman, with Bogut, Cousins, JeVale McGee. Setting them up every time when they had position down low or alley-oop dunks.
DeAndre Ayton has one of the best touches in the game as a big man. He just elevates and he's got that accurate toss from the post position or mid-range (5th best mid-range in the game, just behind Steph Curry (https://www.reddit.com/r/ripcity/comments/18cj1tx/deandre_ayton_is_currently_the_5th_most_efficient/)).
Ayton has his critics most of which are misguided in two ways:
* They assume he is a worse player than he is simply because Booker and Durant didn't pass him the ball. Or that Monty Williams didn't emphasize him in the offense. They are seeing the OUTCOMES of sub-optimal teammates and coaching, not Ayton's own limits.
* They get stuck in the whole Alpha/Beta nonsense.
Do you think Steph worries if he's an alpha or beta? The Warriors don't care about stuff like that, they play to win. To do that, you maximize each player's potential. Ayton's scoring has gone down this year from ~18 points/game to less than 13 because his FGA are down. Billups is failing at his job to prioritize Ayton in the offense.
Blazers are 6-15 this year. They have guys like Jerami Grant shooting 17 times a game with a 43% shooting, while Ayton shoots 10 times at 58%. You have Malcolm Brogdon thinking he's a scorer shooting 15 times a game at 41%. EFG makes the picture a bit better, but still.
Kerr for all his faults will tell a player to stop shooting sub-optimally. Like telling Draymond to stop shooting 3's. You go where you can get efficiency but Billups is just letting the players play.
If Ayton were on the Warriors, he'd be an All-Star. They value shooting not who has the cockiness to shoot the ball the most.
Look at Tyrese Haliburton on the Kings, didn't even start many games his first year and a 3rd option his second. Now running the best offense in the NBA on the Pacers.
Say what you want about the Suns, they have selfish leaders in Booker and Durant- neither are known to facilitate, both are self-oriented scorers.
Monty Williams is one of these coaches that doesn't understand how to coach big men. This seems true of virtually all former NBA players who become NBA coaches- whether it's Doc Rivers, Monty Williams or Ayton's current coach Chauncey Billups.
These are all guards/forwards who never understood the center position (and were often biased by their own playing experience). Rivers once said centers shouldn't be giving scoring opportunities, just put-backs.
Steph Curry knows how to win, period. He knows how to get the best out of the personnel. That's why the Warriors have won 4 times, with very different personnel. Look at Andrew Wiggins growth after coming to the Warriors. He absolutely is a facilitator and knows how to get the ball to people in the optimal position for them.
So does Draymond Green who is one of the best passers to big men in the league; he's shown he can do that with Wiseman, with Bogut, Cousins, JeVale McGee. Setting them up every time when they had position down low or alley-oop dunks.
DeAndre Ayton has one of the best touches in the game as a big man. He just elevates and he's got that accurate toss from the post position or mid-range (5th best mid-range in the game, just behind Steph Curry (https://www.reddit.com/r/ripcity/comments/18cj1tx/deandre_ayton_is_currently_the_5th_most_efficient/)).
Ayton has his critics most of which are misguided in two ways:
* They assume he is a worse player than he is simply because Booker and Durant didn't pass him the ball. Or that Monty Williams didn't emphasize him in the offense. They are seeing the OUTCOMES of sub-optimal teammates and coaching, not Ayton's own limits.
* They get stuck in the whole Alpha/Beta nonsense.
Do you think Steph worries if he's an alpha or beta? The Warriors don't care about stuff like that, they play to win. To do that, you maximize each player's potential. Ayton's scoring has gone down this year from ~18 points/game to less than 13 because his FGA are down. Billups is failing at his job to prioritize Ayton in the offense.
Blazers are 6-15 this year. They have guys like Jerami Grant shooting 17 times a game with a 43% shooting, while Ayton shoots 10 times at 58%. You have Malcolm Brogdon thinking he's a scorer shooting 15 times a game at 41%. EFG makes the picture a bit better, but still.
Kerr for all his faults will tell a player to stop shooting sub-optimally. Like telling Draymond to stop shooting 3's. You go where you can get efficiency but Billups is just letting the players play.
If Ayton were on the Warriors, he'd be an All-Star. They value shooting not who has the cockiness to shoot the ball the most.