Theres a difference between a shooting slump and playing bad

[Neal Romer]

I had to point this out last year when Giddey was struggling and people said he was trash. If you saw the Thunder play instead of the box score you could see he wasnt screwing them up with his play or anything. He was helping the offense get what it wanted, he just struggled with his shot for a while. Then he got it back for a few months, then he lost it around the playoffs and they had to bench him. But he wasnt making bad decisions, he wasnt neglecting defense, it was misleading when people looked at his shooting percentage after the games and concluded he no longer had value as a player. He was 21 last season. Hes got time to develop some shooting consistency. If he never does then yes hes gonna be limited in value, but then it wouldnt be a slump. Itd be Ben Simmons. People are being myopic with the shooting stuff over small sample sizes.

I mention this because ironically someone just said Caruso has been trash this year and Giddey has outplayed him. Caruso has started off in a big slump well beneath his career averages. Caruso also nearly won them the game against Denver (their first loss) with his defensive disruption in the 4th quarter. He had like three steals in the quarter. Thats what they brought Caruso in to do. Hes not gonna shoot 18% all year. So to say hes been ass because hes shot poorly in the first 8 games is just way oversimplified.

[Neal Romer]

I think it was also the same poster who announced Markannen has been garb this year and is unmotivated after a big contract.

Which again, unless hes watched the Jazz play (for some reason) thats an inane assumption to make after 8 games.

There are random guys (Christian Braun) shooting 55% from 3 so far. That doesnt mean "theyre better shooters than Steph this season."

It just means it's been 8 games and sample sizes are skewed. Its not something you can judge players' quality by this early.

[Kblaze8855]

A great Number of people think the 14 seconds out of 30 minutes represented by shooting percentage is the only performance that counts. That is never changing

[tontoz]

For the record Giddey's shooting efficiency this year is worse than last year. He also has the worst +/- on the team this year by a wide margin.

[Norcaliblunt]

Did not read.

Yeah it’s pretty obvious to anyone who has actually had talent doing anything. Homie you’ve claimed to be an actor???? You should know the answer to this question easy peezy.

[Neal Romer]

Did not read.

Yeah it’s pretty obvious to anyone who has actually had talent doing anything. Homie you’ve claimed to be an actor???? You should know the answer to this question easy peezy.


It sounds like youre spiraling a little bit in terms of your mental health.

And I'm genuinely sorry about that. It's unfortunate.

[Norcaliblunt]

It sounds like youre spiraling a little bit in terms of your mental health.

And I'm genuinely sorry about that. It's unfortunate.

Gotta give you props for that one. Lol.

I genuinely thought this was the insane asylum. Didn't know this was THE place for people who aren’t “spiraling in terms of metal health”.

I mean it’s healthy to fail in the San Fernando valley and come to this website and type essays all day everyday.

[Im Still Ballin]

It's interesting to note that OKC's offense has been far worse to start the season compared to last year. But its defense has been so good that it doesn't matter. How much of this decline in ORtg is due to shooting luck/variance or is it just a stylistic thing with how they're playing? Pace is up +3.3 and they're generating turnovers on defense like crazy.

You'd expect the numbers to balance out with a larger sample size. A -16.0 rDRtg is unsustainable; the post-merger record is -8.8 by San Antonio in 2003-04. -16.0 beats even the best Bill Russell year and those numbers vary depending on what formula you use to estimate possessions.

I thought that removing Giddey might change the balance of the offense. The idea was that Shai and Jalen could expand their playmaking responsibilities but I felt that may take away from their scoring and overall offensive impact. And that Caruso's playmaking is more secondary/connective in nature.

Hartenstein will help immensely in this regard. I'm sure the offense will pick up as the numbers straighten themselves out. I'd love to have access to OKC's half-court offense numbers.

[Norcaliblunt]

A slump in life means shit just ain’t going your way.

Being bad means you are underachieving not living up to expectations.

I can’t believe this shit is actually a thread.

Lmao.