When Thad Young was inserted into the starting lineup I began talking about the little differences, the slight edges he gives to the team by being on the floor. One thing I noted was the fact that after made shots, Thad runs to get the ball and inbound it quickly. On several occasions this has turned made baskets by the other team into fast breaks for the Sixers. It looks like I'm not the only one who's noticed, check out this quote from Andre Iguodala:One thing that has benefited Iguodala and the Sixers is the transition game. They have outscored teams by 119-51 on fastbreak points during the streak. The Sixers recently made a subtle change that has helped their leader. Rookie Thaddeus Young has been taking the ball out of bounds instead of Iguodala.
"With Thad taking the ball out, it has given me more opportunities," Iguodala said.
If you want to know why the Sixers are playing at such a high level, I can give you a couple of reasons. First, they're running more. This is directly related to Thad's extended minutes in many cases. When he grabs a rebound, the ball is out of his hands in a flash with a crisp outlet pass to a guard. Right away. He doesn't dribble, he doesn't swing his elbows around, he secures the rebound and gets rid of the ball. With the Sixers speed on the wings, this turns misses into fast breaks and easy opportunities. Even on makes Thad is always looking to get the ball moving the other way. Honestly, he and Jason Smith are the only players on the roster who seem to want to inbound the ball in a timely fashion. Twice tonight, Thad hustled after a made shot, inbounded the ball quickly and a make turned into a fast break and points on the other end. That doesn't happen with Reggie Evans in the game. In fact, Evans refuses to inbound the ball, many times Iguodala has to come back down the court to throw it in.
|
|
Top Tags |
Archives |
Bet on the Sixers with Sports Interactions NBA betting lines
Brian I just sent you an email, check it please
can't wait to see Sixers back in action and I hope we stand pat and don't trade Miller...
later
Ricky, I didn't get the e-mail. Send it to brian@blogsbyfans.com
Nevermind, I got it. Check the post above.
Thad's a fine player. I doubt we'll get to draft another like him at the 15 spot. One thing you may not have considered is that, if we were to drop out of the playoffs, our draft position would automatically improve 5 spots. That's because, while we're the 11th worst team in the league, all the Western lottery teams that are better than us get to draft ahead of us if we make the playoffs. If we drop to 9th in the East, our draft position improves from 15 to 10. Now, you might wonder whether 10th picks are historically any better than 15th picks. It's a bit of a mixed bag but the tenth picks clearly tend to be better. It's surprising how many stars have been drafted at the ten spot. Here are the 10th/15th picks going back a ways:
2006: Saar Sene/Cedric Simmons. Both teams picked project big men; neither one's playing.
2005: Andrew Bynum/Antoine Wright. Huge edge to the 10th pick.
2004: Luke Jackson/Al Jefferson. Huge edge to the 15th pick.
2003: Jarvis Hayes/Reece Gaines. Hayes is a decent bench player for Detroit; Gaines is out of the league.
2002: Caron Butler/Bostjan Nachbar. Huge edge to the 10th pick.
2001: Joe Johnson/Steven Hunter. Huge edge to the 10th pick.
2000: Keyon Dooling/Jason Collier. Both undistinguished bench players. Collier's dead.
1999: Jason Terry/Frederick Weis. Huge edge to the 10th pick.
1998: Paul Pierce/Matt Harpring. Harpring's a nice player, but huge edge to the 10th pick.
1997: Danny Fortson/Kelvin Cato. Fortson's out of the league, but he was decidedly better than Cato ever was.
1996: Erick Dampier/Steve Nash. Huge edge to the 15th pick.
1995: Kurt Thomas/Brent Barry. Sort of a wash.
1994: Eddie Jones/Eric Piatkowski. Huge edge to the 10th pick.
1993: Lindsey Hunter/Doug Edwards. Edwards averaged 2 points a game over 85 NBA games before reaching the end of his rookie contract. Big edge to the 10th pick.
1992: Adam Keefe/Anthony Peeler. Decent edge to the 15th pick.
1991: Bison Dele/Anthony Avent. Big edge to the 10th pick.
1990: Rumeal Robinson/Dave Jamerson. Robinson had an NBA career; Jamerson came off the bench in 90 games for an average of 6 minutes per.
So in 11 out of the 17 drafts, the 10th pick was better, in three they were about the same, and in three the 15th pick was better. And in most of the years that the 10th pick was better, he was a lot better.
Tray,
Good research here. Agreed, the dif. between the #10 pick and the #15 pick can be huge. Looking at this draft class, O.J. Mayo is now projecting to drop to #10 and while I absolutely don't want him, that points to decent depth in the lottery picks. I still want the playoffs, though.
Kevin Love may be available at #15 or #16. I'd like to see him in Philly.