Comments on: Vernon Macklin makes rotational debut for apparently tanking Pistons

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:47:57 +0000

So the question then is whether he is suffering from an injury or if something else is holding him back. Pistons fans can certainly hope for the former, because then it si just a matter of him getting healthy to get him to return to a high level of play.

By: 2Tough

2Tough — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:07:09 +0000

You are correct about that, but Stuckey’s level of play has returned to a similarly poor state in April.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:55:51 +0000

Up to around about the all-star break, he was pretty poor. It is believed he was playing through some sort of nagging injury, but who knows. Since then, Stuckey has been very good. Also, difficult as it is to measure, Stuckey appears to have increased his chemistry/leadership, I think. I’m not a big fan of the terms because they are too ill-defined. But that is the general consensus. Most importantly, his FTA/FGA rate has soared. And that is the most valuable part of his game.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:52:40 +0000

I guess I’m just under the impression that there are a ton more SG/SFs in the league than straight up SGs or SFs, that makes it difficult to make many sweeping statements about either.

By: 2Tough

2Tough — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:51:06 +0000

I don’t see how this has been Stuckey’s best season. Let’s take a look at his rankings compared to the rest of his career
PPG: 3rd
APG: 4th
RPG: 4th
FG% 3rd
FT%: 2nd
3PT: 1st
FTA: 1st
PER: 1st (One 10th of a percentage point higher than last year, hardly a big improvement)
TS%: 1st
Win shares: 2nd

He’s really actually been the same exact player he was last year.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:50:03 +0000

Hmmm, strange. I have not noticed him enough in the comments to particularly take notice until the last couple days.

Also, why is it so hard to not respond to trolls? Clearly, I need a bit more self-discipline.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:44:02 +0000

Ok, 30 may be a stretch, but he came in when the Pistons were down what? A dozen I think? That is hardly “seemingly out of reach” unless there are less than about 4 minutes left in the game.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:41:56 +0000

The “it would just shift when people tank” is only one of my criticisms of the idea. My strongest one remains the fact that it rewards teams who can simply start playing better down the stretch. But I honestly think that players very rarely tank. Organizations tank (like the Bobcats did this season) most effectively by trading all their current talent for future assets. As for a player like Wall being out with a phantom injury, I don’t honestly think players are pulled for phantom injuries per se. I think they are just given much more time to recuperate than they would have been given if the team needed wins. I believe that David Lee and Bargnani are in fact injured. I just think they could play if they really needed to. And that could just as easily be done midseason. As could, if a coach wanted to/was directed to, limiting veterans to relatively few minutes in favor of playing younger, as of yet lesser players more.

gmehl,
Part of why I couldn’t possibly criticize you for floating this idea but just the idea itself is that solving the problem of rewarding the teams in most need of aid without rewarding teams for not trying is a very tricky thing to figure out. Were it easy, the NBA would have already solved the problem.
Here’s what I’ve got:
Certainly not an idea that would come close to totally solving tanking, but I would love to see GMs of comparably talented teams essentially bet with each other on which of their teams will outperform the other by trading draft picks before the season. That way, the team that wins more actually gets a higher pick. Also, it shouldn’t be that hard of a sell to some GMs if the idea were brought to their attention. By and large, I think they are a prideful lot so most of them probably think their teams are better than other teams who third parties think are comparable. If both GMs think they have the better team, why wouldn’t they pull the trigger on such a deal?

Also, it’s hard not to be at all hypocritical with tanking. I hate tanking and really wish a good system were devised to discourage it. But given the rules are how they are, I want the Pistons to tank right now because I don’t want them to be disadvantaged over a moral victory.

By: Max

Max — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:51:13 +0000

I love the idea wholeheartedly. @Tarsier Teams can’t tank earlier in the season or they will totally annihilate their fan bases in a way that would be much worse than even just being the worst team in the league. No point getting a high draft pick if you have no fans or revenue and have to relocate or sell the team. Plus, nearly any bad team has delusions and hopes of success at the beginning of the year. And finally, players don’t knowingly participate in tanking but do play their part as coach’s and GMs pawns. Do you really think, say, John Wall for instance, would put with a coach or GM telling him he has a phantom injury in the middle of the season so the team can tank? No way he would ever allow that as he is bound to care more about his own career than the Wizards.

By: vic

vic — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:15:04 +0000

Because 3s usually have tougher defensive assignments. Daye’s weakness is defensive awareness. 3s also usually are more “glue-guy” type players.