Tag Archives: Chris Paul

Clippers vs. Grizzlies wrap up: Reggie Evans to the rescue

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And with a statement victory on Sunday both Los Angeles teams advance to the second round. This is the first time that both residents of the Staples Center have advanced to round two in the same year. The Clippers got an infusion of talent when a lucky trade fell in their lap. The Grizzlies were coming off a year where they shocked the world. Let’s break down this thrilling series.

The Regend continues in Los Angeles

2012 Los Angeles Clippers Playoffs Round 1 Totals

Player Pos G MP WP48 WP PoP/48 PoP/G
Chris Paul 1.0 7 271.6 0.243 1.38 4.5 3.6
Reggie Evans 4.0 7 155.9 0.271 0.88 5.3 2.5
Eric Bledsoe 1.9 7 97.2 0.209 0.42 3.4 1.0
Bobby Simmons 3.0 1 22.4 0.126 0.06 0.8 0.4
Kenyon Martin 4.6 7 128.8 0.107 0.29 0.3 0.1
DeAndre Jordan 5.0 7 150.5 0.086 0.27 -0.4 -0.2
Blake Griffin 4.5 7 247.5 0.077 0.40 -0.7 -0.5
Nick Young 3.0 7 134.8 0.057 0.16 -1.3 -0.5
Randy Foye 2.1 7 184.7 0.035 0.14 -2.0 -1.1
Mo Williams 1.6 7 149.6 -0.060 -0.19 -4.9 -2.2
Caron Butler 3.0 6 161.9 -0.129 -0.43 -7.1 -4.0
Total  7  1705  0.095  3.37  -0.6  -0.7 

Reggie Evans is really good The best offseason acquisition for the Clippers was Chris Paul. Surprisingly though, the second best one may have been Reggie Evans. In the regular season he averaged less than 14 minutes a game. In the playoffs that was upped to 22 minutes a game. He was the second best player for the Clippers, best on a per-minute basis, and even came through in the clutch.

Chris Paul is really good His first round performance quite the same as last year’s. That said, Chris Paul was the reason the Clippers made the playoffs and their best player in the playoffs. What’s scary, is that history has shown us that Chris Paul is capable of even more. We’ll have to see if he breaks out in the second round.

Where did Griffin and Jordan go? The Clippers were a three-headed beat of Paul, Jordan, and Griffin. Yet, Griffin and Jordan both played far below their normal levels in round one. Here’s hoping it was a fluke, or first time jitters. The Clippers will need them to have any hope in round two.

Kenyon Martin and Nick Young were ok Both of these players were bad pickups. With Kenyon Martin the Clippers bet on age and injury. With Nick Young they bet on potential that had no backing from the stats. In round one Martin put up a great game seven and had an average performance. Nick Young, who is typically a negative player, managed to at least play at a “not terrible” level. Had these players kept up their regular season routine, this would have been a shorter series.

Why oh why did the Clippers pick up Caron? Last season when Caron Butler went down it was actually a good thing for the Mavericks, who had a much better Marion on the bench. The thing is Butler was once a good player, but hasn’t been close in several seasons. He was bad in the regular season and was downright terrible in round one. The Clippers have him on the books for around $8 million a season for two more years. No good comes from this.

Randolph and Gay are no Randolph and Battier

2012 Memphis Grizzlies Playoffs Round 1 Totals 

Player Pos G MP WP48 WP PoP/48 PoP/G
Mike Conley 1.0 7 276.8 0.170 0.98 2.2 1.8
Quincy Pondexter 2.4 7 113.9 0.244 0.58 4.5 1.5
Hamed Haddadi 5.0 4 20.7 0.509 0.22 12.8 1.4
Marc Gasol 5.0 7 260.9 0.159 0.86 1.9 1.4
Marreese Speights 4.5 7 100.1 0.137 0.29 1.2 0.4
Dante Cunningham 4.0 7 49.1 0.125 0.13 0.8 0.1
Josh Selby 1.0 1 0.0 0.041 0.00 -1.8 -0.0
Zach Randolph 4.0 7 247.8 0.094 0.48 -0.2 -0.1
Tony Allen 2.1 7 170.2 0.089 0.31 -0.3 -0.2
Rudy Gay 3.0 7 279.1 0.055 0.32 -1.4 -1.1
Gilbert Arenas 1.0 6 23.1 -0.427 -0.21 -16.4 -1.3
O.J. Mayo 1.7 7 163.2 -0.081 -0.27 -5.6 -2.7
Total  7  1705  0.104  3.68  0.8  0.8 

Randolph isn’t back Zach Randolph had a crazy mid-life crisis when he joined the Grizzlies and somehow became a great player. He was a big reason for their playoff success last season. The injury bug hit Randolph though, and this season he has not been the same player. Losing a top big hurts a lot.

Gay and Mayo aren’t good Both of these players hover in the average zone. The problem is the team thinks they are stars. In the playoffs unfortunately these two were the worst players on the team to suit up more than 100 minutes. Cap wise Gay hurts a lot and O.J. Mayo may be costly if they re-sign him. Here’s hoping the Grizzlies can somehow sweep both out.

Gasol and Conley are good These two were the bright spots on the team. During the regular season these two are the one-two punch for the Grizzlies and the playoffs were no different. Neither had that much support though and sadly they couldn’t hold off the Clippers.

Summing up

This first round battle was very interesting. Both teams have some good players on the top but have had some questionable management moves that have constructed the rest of the team. Sadly, the lack of Randolph was enough to tilt this to the Clippers. As a consolation prize the Grizzlies can point out that they in fact outscored the Clippers. As for the Clippers, I don’t suspect they will be able to get outscored by San Antonio and still advance.

-Dre

The Wages of Wins gives out the most important award of the season.

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WINNER!

The NBA has slowly started releasing the awards of the season. I know everyone was waiting with baited breath to find out Tyson Chandler would win Defensive Player of the Year. I know Gregg Popovich shocked the world taking home coach of the year. Now it’s time for the most important award. The winner of the Wages of Wins Network Predict the Future and Win a BounceX3 T-Shirt is…..:

Matt Bailey (@Hoopisms) from Hoopism with his pick of Kenneth Faried on April 9th vs. the Golden State Warriors

Matt Bailey has been a friend of both the Wages of Wins Network and BounceX3 for a while. When Matt picked Kenneth Faried, our own Arturo Galletti (who was in first at the time) laughed and said Karl would never give Faried the minutes to let Matt win the contest. Arturo was right, Faried didn’t care and in a mere 24 minutes of play he managed to put up one of the best games of the season. For fun here’s a quick rundown of how our top guessers did (Full results here if you’re interested):

1st place: Matt Bailey with Kenneth Faried on April 9th vs. the Golden State Warriors

  • +14.7 PoP
  • Impressive Stats: 27 PTS (70.0%) 17 TRB (7 ORB) 2 STL 24 MP

If there has been a poster child of the Wages of Wins Network this season it has been Kenneth Faried. We sponsored him the second he became available on Basketball-Reference. Putting up such an insane performance on limited minutes actually wasn’t as outlandish of a guess as you would think. Of course, this pick seemed next to ludicrous a few days before the game. Matt wasn’t scared though.

2nd place: Matt A. with Chris Paul on April 22nd vs. the New Orleans Hornets

  • +15.0 PoP
  • 33 PTS (62.5% TS) 13 AST 8 STL

We gave people a chance at a second guess. Matt’s first guess was pretty strong (+9.8 from LeBron James) To win the contest with a second guess I put the impossible standard of beating the current first place winner outright by +1.0 PoP. Matt game up just short. If Chris Paul had just been able to shoot threes at his normal rate Matt would have had this. That said, Matt shows his prediction abilities are uncannily good to say the least.

3rd place: @jdguy with Kevin Durant on April 20th vs. the Sacramento Kings

  • +12.2 PoP
  • 29 PTS (74.7% TS) 14 TRB (1 ORB) 7 AST 1 STL

jdguy had been burned by his first guess with Kevin Durant, who played quite poorly on April 13th against the Kings. He rightly predicted Kevin Durant would correct this and he did with an amazing performance in a rematch. It wasn’t quite enough to win, but it was certainly an impressive guess.

Consolation: J.O. with Rajon Rondo on April 26th vs. the Milwaukee Bucks

  • +11.7 PoP
  • 15 AST 4STL 1 TOV 0 PTS

The creator of BounceX3 got the first guess in the contest and he picked the game furthest out in the future. He rightly predicted Rondo would come out swinging. What makes this guess truly amazing is that Rondo did this scoring NO POINTS! I may have to nominate this as the Wages of the Wins game of the year. Had he won J.O. said he’d likely have given the prize to 2nd place, so from the purpose of props this guess still served its purpose.

Summing up

This contest was a ton of fun and maybe I’ll try and put on another next year. If you missed out, don’t worry you can still buy BounceX3 t-shirts and just tell your friends you won!

-Dre

Reggie Evans: the Regend continues

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Last night, with his team trailing the Grizzlies by a point in the final minute of the game, Chris Paul passed the ball to Reggie Evans. Evans made a layup, putting the Clippers up by one for the game’s final margin. It was, as Henry Abbott called it, a triumph of Team Ball over Hero Ball, with Chris Paul — the superstar — electing to pass the ball to Evans — the unheralded bench player — in crunch time, instead of forcing a tough shot for himself.

We shouldn’t be surprised about Chris Paul passing the ball in late game situations. But should he have passed to Reggie Evans, he of the 4.0 PPG career average?

With the exception of an injury-riddled 09-10 season (in which Evans was limited to 311 minutes), Reggie Evans has always been an above average player.

Table 1: Selected individual career statistics for Reggie Evans

Season WP48 Wins Net Poss/48 eFG% TS% Points!/48
02-03 SEA 0.216 6.1 15.1 47.1% 51.0% 7.5
03-04 SEA 0.154 4.1 14.9 40.6% 47.1% 8.1
04-05 SEA 0.248 9.7 17.6 47.6% 51.2% 9.9
05-06 SEA 0.196 3.2 15.8 50.9% 53.6% 14.7
05-06 DEN 0.133 1.7 15.7 45.3% 49.0% 10.7
06-07 DEN 0.234 5.5 17.4 54.4% 55.0% 13.8
07-08 PHI 0.145 5.7 15.0 44.1% 46.3% 10.9
08-09 PHI 0.132 3.1 14.0 44.4% 51.4% 11.0
09-10 TOR 0.091 0.6 15.0 49.3% 49.8% 14.7
10-11 TOR 0.269 4.5 20.2 40.8% 46.6% 8.0
11-12 LAC 0.192 3.1 16.1 47.2% 50.4% 6.5
Career 0.190 4.7 16.1 46.6% 50.1% 10.2
Average PF 0.099 3.1 10.0 49.3% 53.5% 19.9

Note: Net Possessions = Rebounds + Steals – Turnovers

Evans is a good player because of his exceptional ability to gain extra possessions, which is largely driven by his excellent rebounding. But as we can see, Evans doesn’t score many points and is not a good shooter. Luckily for his teams, Evans doesn’t take very many shots, which mitigates the impact his bad shooting has on his productivity. By focusing on his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses, Evans can be a very valuable part of a successful team.

Last season in Toronto, Evans was the Raptors’ fourth best player. Now it’s true that the Raptors weren’t a very good team — they finished the season ranked 14th in the Eastern Conference — but that was because some very bad players. Evans was also the fourth best player on the 76ers during the 07-08 season (finished 7th in the East), the second best player on the Nuggets during the 06-07 season (6th in the West), the best player on the Sonics during the 04-05 season (3rd in the West), and the third best player on the Sonics during the 02-03 season (10th in the West). All this despite the fact that Evans has never played big minutes — the most he’s totaled in a single season is 1881, during the 04-05 season, and his highest minutes per game was last year, at 26.6.

That being said, Evans is not necessarily a good option if you are looking for a bucket — regardless of the time or situation during the game. But if you watch the clip, Evans was pretty open, and the Grizzlies’ shot blocker, Marc Gasol, was out of the play. The only Grizzlies’ player who could have affected that shot was Zach Randolph, and although Randolph is a good rebounder, he is a historically bad shot blocker for a big man. I’m sure that Evans knew this — Evans is on that same list, and we all know that it takes one to know one (yes, this is tongue in cheek). There’s also the fact the Randolph is still recovering from a knee injury, which further inhibits his jumping ability, and that it’s unlikely that anyone was expecting Evans to take a shot in that situation. When you put it all together, there was a good chance that Evans was going to hit the shot. Credit Chris Paul for creating the play, and have some respect for Reggie Evans, one of the league’s most underrated players.

-Devin

Best dynamic duo performances of the season

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Long story short, these two are really good.

We’re coming to the deadline for the BounceX3 t-shirt contest. The gist is you try and guess the best individual performance left in the season. If you guess the best performance you win an awesome t-shirt. If you’ve guessed and missed I’ve given you a second chance. It was this second chance that lead to today’s post.

Matt A. took a second shot and guessed Chris Paul against his former Hornets. Chris Paul did in fact trash his old team putting up a Points over Par (PoP) of +15.0 (sadly not enough to get Matt A. past my virtually impossible standards for guessing twice.) What was even more impressive is that Blake Griffin put up a PoP of +10.8. This lead me in search of games this season where two players on the same team have put up a PoP of +10 or better. Of the roughly 1000 games that have been played I was able to come up with 20. Let’s run down them.

Ibaka and Durant combine for +28.7 against the Denver Nuggets on 2/19

  • Serge Ibaka +14.5 PoP 14 PTS (79.9 TS%) 15 TRB (8 ORB) 11 BLK 0 AST 1 STL 1 TOV
  • Kevin Durant +14.2 PoP 51 PTS (78.7 TS%) 8 TRB (2 ORB) 0 BLK 3 AST 4 STL 5 TOV

Yes, this happened and it wasn’t pretty. Moving on.

CP3 and Mo Williams combine for +27.5 at San Antonio on 3/9

  • Chris Paul +16.5 PoP 36 PTS (75.1 TS%) 4 TRB (1 ORB) 0 BLK 11 AST 4 STL 1 TOV
  • Mo Williams +11.0 PoP 33 PTS (83 TS%) 2 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 2 AST 1 STL 0 TOV

Paul makes his first appearance on the list but with a different dance partner. Paul and Williams outplayed one of the better backcourts in the league in San Antonio no less.

Mbah a Moute and Dunleavy combine for +26.0 at Golden State on 3/16

  • Luc Richard Mbah a Moute +13.3 PoP 22 PTS (65.6 TS%) 17 TRB (9 ORB) 1 BLK 2 AST 3 STL 1 TOV
  • Mike Dunleavy +12.7 PoP 24 PTS (112.8 TS%) 3 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 4 AST 0 STL 0 TOV

Mbah a Moute almost gets a double double without needing defensive rebounds and Dunleavy turns up his shooting to 11. Sure the opponent is the Warriors, but still impressive.

Paul and Griffin light up New Orleans for +25.8 on 4/22

  • Chris Paul +15.0 PoP 33 PTS (62.6 TS%) 4 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 13 AST 8 STL 2 TOV
  • Blake Griffin +10.8 PoP 21 PTS (75.2 TS%) 15 TRB (6 ORB) 0 BLK 2 AST 1 STL 1 TOV

Paul and Griffin are good. This is kind of adding salt to the wound for Chris Paul. I mean hasn’t New Orleans suffered enough at his hand this year?

Night and Monroe embarrass Cleveland for +25.6 on 4/17

  • Brandon Knight +14.3 PoP 28 PTS (108.7 TS%) 2 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 7 AST 0 STL 2 TOV
  • Greg Monroe +11.3 PoP 12 PTS (68.5 TS%) 13 TRB (1 ORB) 2 BLK 3 AST 4 STL 1 TOV

Monroe is good and this game isn’t a huge surprise. The Cavs without Varejao though make even Brandon Knight look good.

Lowry and Dalembert take down Sacramento on 1/13 with +25.4

  • Samuel Dalembert +14.8 PoP 21 PTS (82.3 TS%) 16 TRB (7 ORB) 4 BLK 0 AST 1 STL 1 TOV
  • Kyle Lowry +10.6 PoP 25 PTS (67.5 TS%) 7 TRB (2 ORB) 0 BLK 9 AST 2 STL 2 TOV

Another “revenge” game against a former team here. Dalembert and Lowry are two favorites around here, so nice to have a game with both of them playing great.

Thompson and Evans get +25.0 in practice against Charlotte on 4/22

  • Jason Thompson +12.9 PoP 14 PTS (68.6 TS%) 11 TRB (2 ORB) 1 BLK 7 AST 5 STL 1 TOV
  • Tyreke Evans +12.1 PoP 22 PTS (92.6 TS%) 3 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 3 AST 2 STL 0 TOV

I mean we knew Charlotte just stopped trying but wow. Maybe there’s hope for Kings fans that Evans may be back though, even if the team may not be.

Miller and Lawson take down defending champs on 12/26

  • Ty Lawson +12.6 PoP 27 PTS (80.5 TS%) 4 TRB (1 ORB) 0 BLK 4 AST 3 STL 2 TOV
  • Andre Miller +12.3 PoP 18 PTS (92.2 TS%) 5 TRB (2 ORB) 1 BLK 5 AST 3 STL 3 TOV

Great Nugget point guards from past and present combined to take down Dallas. Oddly though, not much passing was involved.

Battier and Bron elevate their game to +24.6 in Utah on 3/2

  • Shane Battier +13.4 PoP 18 PTS (128.6 TS%) 4 TRB (2 ORB) 4 BLK 3 AST 0 STL 1 TOV
  • LeBron James +11.2 PoP 35 PTS (69.1 TS%) 10 TRB (1 ORB) 3 BLK 6 AST 0 STL 0 TOV

I couldn’t help but laugh at this. First, the top player isn’t Bron. Second, the other part of the dynamic duo isn’t Wade or Bosh, it’s Battier! Doing this in Utah is actually pretty impressive.

Thompson and Thornton combine for +24.1 against Boston on 3/16

  • Jason Thompson +13.3 PoP 21 PTS (85.2 TS%) 15 TRB (4 ORB) 0 BLK 4 AST 1 STL 1 TOV
  • Marcus Thornton +10.8 PoP 36 PTS (67.6 TS%) 4 TRB (1 ORB) 0 BLK 4 AST 5 STL 1 TOV

Alright, I get Charlotte. How did Boston let this happen? Seriously, Sacramento is on this list twice!

Durant and Westbrook combine for +23.8 against Chicago on 4/1

  • Kevin Durant +12.3 PoP 26 PTS (77 TS%) 10 TRB (0 ORB) 1 BLK 4 AST 1 STL 1 TOV
  • Russell Westbrook +11.5 PoP 27 PTS (65.4 TS%) 3 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 5 AST 4 STL 0 TOV

No Rose in this game just to clarify. The duo of Durant and Westbrook did have a pretty impressive statement game none the less. Speaking of statement games.

Parker and Leonard outplay OKC on 2/4 for +23.1

  • Kawhi Leonard +12.0 PoP 15 PTS (95.2 TS%) 6 TRB (1 ORB) 1 BLK 5 AST 1 STL 0 TOV
  • Tony Parker +11.1 PoP 42 PTS (61.3 TS%) 3 TRB (0 ORB) 1 BLK 9 AST 2 STL 0 TOV

The Spurs have one of the strongest backcourts in the West with Parker, Ginobili and Leonard are all playing well. Case in point, they played great against OKC.

Harden and Westbrook combine for +23.1 against Phoenix on 3/7

  • James Harden +13.1 PoP 30 PTS (89.1 TS%) 4 TRB (0 ORB) 2 BLK 1 AST 2 STL 1 TOV
  • Russell Westbrook +10.0 PoP 31 PTS (63.2 TS%) 3 TRB (1 ORB) 0 BLK 10 AST 4 STL 3 TOV

OKC is seriously scary. They have many great players and as we can see almost any combo of them can go off on your team on a given night.

Jones and Battier destroy Pistons for +22.9 on 4/8

  • James Jones +12.0 PoP 18 PTS (112.5 TS%) 1 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 0 AST 4 STL 1 TOV
  • Shane Battier +10.9 PoP 4 PTS (66.7 TS%) 5 TRB (3 ORB) 0 BLK 5 AST 3 STL 0 TOV

Of course Miami was going to make this list multiple times. Of course, neither time would Wade or Bosh be included. Battier and Jones made the Pistons look foolish…well more foolish than usual.

Haywood and Jefforson take down Cavs for +22.2. on 3/5

  • Gordon Hayward +11.7 PoP 23 PTS (87.1 TS%) 4 TRB (1 ORB) 0 BLK 5 AST 1 STL 0 TOV
  • Al Jefferson + 10.5 PoP 25 PTS (64 TS%) 13 TRB (3 ORB) 3 BLK 7 AST 1 STL 0 TOV

I’m not too surprised by the opponent (Cleveland is the team players seem to enjoy breaking out against.) I would have expected this to be Millsap and Jefferson.

Kaman and Smith combine for +22.2 against T-Wolves on 4/7

  • Chris Kaman +12.0 PoP 21 PTS (92.8 TS%) 10 TRB (2 ORB) 4 BLK 4 AST 1 STL 2 TOV
  • Jason Smith +10.2 PoP 26 PTS (77 TS%) 10 TRB (5 ORB) 0 BLK 0 AST 3 STL 0 TOV

I really don’t know how to react to this one. I’m pretty sure this game never happened and it’s just in the records to mess with my head.

Paul and Griffin combine for +21.9 against Nets on 3/7

  • Chris Paul +11.5 PoP 22 PTS (83.3 TS%) 6 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 10 AST 5 STL 5 TOV
  • Blake Griffin +10.4 PoP 28 PTS (62.3 TS%) 17 TRB (6 ORB) 1 BLK 2 AST 2 STL 2 TOV

The only duo on this list twice can beat up bad teams. Clippers fans should be happy these two are back for at least one more season together.

Ilyasova and Jennings combine for +21.8 against Nets on 4/21

  • Ersan Ilyasova +11.6 PoP 17 PTS (57.6 TS%) 17 TRB (6 ORB) 2 BLK 3 AST 3 STL 1 TOV
  • Brandon Jennings +10.2 PoP 30 PTS (65.7 TS%) 6 TRB (3 ORB) 0 BLK 6 AST 4 STL 4 TOV

I’m a bit surprised to see two different sets of Bucks on this list. Although, given the opponents and time of year I guess I’m not that surprised.

Calderon and Bargnani combine for +21.1 against Cleveland on 1/4

  • Jose Calderon +10.7 PoP 13 PTS (81.3 TS%) 6 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 11 AST 0 STL 1 TOV
  • Andrea Bargnani +10.4 PoP 31 PTS (81.2 TS%) 7 TRB (0 ORB) 1 BLK 3 AST 0 STL 2 TOV

The best and worst Raptor team up to have a combined great game. In his great game we notice Bargnani still can’t really be bothered to rebound that much.

Granger and Collison combine for +21 against Minnesota on 2/1

  • Danny Granger +10.7 PoP 36 PTS (70.3 TS%) 7 TRB (3 ORB) 0 BLK 2 AST 0 STL 2 TOV
  • Darren Collison +10.3 PoP 20 PTS (70.4 TS%) 6 TRB (0 ORB) 0 BLK 8 AST 2 STL 2 TOV

I have no real opinion on this game. Nice of Granger to live up to his contract for a game I guess.

Will be interesting to see if any of these duos can pull a similar feat in the playoffs. I’ll be waiting.

-Dre

The stars of the best nights of the season

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There’s but a week left in the season and there’s still a chance to win a free BounceX3 T-Shirt by predicting the best individual performance left in the season. This post should provide ample data for those of you looking to make a guess (and for those of you that have tried and failed, I’ve given you a second shot to try and win the shirt.)

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-Dylan Thomas

We all have favorite posts. For me, It’s a particular bit of crazy I came up with back in my old website. It was a series of posts (see  part 1, part 2 and part 3)  built around the concept of a really good night, the kind of night that carries your team to victory,  and how the very best players should have a series of very good nights.

I loved it for it’s simplicity and for how it gave me a completely different perspective on a well known story.

Let’s start with the very best nights of the season (thru April 15th):

Continue reading →