Johnson Needs to Supplant Evans in Starting Role

[Brasky]

He played okay tonight. He did manage to get almost 30 minutes and stay out of foul trouble.

He had some turnovers that he should not have and missed a shot that he usually makes.

I thought his defense was good tonight on Wallace.

His 16 and 9 in 27.5 minutes was a bit better than I would expect of him in those minutes.

However, his overall impact on the game was not significant. The Raptors went on one mini run when he was on the court but other than it was pretty much tit for tat when he was on the floor. I have seen him have a much greater overall impact on the game than he did tonight. So I thought is was an okay game. He earned his salary, which is more than DeRozan did.

His defense tonight was easily the best out of anyone in the front court. He blows Evans and Bargnani out of the water in this respect.

[Buddahfan]

His defense tonight was easily the best out of anyone in the front court. He blows Evans and Bargnani out of the water in this respect.

I mentioned that he played good defense. It doesn't take much to play better defense than Evans and Bargnani. Evans can play good defense if he only plays 5 - 10 mpg but he just can't handle the extended minutes. It wouldn't surprise me if his hip injury tonight resulted from him playing tired. I don't know how the injury occurred but a lot of injuries happen when an athlete is playing tired especially over an extended period of time.

[JoePanini]

I'm a Bargnani supporter, but even I'd start exploring trades involving Bargnani.

I am a supporter too, I would only trade Bargnani for a 1st round pick (lottery) and a decent young center. I bet we could get Rambis to take Bargnani and Calderon by telling him they both have PG ball-handling skills :P Get me some Kevin Love.

[JoePanini]

Hey Buddha, I'm really curious and you are like the Amir Johnson expert, so do you think Amir's free-throw shooting will continue to be so good or is it just a fluke? Cause he has hit a lot, and it looks pretty fluid... If he can shoot from the line consistently, rebound, play defense and get into the post and attack the rim he could do a lot of good for us. Especially if he hits his free-throws...

[Buddahfan]

His defense tonight was easily the best out of anyone in the front court. He blows Evans and Bargnani out of the water in this respect.

He played okay based upon what he is capable of doing.

It is the type of game I would expect on an average night from him

[Buddahfan]

Hey Buddha, I'm really curious and you are like the Amir Johnson expert, so do you think Amir's free-throw shooting will continue to be so good or is it just a fluke? Cause he has hit a lot, and it looks pretty fluid... If he can shoot from the line consistently, rebound, play defense and get into the post and attack the rim he could do a lot of good for us. Especially if he hits his free-throws...

No comment no jinx. Oops did I just comment?

[Karl Marx]

I blame EVERYTHING on the Euros. Stock the team with American GANGSTAS, by God!

[JoePanini]

No comment no jinx. Oops did I just comment?

Anyways I'm really happy you were right about him, well he pretty much decides whether he will play or not. He decides to foul stupidly (because most of his early fouls were really dumb) he doesn't play, but when he plays like he can he can be pretty great. It was really sad to see you post about how you thought he might have been dumb, especially you being such a huge fan. For now he has been good, I hope for it to continue!
Can you believe people actually want Reggie to start ahead of him? It's crazy.

[Buddahfan]

Anyways I'm really happy you were right about him, well he pretty much decides whether he will play or not. He decides to foul stupidly (because most of his early fouls were really dumb) he doesn't play, but when he plays like he can he can be pretty great. It was really sad to see you post about how you thought he might have been dumb, especially you being such a huge fan. For now he has been good, I hope for it to continue!
Can you believe people actually want Reggie to start ahead of him? It's crazy.

I said he was mentally challenged. I did not say that he was dumb.

Being mentally challenged does not necessarily mean dumb.

Maybe I should have defined what I meant by mentally challenged is his case.

In my opinion having observed him play for a long time it seems to me that he is a slow learner. Being a slow learner does not mean dumb. Dumb is when you can't learn at all. Being a slow learner means that it takes more repetitions of an idea, concept etc to grasp it.

For example.

I was an accountant and had a nice career before I retired. Learning accounting stuff came relatively easy to me and I was able to grasp most accounting ideas and concepts fairly quickly.

On the other hand when it comes to stuff like languages I am definitely mentally challenged. It took me three times before I passed German 1. I did eventually learn it, but I was definitely mentally challenged in that area and still am.

Now when it comes to things like Physics, I am just plain dumb

[Liston]

Rebounding is no doubt important, but scoring and team defense are more important

Rebounding is absolutely critical in preventing second chance points and creating them. 50% of shots are missed - how is rebounding NOT as important as "scoring and team defense"?!

[Arsenalist]

I am a supporter too, I would only trade Bargnani for a 1st round pick (lottery) and a decent young center. I bet we could get Rambis to take Bargnani and Calderon by telling him they both have PG ball-handling skills :P Get me some Kevin Love.

Rambis is realizing what he has in Love, he played him 38 minutes against the Lakers (he had 24 rebounds). He was averaging about 25 minutes early in the season but it's picking up now, don't think they'll trade him for Bargnani. I think Bargnani's weaknesses are well-documented around the league and I think BC is lying when he says he gets trade offers for him everyday. Or maybe he does and they're just really shitty ones.

Funny thing is that I could see Bargnani being a very good player under a coach that can extract some serious effort and concentration out of him, so far nobody has been able to do that. If he's in the right environment (no cajoling, just tough love and discipline), he could turn it around. Unfortunately, he's been treated as a baby in Toronto and it's hurt him. From what I've heard from people, they're scared to say stuff to him because it might hurt his confidence. Shit like that, treat him like a man and he'll play like one.

[Buddahfan]

Rebounding is absolutely critical in preventing second chance points and creating them. 50% of shots are missed - how is rebounding NOT as important as "scoring and team defense"?!

Go look at the teams that have won the NBA title over the last decade or more. They have almost without exception been one of if the top FG% shooting team in the league. Whereas although most of them have ranked fairly high in rebounding it has not been as consistently high as shooting.

You have to be able to shoot to score. You can rebound from now until the cows come home but if you can't shoot you won't score.

FG% and taking care of the ball are more important to winning than rebounding. If you don't turn the ball over and shoot better than your opponents you will win a lot more often then you lose, then if you are out shot by your opponents and turn the ball over regardless of the rebounds. For example as I recall in the last game the Raptors gave up 21 points off of turnovers. That is a lot more than they gave up due to second chance points.

When the Pacers scored 144 points the other night and blew out Denver they didn't do it because of rebounding they did it because they shot the heck out of the ball.

The object of the game is to put the ball in the basket not grab the missed shots.

Having said that, a team does have to rebound to be really good. But if a team shoots better than their opponents, takes care of the ball and forces turnovers they will win the majority of their games even if they are out rebounded the majority of the time.

The key is to be plus in FG% and plus in points off of turnovers. Being plus in second chance points is also good but that is impacted by FG% and turnovers. For example If you grab a rebound but then turn it over what good does it do? If you grab a rebound but then miss the shot afterwards you don't get any points. Whereas if you made the original shot you wouldn't have to worry about grabbing the offensive rebound.

For example the top five teams in FG% differential before tonight were

Dallas
New Orleans
Miami
Los Angeles
Atlanta

The top five in rebounding differential before tonight were

Orlando
Chicago
Minn
Toronto
Dallas

The Won Loss record of the first group was 31 - 9 or .775

The Won Loss record of the second group was 17 - 21 or .425

Now lets compare the records of the bottom six in FG% and rebounding differential. I chose six here because the Raptors are the sixth worst shooting team in terms of FG% differential

Six worst FG% differential

Toronto
Wash
N.Y.
Det.
OK
Minn

Six worst rebounding differential

Cleve
Den
Det
Phoenix
Wash
Memphis


The Won Loss record of the first group was 14 - 32 or .304

The Won Loss record of the second group was 19 - 27 or .413

So we see from above that the top teams in FG% differential have a better combined record than the top teams in rebounding differential

The bottom teams in FG% differential have a worst combined record than the bottom teams in rebounding differential




http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/stats/by..._2010&sort=233