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Billups and Mercer trivia



As you all can see, I didn't have much to do this weekend.

I was a little concerned about a couple of things regarding our draft picks:

1) Billups

Colorado's record with Billups through its first 15 games was 12-3.
Billups numbers went like this:

mpg:  32
ppg:  18.4
apg:  6.0  (with 3 10+ assist games)
rpg:  5.1
spg:  2.0
TOpg: 2.4

Last half of the season comprised 13 games.  CO went 7-6.  Billups' stats:

mpg:  33.8  (+1.8 v. 1st half)
ppg:  20    (+1.6)
apg:  3.7   (-2.4, and 0 10+ assist games)  THIS IS A 40% DROPOFF
rpg:  5.1   same
spg:  2.2   (+0.2)
TOpg: 3.2   (+0.8)

His shot and FT attempts were up.  His shooting percentage dropped.

The plummeting assist numbers really scared me.  The last thing the C's
need is the second coming of "I"verson, emphasis on "I" as in "me".

The more I looked around, though, the more quotes I see stating that
Billups was directed to score more and pass less, that he does have the
ability to be a distributor as well as a scorer, and that when he does
this, his team performs markedly better.  I hope Pitino can reinstill the
mentality Billups demonstrated in the first half of last season.

I boldly predict, right here, that Billups, all things being equal
health-wise, will average 16-17 points, and 7-8 assists in his rookie year.


2) Mercer

	I was a little curious how Mercer's pre and post-Anderson numbers
compared.  It did not seem like he stepped it up that much once his buddy
went down.  So I checked _his_ boxes.

	After Anderson went down, Mercer's minutes, scoring, assists and
rebounds all went up and his turnovers went down, but he actually took
_fewer_ shots per game (15.3 w/Anderson, 14.9 w/out).  He did take 0.3 more
free throws, but his scoring went up a full point through the rest of the
season.   The FT increase doesn't cover that.  He did all this even though
he was suddenly getting much more attention defensively.  From the numbers,
he stepped up pretty well after all, becoming more efficient and more
productive, though his touches went down and his overall minutes did not
really change.

I again predict, perhaps not so boldly, that Mercer will be up and down
this year.  I think his passing will be better than people think, his
half-court defense will not be that good, and that he will average probably
around 15 points per game for the season, though this may be the result of
having to wrestle minutes from Greg Minor.   Mercer may also start out
coming off the bench backing up Minor and Williams.

	Mercer will, unfortunately, get mauled by Jordan on Halloween.

	Have a good one, folks.

Chris