"Cheap" or "legit" assists

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

I have to agree that this is a cheap shot criticism of Twon. You have to
give him credit for these assists and not start playing a game trying to
decide which assist is a 'true assist' and which is not. This criticism just
does not cut it and I can see why Walker supporters get upset - it is
patently unfair.

ON THE OTHER HAND, however, I believe that if we are going to praise Walker
for his versatility, passing skills and the number of assists he racks up
then when we discuss his assists we should comparing him with players on
other teams who are ALSO the primary ball handlers, not PFs who are not
primary ball handlers. If you did this I imagine that Walker is probably at
best average with the possibility of being one of the worst starting primary
ball handler in the league (excluding LAL and Chi who use the triangle). For
a primary ball handler he probably has some of the lowest assist totals plus
a terrible assist/turnover ratio. This is the point that many Twon defenders
just don't seem to get - when compared to other primary ball handlers
(rather than strictly PFs who on average handle the ball much less
frequently than Twon actually does) he is not *that* special and in
fact not that good given his turnovers.

Taking a quick look through the league there are eight other teams whose
leading ball handlers average less assists than Walker (Washington, Chicago,
Detroit, Toronto, San Antonio, LA Clippers, LA Lakers and Sacramento). Based
on that you could say Walker is roughly average. But two of these teams
(Chi, LAL) employ the triangle offense whose effect is to eliminate the
traditional role of primary ball handler. Toronto and San Antonio and to a
lesser degree Sacramento employ a platoon at the primary ball handler spot.
That leaves Washington, Detroit and the Clippers as the only teams that get
less assist production from the primary ball handler. Add to this the high
number of turnovers and Walker's production in that role looks even less
impressive - surpassing every team but Detroit. The closest analog you have
to Walker is Stackhouse, with Odom and Jalen Rose fulfilling a similar role
part time (Indy employs Travis Best and Clippers employ McGinnis as primary
ball handlers also for significant minutes). Walker is better than
Stackhouse (5.5 asst and 3.79 TOs compared to 5 asst and 3.97 TOs) but this
is virtually the only matchup in which he compares favorably with opposition
ball handlers in asst/TO (Walker 1.45 ASST/TO, Odom 1.42). Sure you can say
Walker does great for his size, but so does a dancing bear - but such praise
doesn't make either more proficient at the given task.

Don't deny Twon his legitimate assists, but if he is going to be our primary
ball handler then hold him to the appropriate standard - otherwise you're
making him seem better at the task than he is through a set of false
comparisons.

- Tom Murphy

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 12:57:37 -0800
From: bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>
Subject: re:

>  From: Steve Knight <Steve.Knight@t-3.com>
>
>My question is this: In other words, is he getting cheap or legit assists?

"Cheap" or "legit" assists...hmmm... .

While I think I know what you're saying, do you cancel a shot because
a guy was cherry picking?  Take the basket away when you don't hear
the guy say "bank"?

The "assist" is a good statistic, but doesn't measure all the "good
passes" that occur in a game, either.  To actually answer your
question, he of course gets both, just like every other NBA player.