Re: "Cheap" or "legit" assists

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

At 12:05 PM 4/1/01 -0700, Thomas Murphy wrote:
>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.

I think that in some sense this is accurate. The Celtics aren't a good
passing team overall, and I think that is because we have a forward,
talented as he is, as the primary ballhandler. Walker is not Magic Johnson.

However, it's inaccurate to translate this into saying that his versatility
isn't a great asset. The fact that a power forward CAN be our primary
ballhandler, even if he's below average as compared to point guards, is an
asset for our team because it allows us to play a point guard who isn't
strong in that department, but has compensating benefits -- good at
defense, strong scorer, cheap and easily acquired CBA talent... The other
way to look at it is that Antoine is the #1 rebounder (by far) and the #2
scorer among all primary ballhandlers, and actually shoots a decent
percentage for a point guard when you factor in all the 3's. I don't think
this is really accurate either. But you have to look at the whole package
-- his scoring, his rebounding, his position, as well as the fact that he
handles the ball a ton. It's not entirely accurate to compare his assist
totals either to a power forward or a point guard. But his passing ability
is definitely an asset, regardless of how he doesn't measure up to other
"primary ballhandlers".

Ideally I do think that this team needs a real point guard. Antoine's
passing skills will still be very useful, in the way that Webber and Divac
help make Sacramento a great passing team. I think with a good point guard,
this team goes straight from a poor passing team to a very good team
because of Antoine.

Alex