Re: "Cheap" or "legit" assists

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Thomas Murphy wrote:

> 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.

Hi Tom:

That's a v.interesting post with valid points about Walker as the Celts primary
ballhandler. But if I may make one small point about Walker and assist-turnover
ratio,  the bulk of his turnovers may not come as the result of poor passing and
playmaking skills. Let's assume conservatively that Walker tends to make one
non-pass-related turnover per game while inside the paint. Factored in, one
might find that his "passing" assist-to-turnover ratio while running the offense
might not look so bad compared to other primary ballhandlers.

On an unrelated point brought up by this thread, I wonder how statisticians
could compile a "bad-pass-to-good-pass ratio". Obviously many think it is a
relevant and helpful stat, to the degree that there are clearly identifiable
categories of "good" passes in games, as subjective as that may sound. Ice
hockey seems to recognize this by giving assists to several skaters involved in
setting up a scoring play. I'm not saying give an extra assist in
basketball....just give a more reliable ratio of a player's good to bad passes.

Last point on the Antoine thread, I've gotta say I'm having a really hard time
with WEEI's Howard David. In fact everything about his voice and his shtick
irritates the hell out of me these days, to the point that I get too
grumpy/distracted to enjoy listening to games. Last night David made it sound as
if Walker single-handedly lost the game for us, even though Pierce and others
struggled from the field. He harped at least three more times than necessary in
the span of a few minutes about Walker's missed free throw, not to mention a lot
of earlier Walker plays. I don't need this bias when listening to a game on the
radio, nor do I need Howard's annoying shtick. Say I'm listening to a Red Sox
game (as I undoubtedly will do today), I don't want to hear the home announcers
repeatedly criticizing a single players' at-bats or whatever. I can't believe
the Boston Celtics organization condones this crap frankly. Personally, I think
David even sometimes talks condescendingly to Cornbread, presumably about word
choice or the quirky way he organizes his thoughts. That kind of thing could be
funny if done right, but it's not in this case. Max seems like a great guy, but
the on-air chemistry between him and David is pretty forced and I can't imagine
they ever socialize together. I wish they would replace David with a local guy
with a local accent, who at least gives the impression that he grew up a Celtics
fan.

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