With the timing of the games, traveling to NYC for the games, and the holidays, didn't get to this until the weekend. I decided to lump all 3 into one post. Some "light" reading before the game tonight.
Check out this post for a refresher on what I'm doing here.
Name (Average Positive, Average Negative, Average Net, Total)
Newton (25.33, 9.00, +16.33, +49 MVP) - Dude was a stud this week. Ironically, the triple double was his weakest game by my charting. He scored under his average, had some sloppy plays and leaky defense at times against Manhattan, and I don't give much thought to uncontested defensive rebounds. In my opinion, he actually had a better passing day against Texas (16 valuable passes vs. 13 in the Manhattan game), but against Manhattan we only missed like one shot total on his valuable passes (and he had a couple passes that turned into assists officially that I didn't credit to him for whatever reason, likely because the passes weren't anything special, home scorekeeper specials or "by the book" definitions of assists that don't match reality). He was really great in both 1st halves in NYC (16/4 vs, Indiana and 14/3 vs. Texas). He's just the full package as a guard. He shoots, he drives, he draws fouls, he passes. He can play on or off the ball. He's off to a special start to the year.
Spencer (18, 9, +9, +27) - He had a very strong 1st half and game overall against Indiana, he struggled a bit against Texas (especially defensively), and then had a typically efficient Spencer game against Manhattan (but Newton stole the passing show in that last one so he was not quite as active as usual). 8 for 15 overall from 3 in the 3 games is beautiful. He's fitting into our offense seamlessly, and even adding another playmaking dimension that we didn't have last year with Hawkins (at the expense of a little bit less defense warping screen movement). Texas was targeting him at times defensively with their quick guards, and he mostly held up, but did have a few times he got beat or fouled.
Karaban (17.67, 9.33, +8.33, +25) - His week started a bit rough against Indiana, where Malik Reneau went off (mostly when covered by Karaban). But he played much better defensively against Texas and especially Manhattan, both defending on ball and off it (3 blocks against Manhattan). Texas he was lights out in closing time, but had missed 3 wide open 3's in a row at the end of the 1st half that let them hang around the game. Manhattan he had a strong 1st half (11/2), where he did his usual high IQ Karaban stuff: Passing from middle of the zone, driving strong to the hoop, cutting to basket for layups, etc.
Clingan (19.33, 5.67, +13.67, +41) - By minute, Clingan is by far our most impactful player. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why (trying to get him in foul trouble, think he's not mobile enough coming off injury, our defense is funneling), but teams tend to go at him when he's in the game. And he just contests everything. A ton of his value comes there. And he's been largely automatic when able to seal with deep post position. Despite looking a little more vertically explosive against Manhattan, they found some success against him by hitting FT area jumpers against his drop coverage, something that could be a problem against certain players like Joel Soriano (but in general is a shot we're fine with most of the time). He dominated Indiana on the offensive glass (and most of the teams before that), but was kept in check there against Texas and Manhattan. Against Indiana, he somehow only committed 1 foul in 30 minutes, which is what we'd love to see going forward. The Texas game he had some very obvious struggles and the illness would explain a good amount. Though I thought he was better than I remember in the beginning of that one until the fatigue got to him.
Johnson (11.33, 3, +8.33, +25) - He might be the best backup big in the conference. Actually, I don't think it's close. He's definitely the best backup big in the conference. He was relatively quiet against Indiana, despite playing a couple possessions at the 4 alongside Clingan, but was an absolute monster against Texas and even Manhattan too. In his mainstream coming out party (us oldheads remember all the way back to Stonehill), he had a 12/1 in the 1st half alone against Texas. The concern for him for the last few years was how raw he was and the mental mistakes, but he's been playing really clean defense and basketball. It really helps. He's even flashed some passing (our offense is pretty infectious that way). I don't want to cause a controversy here, but our defense was significantly better with him on the court over these last 3 games (85.8 pts per 100 against with him on vs. 100.6 per 100 against with him off). The trend does not hold for the rest of the games, and certainly Clingan's illness had some impact on that.
Ball (10.33, 5.67, +4.67, +14) - Ball is still finding his footing a bit, but that is to be expected as a freshman thrust into the starting lineup of a national title contender. He had stretches of strong play, especially in the first half against Texas and in garbage time against Indiana. He's a fine player in his role, but he does have to start knocking down some of the open looks he gets. 2/11 from 3 in these 3 games, and they were basically all wide open. The good news is that the shot selection is good, and he's not stopping the ball or slowing down the offense by thinking too much. He's been particularly solid on 1v1 defense against drivers. By the end of the year, we'll probably think of him as a genuine defensive stopper like Diarra.
Diarra (12.67, 4.33, +8.33, +25) - The second player in our dynamite bench duo (until it becomes a trio when Castle comes back). Diarra put up starter quality play in his stints this week, especially against Texas and Manhattan. The 1st half of Manhattan he exploded for 9 points and a 6/0 off the bench. He didn't play quite as well when running the show a bit more in garbage time, but who cares. He was just great in both halves against Texas. A 13/2 is about anyone can ask for from a bench player. He was contesting shots, blocking shots, getting in passing lanes, driving to the basket, finding open guys. Just stellar play. He had a few more miscues against Indiana, but still had a couple great energy plays. He had a huge strip (after Newton himself was stripped) that turned into an And-1 from Newton right as Indiana had cut into the lead and had their crowd going. A real mass crowd sitting event. Those types of plays are huge on the road.
Stewart (2.67, 0.33, +2.33, 7) - It seems like Stewart is really getting up to speed now. The Manhattan game was by far his best game of the season. He's clearly passed Ross in the rotation. I've been really liking his engagement and energy defensively when he comes into games. Hurley has gotten through to him about what is expected in that kind of 8th/9th man off the bench role. He's a bit quicker than you'd expect, especially if you watched his HS highlights. His summer weight loss seems to have helped. He made an open 3 in the Manhattan game, and while his minutes haven't been large, you can just tell he moves and has skill like a high major player already, He's on track be a good starter next year and All-League his junior year.
Some advanced stats courtesy of Hoop-Explorer over the 3 games (note that negative for defense is better but I made it into positive when summing).
RAPM loved Diarra this week (well not quite as much as Newton), especially defensively, and I did too. Spencer is perhaps our 2nd best offensive player, but worst defensive player. It all tracks pretty well with what we expected and what our eyes tell us.
Check out this post for a refresher on what I'm doing here.
| Indiana | | | Texas | | | Manhattan | | | Total | 3-Game Averages | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | POS | NEG | NET | POS | NEG | NET | POS | NEG | NET | Total NET | AVE POS | AVE NEG | AVE NET |
Newton | 29 | 11 | 18 | 26 | 6 | 20 | 21 | 10 | 11 | +49 | 25.33 | 9.00 | 16.33 |
Spencer | 24 | 8 | 16 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 13 | 6 | 7 | +27 | 18.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 |
Karaban | 14 | 14 | 0 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 22 | 7 | 15 | +25 | 17.67 | 9.33 | 8.33 |
Clingan | 27 | 5 | 22 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 17 | 6 | 11 | +41 | 19.33 | 5.67 | 13.67 |
Johnson | 5 | 4 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 2 | 11 | +25 | 11.33 | 3.00 | 8.33 |
Ball | 10 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 6 | +14 | 10.33 | 5.67 | 4.67 |
Diarra | 11 | 7 | 4 | 13 | 2 | 11 | 14 | 4 | 10 | +25 | 12.67 | 4.33 | 8.33 |
Ross | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | +3 | 1.33 | 0.33 | 1.00 |
Stewart | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 7 | 0 | 7 | +7 | 2.67 | 0.33 | 2.33 |
Singare | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0.00 | 0.33 | -0.33 |
Roumoglou | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0.67 | 0.33 | 0.33 |
Name (Average Positive, Average Negative, Average Net, Total)
Newton (25.33, 9.00, +16.33, +49 MVP) - Dude was a stud this week. Ironically, the triple double was his weakest game by my charting. He scored under his average, had some sloppy plays and leaky defense at times against Manhattan, and I don't give much thought to uncontested defensive rebounds. In my opinion, he actually had a better passing day against Texas (16 valuable passes vs. 13 in the Manhattan game), but against Manhattan we only missed like one shot total on his valuable passes (and he had a couple passes that turned into assists officially that I didn't credit to him for whatever reason, likely because the passes weren't anything special, home scorekeeper specials or "by the book" definitions of assists that don't match reality). He was really great in both 1st halves in NYC (16/4 vs, Indiana and 14/3 vs. Texas). He's just the full package as a guard. He shoots, he drives, he draws fouls, he passes. He can play on or off the ball. He's off to a special start to the year.
Spencer (18, 9, +9, +27) - He had a very strong 1st half and game overall against Indiana, he struggled a bit against Texas (especially defensively), and then had a typically efficient Spencer game against Manhattan (but Newton stole the passing show in that last one so he was not quite as active as usual). 8 for 15 overall from 3 in the 3 games is beautiful. He's fitting into our offense seamlessly, and even adding another playmaking dimension that we didn't have last year with Hawkins (at the expense of a little bit less defense warping screen movement). Texas was targeting him at times defensively with their quick guards, and he mostly held up, but did have a few times he got beat or fouled.
Karaban (17.67, 9.33, +8.33, +25) - His week started a bit rough against Indiana, where Malik Reneau went off (mostly when covered by Karaban). But he played much better defensively against Texas and especially Manhattan, both defending on ball and off it (3 blocks against Manhattan). Texas he was lights out in closing time, but had missed 3 wide open 3's in a row at the end of the 1st half that let them hang around the game. Manhattan he had a strong 1st half (11/2), where he did his usual high IQ Karaban stuff: Passing from middle of the zone, driving strong to the hoop, cutting to basket for layups, etc.
Clingan (19.33, 5.67, +13.67, +41) - By minute, Clingan is by far our most impactful player. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why (trying to get him in foul trouble, think he's not mobile enough coming off injury, our defense is funneling), but teams tend to go at him when he's in the game. And he just contests everything. A ton of his value comes there. And he's been largely automatic when able to seal with deep post position. Despite looking a little more vertically explosive against Manhattan, they found some success against him by hitting FT area jumpers against his drop coverage, something that could be a problem against certain players like Joel Soriano (but in general is a shot we're fine with most of the time). He dominated Indiana on the offensive glass (and most of the teams before that), but was kept in check there against Texas and Manhattan. Against Indiana, he somehow only committed 1 foul in 30 minutes, which is what we'd love to see going forward. The Texas game he had some very obvious struggles and the illness would explain a good amount. Though I thought he was better than I remember in the beginning of that one until the fatigue got to him.
Johnson (11.33, 3, +8.33, +25) - He might be the best backup big in the conference. Actually, I don't think it's close. He's definitely the best backup big in the conference. He was relatively quiet against Indiana, despite playing a couple possessions at the 4 alongside Clingan, but was an absolute monster against Texas and even Manhattan too. In his mainstream coming out party (us oldheads remember all the way back to Stonehill), he had a 12/1 in the 1st half alone against Texas. The concern for him for the last few years was how raw he was and the mental mistakes, but he's been playing really clean defense and basketball. It really helps. He's even flashed some passing (our offense is pretty infectious that way). I don't want to cause a controversy here, but our defense was significantly better with him on the court over these last 3 games (85.8 pts per 100 against with him on vs. 100.6 per 100 against with him off). The trend does not hold for the rest of the games, and certainly Clingan's illness had some impact on that.
Ball (10.33, 5.67, +4.67, +14) - Ball is still finding his footing a bit, but that is to be expected as a freshman thrust into the starting lineup of a national title contender. He had stretches of strong play, especially in the first half against Texas and in garbage time against Indiana. He's a fine player in his role, but he does have to start knocking down some of the open looks he gets. 2/11 from 3 in these 3 games, and they were basically all wide open. The good news is that the shot selection is good, and he's not stopping the ball or slowing down the offense by thinking too much. He's been particularly solid on 1v1 defense against drivers. By the end of the year, we'll probably think of him as a genuine defensive stopper like Diarra.
Diarra (12.67, 4.33, +8.33, +25) - The second player in our dynamite bench duo (until it becomes a trio when Castle comes back). Diarra put up starter quality play in his stints this week, especially against Texas and Manhattan. The 1st half of Manhattan he exploded for 9 points and a 6/0 off the bench. He didn't play quite as well when running the show a bit more in garbage time, but who cares. He was just great in both halves against Texas. A 13/2 is about anyone can ask for from a bench player. He was contesting shots, blocking shots, getting in passing lanes, driving to the basket, finding open guys. Just stellar play. He had a few more miscues against Indiana, but still had a couple great energy plays. He had a huge strip (after Newton himself was stripped) that turned into an And-1 from Newton right as Indiana had cut into the lead and had their crowd going. A real mass crowd sitting event. Those types of plays are huge on the road.
Stewart (2.67, 0.33, +2.33, 7) - It seems like Stewart is really getting up to speed now. The Manhattan game was by far his best game of the season. He's clearly passed Ross in the rotation. I've been really liking his engagement and energy defensively when he comes into games. Hurley has gotten through to him about what is expected in that kind of 8th/9th man off the bench role. He's a bit quicker than you'd expect, especially if you watched his HS highlights. His summer weight loss seems to have helped. He made an open 3 in the Manhattan game, and while his minutes haven't been large, you can just tell he moves and has skill like a high major player already, He's on track be a good starter next year and All-League his junior year.
Some advanced stats courtesy of Hoop-Explorer over the 3 games (note that negative for defense is better but I made it into positive when summing).
Player | Off RAPM | D RAPM | Net RAPM |
Newton | 8.5 | -3.8 | 12.3 |
Spencer | 6.9 | 0.4 | 6.5 |
Karaban | 6.4 | -2.4 | 8.8 |
Clingan | 6 | 0 | 6 |
Johnson | 4.4 | -4.1 | 8.5 |
Ball | 1.9 | -2.7 | 4.6 |
Diarra | 5.2 | -5.1 | 10.3 |
Stewart | -1.5 | -2.5 | 1 |
The RAPM data (again courtesy of Hoop-Explorer) above broken out game-by-game in picture/chart form:
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