Bringing this post series back from last year for the beginning of the year, as it's most useful for figuring out how the new pieces are playing and fitting in. I've watched the replay back while taking notes.
A non-exhaustive list of positive plays are nice drives, noteworthy passes (not necessarily just assists, including potentials and hockey assists or things like strong outlet passes that start a good break out of nothing), offensive and contested defensive rebounds, strong 1v1 defense and contests, drawing fouls, steals, ball denials that disrupt opponent offense, blocks, especially strong screens that lead to advantages. Negative plays are sloppy plays, bad passes, lazy efforts, poor communication, awareness, or positioning on D, bricking wide open shots (missing the right contested shot is neutral), actual detrimental fouls (not just what was called). Even if result of the play is positive/negative I'm looking at the individual processes (so a guy can play bad D even if we don't give up points, for example).
Name (Positive, Negative, Net)
Newton (29, 12, +17) - The most positive plays and the most negative, partially to be expected as a point guard who leads the team in minutes. Newton had a lot of strong drives to the hoop in this one. Really set the tone for the offense. Led to a couple layups and a bunch of drawn fouls. He also had a number of good passes for 3s and dunks, but a couple passes were over aggressive and led to turnovers (credited in box score 3 assists and 3 turnovers). There were a couple times where he made a bad play at one end and immediately followed it up with a good play on other end (bad pass turnover, chased down the other end and blocked the transition layup.)
Spencer (19, 7, +12) - Great passing on the day. I have him down with 11 valuable passes vs. 1 bad pass turnover. Plus he made 2/3 from 3. As I thought might be the case, when curling off our off ball sets, he's penetrating and looking to pass more often than taking the quick trigger 3s like Hawkins. NAU was aggressively defending those off screen looks and we made them pay in the paint instead of the perimeter. We were also using him and the other guards to backscreen the roll man's defender, which led to a bunch of dunks on PnR lobs. I also liked him doing a few of the Andre Jackson shovel lobs to shooters like Alex in transition.
Castle (23, 9, +14) - It's funny, I didn't expect his game to line up so much exactly like how Hurley has been describing him in recent weeks. He was really good on the defensive side of the ball for most of the game. Really good. And then just like randomly let a guy leak behind him on a fast break or randomly tried to stop ball at halfcourt in a semi-break for no reason instead of running with him and playing actual defense. Just those freshman moments on top of otherwise stellar team play. His passing was very good at times, some advanced cross court kick outs to the corner, and was quite unfortunate to only get 2 assists. A few times Clingan was fouled or "blocked" (aka fouled) or the guys missed open 3s. But then he also had a bad pass on a 3v2 break and a couple ill-advised and/or poorly executed passes to bigs in the paint. Flashes of strong play and freshman moments, but overall definitely strongly positive play especially with his defense. Has a bit of a weird release on his FT and very high arcing.
Karaban (20, 5, +15) - Led the team in +/- at +33 and net RAPM. One of the main differences between the team this year and last year is that Karaban's role now is much more about driving to the hoop as opposed to firing over the top entry passes to Sanogo. It's an interesting place to notice the lack of Sanogo, but that's the first way it hit me. Shot well, looked strong on his moves. Loved the lefty drive and finish. He and Spencer both had over 170 O-ratings, which is basically like "Excellent game, don't change anything." D was mostly very good, but helped that their starting 4 Towt was out.
Clingan (24. 3. +21 MVP) - This isn't surprising. The dude is a monster. Every time he touches the ball, he draws a foul or gets a dunk. We rebounded 69% of our misses with him in the game. His impact on everyone else is really strong, too. Newton had a negative ADJ+ rating (think Porpagatu or efficiency scaled for usage) with him off the court and an elite mark with Clingan on the court. As a team we fouled a lot on defense without him, but he cleans up everything when he's in. I did have a similar thought that others had expressed here that he looked a little heavier, slower, and more earthbound this year than last year. I watched a few of the tournament games last season recently and he looked svelte (and he was listed 265 compared to 280 this season). His rebounding should only be better with the added weight, but I have to imagine the NBA folks might not actually like it as it will make him worse guarding in space.
Samson (14, 5, +9) - Great play finisher and vertical spacer. Teams are really going to have to respect his roll gravity after today, which should really open up the corners for 3s. Defense was even a little better than I thought live, especially relative to my memory of his work in the first half. Drawbacks are mostly the fouls. Did you hear in Hurley's postgame where he mentioned Samson averaged 19 points per in the 2 scrimmages? The 3 he took looked pretty ugly. Shot it practically from his waist.
Diarra (12, 3, +9) - I think this is his best game I've charted. Only 1 foul, no turnovers. Just a lot of really solid defensive play, passing, and even some rim attack scoring. A lot less "hit or miss" and more "almost all hit".
Ball (8, 4, +4) - Really liked his defensive work. Forced a couple turnovers with his ball pressure, which outside of Diarra and Castle was mostly lacking. Had a couple nice backdoor cuts, although he got one of those attempts blocked. 0/3 from 3 is disappointing considering Hurley said he was shooting the cover off the ball in practice, but small sample size obviously.
Ross (2, 2, 0) - Mostly seemed to be in the right spots. Most of his impact was "his guy gets a pass, Ross is on him, his guy passes it away". Which doesn't always show up much in my charting, but should please the coaches. He fouled the 3 point shooter at the end of the shot clock (and I tried to look and I do think he got him on the wrist), but it was inches away from a block. He had a nice pass to a cutting Karaban for a layup.
Stewart (5, 1, +4) - He had a negative plus/minus, but I don't think anything in the charting points to him defensively. Fault mostly lies with others and random shotmaking variance. Couple nice takes to the basket including an And-1 off an offensive rebound, otherwise not very involved on either end.
Singare and Apostolos were garbage time, obviously, but Apostolos had a couple dimes for open 3s and Singare had that block at the end.
Here's the game Impact chart from Hoop-Explorer:
A non-exhaustive list of positive plays are nice drives, noteworthy passes (not necessarily just assists, including potentials and hockey assists or things like strong outlet passes that start a good break out of nothing), offensive and contested defensive rebounds, strong 1v1 defense and contests, drawing fouls, steals, ball denials that disrupt opponent offense, blocks, especially strong screens that lead to advantages. Negative plays are sloppy plays, bad passes, lazy efforts, poor communication, awareness, or positioning on D, bricking wide open shots (missing the right contested shot is neutral), actual detrimental fouls (not just what was called). Even if result of the play is positive/negative I'm looking at the individual processes (so a guy can play bad D even if we don't give up points, for example).
| Players | POS (+) | NEG (-) | NET |
| Newton | 29 | 12 | 17 |
| Spencer | 19 | 7 | 12 |
| Castle | 23 | 9 | 14 |
| Karaban | 20 | 5 | 15 |
| Clingan | 24 | 3 | 21 |
| Samson | 14 | 5 | 9 |
| Ball | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| Diarra | 12 | 3 | 9 |
| Ross | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Stewart | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| Singare | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Apostolos | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Name (Positive, Negative, Net)
Newton (29, 12, +17) - The most positive plays and the most negative, partially to be expected as a point guard who leads the team in minutes. Newton had a lot of strong drives to the hoop in this one. Really set the tone for the offense. Led to a couple layups and a bunch of drawn fouls. He also had a number of good passes for 3s and dunks, but a couple passes were over aggressive and led to turnovers (credited in box score 3 assists and 3 turnovers). There were a couple times where he made a bad play at one end and immediately followed it up with a good play on other end (bad pass turnover, chased down the other end and blocked the transition layup.)
Spencer (19, 7, +12) - Great passing on the day. I have him down with 11 valuable passes vs. 1 bad pass turnover. Plus he made 2/3 from 3. As I thought might be the case, when curling off our off ball sets, he's penetrating and looking to pass more often than taking the quick trigger 3s like Hawkins. NAU was aggressively defending those off screen looks and we made them pay in the paint instead of the perimeter. We were also using him and the other guards to backscreen the roll man's defender, which led to a bunch of dunks on PnR lobs. I also liked him doing a few of the Andre Jackson shovel lobs to shooters like Alex in transition.
Castle (23, 9, +14) - It's funny, I didn't expect his game to line up so much exactly like how Hurley has been describing him in recent weeks. He was really good on the defensive side of the ball for most of the game. Really good. And then just like randomly let a guy leak behind him on a fast break or randomly tried to stop ball at halfcourt in a semi-break for no reason instead of running with him and playing actual defense. Just those freshman moments on top of otherwise stellar team play. His passing was very good at times, some advanced cross court kick outs to the corner, and was quite unfortunate to only get 2 assists. A few times Clingan was fouled or "blocked" (aka fouled) or the guys missed open 3s. But then he also had a bad pass on a 3v2 break and a couple ill-advised and/or poorly executed passes to bigs in the paint. Flashes of strong play and freshman moments, but overall definitely strongly positive play especially with his defense. Has a bit of a weird release on his FT and very high arcing.
Karaban (20, 5, +15) - Led the team in +/- at +33 and net RAPM. One of the main differences between the team this year and last year is that Karaban's role now is much more about driving to the hoop as opposed to firing over the top entry passes to Sanogo. It's an interesting place to notice the lack of Sanogo, but that's the first way it hit me. Shot well, looked strong on his moves. Loved the lefty drive and finish. He and Spencer both had over 170 O-ratings, which is basically like "Excellent game, don't change anything." D was mostly very good, but helped that their starting 4 Towt was out.
Clingan (24. 3. +21 MVP) - This isn't surprising. The dude is a monster. Every time he touches the ball, he draws a foul or gets a dunk. We rebounded 69% of our misses with him in the game. His impact on everyone else is really strong, too. Newton had a negative ADJ+ rating (think Porpagatu or efficiency scaled for usage) with him off the court and an elite mark with Clingan on the court. As a team we fouled a lot on defense without him, but he cleans up everything when he's in. I did have a similar thought that others had expressed here that he looked a little heavier, slower, and more earthbound this year than last year. I watched a few of the tournament games last season recently and he looked svelte (and he was listed 265 compared to 280 this season). His rebounding should only be better with the added weight, but I have to imagine the NBA folks might not actually like it as it will make him worse guarding in space.
Samson (14, 5, +9) - Great play finisher and vertical spacer. Teams are really going to have to respect his roll gravity after today, which should really open up the corners for 3s. Defense was even a little better than I thought live, especially relative to my memory of his work in the first half. Drawbacks are mostly the fouls. Did you hear in Hurley's postgame where he mentioned Samson averaged 19 points per in the 2 scrimmages? The 3 he took looked pretty ugly. Shot it practically from his waist.
Diarra (12, 3, +9) - I think this is his best game I've charted. Only 1 foul, no turnovers. Just a lot of really solid defensive play, passing, and even some rim attack scoring. A lot less "hit or miss" and more "almost all hit".
Ball (8, 4, +4) - Really liked his defensive work. Forced a couple turnovers with his ball pressure, which outside of Diarra and Castle was mostly lacking. Had a couple nice backdoor cuts, although he got one of those attempts blocked. 0/3 from 3 is disappointing considering Hurley said he was shooting the cover off the ball in practice, but small sample size obviously.
Ross (2, 2, 0) - Mostly seemed to be in the right spots. Most of his impact was "his guy gets a pass, Ross is on him, his guy passes it away". Which doesn't always show up much in my charting, but should please the coaches. He fouled the 3 point shooter at the end of the shot clock (and I tried to look and I do think he got him on the wrist), but it was inches away from a block. He had a nice pass to a cutting Karaban for a layup.
Stewart (5, 1, +4) - He had a negative plus/minus, but I don't think anything in the charting points to him defensively. Fault mostly lies with others and random shotmaking variance. Couple nice takes to the basket including an And-1 off an offensive rebound, otherwise not very involved on either end.
Singare and Apostolos were garbage time, obviously, but Apostolos had a couple dimes for open 3s and Singare had that block at the end.
Here's the game Impact chart from Hoop-Explorer:
