Ohh MFWB, MFWB! Wherefore art thou, MFWB?

bq I would also like to add that this 4 guard rotation seems to have failed in many different ways, especially because it is very difficult for Kuester to distribute the minutes. It seems that whenever one guard gets hot, he pulls him out to play someone off the bench to keep everyone happy. It certainly doesn’t make it easier that two of them make 10x as much as he does and one guy is forcing the issue to land his first big contract. Quite simply, I don’t like it. At most, we should have 3 major guards.

my god the prophecy of khandor is coming true!

I would also like to add that this 4 guard rotation seems to have failed in many different ways, especially because it is very difficult for Kuester to distribute the minutes.

That’s because Kuester is not an elite level coach…

“Wherefore” isn’t a Shakespearean way of saying “where.” It means “why.” Let’s recall 10th grade English: when Juliet asks “wherefore art thou, Romeo” she is talking directly to him. Obviously she knows where he is. Her questions is meant as a comment on the problem of their families feuding.

Completely disregarding stats because I think that they’re as much misleading as they are insight-bringing—watching this team, it’s pretty obvious that typically we’re a lot smoother on offense when Stuck runs the point than when WB does (notice the missing “MF”). Sure WB had a nice game against the Rockets, but in general there’s a “chicken-with-its-head-cut-off” feeling when he’s in charge. I wouldn’t mind doing a sign-n-trade with Will going to somebody who will throw us a couple picks.

CV is in 7 of Bynums 10 lineup distributions, and Gordon is in 5. I am becoming more and more cynical about the $90 Million Men and their ability to play in a team offense. In fact, BG being on the floor in general seems to create stagnation, turnovers, and sour taste in my mouth akin to alkaline AA battery acid…

Bynum’s ORtg isn’t much better, but that’s kinda my point, Stuck/WB have produced almost identical numbers through their careers.

This is specifically the reason that a lot of “advanced metrics” and statistics is just math-nerd fappery. The numbers might look similar for both, or even be better for Will, but when you WATCH the game, it’s clear we’re not a better team with him on the floor. It’s exactly like what you have in Golden State with Monta Ellis— sure, he puts up good numbers, but they’re quite literally a better team when he’s not on the floor. And it’s easy to see when you watch (it helps that Curry looks like he could be an all-time PG talent). I think that what you see on the floor is all that matters, usage rates and other math-turbation be damned.

I say we do what we can to get some picks/assets for WB instead of resigning him. Sign-n-trade? I’d LOOOVE to pry Collison away from the Hornets.

This timing on this post is interesting. I’m not going to get into statistical analysis, because Gabe already did a good job of that. I’m just going to point out a couple of things that have seemed obvious to me.

1) Will Bynum circa 2010 has not looked like Will Bynum circa 2009. I think it is commonly believed that this is due to ankle injuries (yes, plural) that he has been battling since the beginning of the year. Your post doesn’t even seem to acknowledge this.

2) Will Bynum seems to be getting close to 100% now, as evidenced by his attempt to dunk the ball OVER Okur (IIRC) the other night. I’ve not seen that kind of confidence from Will for a long, long time and it tells me he is finally starting to feel better.

3) Will’s last three games have been three of his best of the season. His play against Cleveland was ok, but his play against Houston and Utah was better than ok. It was good. This lends further evidence that he’s feeling better, but also leads me to my next point..

4) Will’s play with the “starting” lineup since Stuckey left has been significantly better than his play with the bench players previous to that. My theory is that the loud sucking noises coming from CV31 and Ben Gordon for most of the year have hurt Bynum’s game significantly. His improved play with the starters would seem to support that theory (although I recognize the small sample size).

5) You disparage Bynum for his drive-and-kick style, but don’t most of the best PG’s do this? Nash, Kidd, CP3; aren’t all of those guys most effective when they get in to the lane first and then pass out to an open man? Why is it bad when Bynum does it and good when they do it?

To me, this is also the biggest difference between Bynum and Stuckey. They are very similar in styles, except that I think their goals once they get to the basket are very different. Stuckey still hasn’t seemed to grasp that he has options once he gets to the rim. He’s putting the ball up about 95% of the time. Bynum will use a drive to kick to ball to an open teammate far more often than Stuckey does, in my observance.

The stuff about Bynum’s “attitude” just doesn’t jive with what I’ve read about him. The dude seems really humble and has had to work like a dog to get his shot in the NBA. Comparing him to LeBron in any way seems ridiculous to me, and a bit of a low-blow actually.

I’m not sure what we’re debating here. I think most of DBB would agree with the following, and I think you can support all of these conclusions via stats and/or educated observation:

**Stuckey and Bynum have very, very, similar play types. Both tend to dominate the ball. Both struggle to score from the perimeter. Both drive to the basket a lot.

**Stuckey is a better rebounder. Bynum is better at creating for and finding his teammates.

**Both of them have struggled mightily at times this year and aren’t playing up to what they are capable of.

**Both have great attitudes and work ethics, and both appear to be very committed to this team, this season — which says a lot. I think plenty of NBA players would have packed it in by now. But not these two.

**Dumars thinks highly of both guys and is on record saying so — he’s even gone so far as to call Bynum part of the “core” moving forward.

Beyond that, we’ll disagree for various reasons. Purely IME, neither one has demonstrated to me that they are good enough to be full-time PGs for winning teams (yet). Right now, Stuck seems to be best suited for a Jason Terry — Super Sub — Combo Guard role. MFWB seems to be best suited for a change-of-pace spark plug PG off the bench role. But neither of them are doing enough in terms of facilitating offense for teammates.

Just my two cents.

In the Wall Street Journal, no less.

One quote that stand out to me:

These 15 teams that have invested heavily in statistics have combined to win 59.3% of their games this season. The 15 teams without such analysts have won 40.7% of their games, and only three—the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks—are on pace to make the postseason.

you understand why he plays flashy. Most guys in the NBA just played hard and got scouted and drafted. Will on the other hand had to take a different route to get there. Constantly trying to get scouts to notice him and write up something good about him. I believe this has had a negative effect on him. The guy has had a chip on his shoulder the whole ride to the NBA and now thats all he knows.

I don’t quite know why but Will has changed his playing style and just hasn’t had the quickness we have all seen at the beginning of the season. The change of speed while driving and body control was something we all saw at its best in Chauncey Billups and it was something I saw a glimmer of at the beginning of the season. I guess I can only hope he can return to what we saw in the beginning.