Tracy McGrady: Detroit Pistons Player Previews 2010-11

He’s on a vet minimum contract. To my knowledge, you can’t to TO’s or multi-year vet minimum deals. Again, to my knowledge, in order to do either of those two things, we’d have had to use some of our MLE — and doing so sacrifices the NBA subsidy, among other things.

I concur. He could get back to form and be a major contributor to our slow and steady march towards significance again.

However, barring some catastrophic shifts, the best case scenario the Pistons face is a low seed in relatively top-heavy conference. Two years ago, I rooted like hell for the Bobcats to overtake us for the 8th seed and the right to get American History X’d by the Cavs because the benefit of playoff experience and a bit more national tv coverage doesn’t stack up against the embarassment of getting handily swept. The worst we could have hoped for by missing the playoffs was picking one spot higher and a chance for the team to start resting up earlier. Both seemed like better options than the traveshamockery that was the Cavs series.

Thus, I feel similarly about this year. The Detroit Renaissance is still in its infancy, meaning a return to prominence is likely still down the road a bit. If McGrady can be a good influence on the younger guys, provide some offense when called upon, and turn into useful picks/young players (either by his own trading or by allowing Jod the confidence to trade Hamilton or Prince) then I’d call that a victory. His window of usefulness, even if he regains form this year, is closing rapidly. I submit (as noted in the above Player Preview) that his true utility will be as a conduit for personnel upgrades rather than single-handedly propelling Detroit into the upper echelon’s of the Eastern Conference.

Although if he can just do that uh…well, let’s just do that then.

Excellence on the court, franchise loyalty, and hopefully popularity within the city and fanbase.

I pointed to my screen and said “that one’s for you, brgulker!”

MFDB

My top 5 teams are Detroit, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Denver and Utah. Sacramento, Golden State, Memphis, and Atlanta are teams that I hold heavy interest in. The rest of the teams I don’t really care a whole lot about or have a player or two that I like. I hate Miami and Boston actively.

But only if Isiah is doing consulting for the team.

I don’t think 34% is that bad. It’s not great by any means, but not awful either.

If a player takes 100 3’s and makes 34 of them, he will generate 102 points, which is exactly like shooting 51% from inside the arc as you mentioned. Which looks pretty good at first glance.

But in addition to your three points, I would add to #1 and add a #4.

4) Players who attack the basket may create shot opportunities for their teammates and may generate assists. Hoisting up 3’s doesn’t do either (unless you want to count missed attempts that lead to OReb’s, which I wouldn’t).

Preface: this is quick and dirty, not 100% accurate, but I think it illustrates the point fairly.

1A) Last season, the Pistons scored approximately 105 points per 100 possessions (here and here). So, just doing a quick and dirty comparison, if TMac uses takes 100 3-point shots (which would require him using greater than 100 possessions, due to TO’s, etc), and scores 102 points, he’s actually scoring at a rate that’s below the team average.

That fact alone, IMO, underscores the incredible importance of getting to the FT line. Think about it. If you’re even a 65% FT shooter, you’re scoring 65 points for every 100 attempts. If we were to assume that 2 FTAs = 1FGA (which I realize isn’t completely accurate), that equals 65 points per 50 FGA, or 130 points per 100 FGA.

TMac’s career season, at least IMO, was probably 2002-2003. His shooting percentages were good, but he took nearly 10 FTs per game and converted at nearly 80%. That’s how a guy who’s not great from the field can remain remarkably efficient on the offensive side of the ball. So that’s roughly 160 points per FGA.

In order for TMac to help us, I would completely agree that he needs to (be physically able to) attack the basket and get to the line. (See also: Stuckey, Rodney.)

(On the other side, don’t threes create more offensive rebound opps?)

A ref at a youth basketball game I was coaching told me this, and I pass it on to my kids now too, when you shoot a three it usually leads to long rebounds, long rebounds usually lead to the defense’s guards recovering the ball and starting a fast break. I don’t know if it is true for the NBA because people there shoot with a better Arc and maybe the rebounds don’t travel as far, but 3 pointers are probably worse for rebounds unless your team has really good offensive rebounding guards.