Actually, Bob, the evidence is pretty overwhelming that the numbers stay fairly consistent no matter how many minutes a player gets, on what teams. So, yeah, actually, the intelligentsia are right, despite a random comment and a few counter-examples (Cole) to the contrary.

But you keep you singing that song! Whatever makes you happy, man!

Hi Rama,

Unlike many on this board I have my own set of beliefs in this arena, but am certainly open to being educated by being presented with evidence. Evidence being the operative word. Authority figures expressing their beliefs has some bearing but I am sure you would agree that doesn’t win the day. I have learned a lot reading and participating here, so I am going to ask you to produce the “EVIDENCE” from which you pontificate.

And of course, “fairly significant” is a completely BS term…. not one from statistical analysis. It reeks of “fudge factor” or we used to say in the biochem lab “eyeball-o-metric guesstimation”!

I am just guessing if you charted Player “X” playing against KP or Beasley, their numbers over a large sample size may look a lot different….. but I’m happy to be disabused of this notion with real facts.

I actually hope you have good evidence to support your position because I like learning…. imagine that!

But you keep you singing that song! Whatever makes you happy, man!

Now Kanter struggles more without KP beside him and Beasley has to play starter instead of playing against the other team’s bench for the most part.

But wait a minute… the intelligentsia here proved that to be hog wash by taking a sample size n=1 using a 22 year old blossoming superstar (Harden) who was coming off the bench as a 6th man for OKC!

Everyone knows the argument every bench player always becomes a top 50 player of all time, right!

Man, I had forgotten about Tobias Harris. I don’t even think he’s that good but that was such a stupid deal.

Book it they are going to finish 9th but get leapfrogged and pick 10th, because that’s just the way it works around here.

AKA Dolan’s Razor

The more that I think about it, the more insane the Magic’s team-building was. So they’re 23-29 at the trade deadline, not good, not terrible, but with a relatively young team, so there’s actual hope for the future. They then traded Tobias Harris for literally nothing. Just dumped him for the sake of not having to pay him. Then they traded Oladipo and their #11 pick (Sabonis) for Serge freakin’ Ibaka. They then spent their #5 pick on Mario Hezonja and promptly hired a coach who had no interest in playing Mario Hezonja.

That makes the Knicks seem logical in their team-building!

Good thing that the current Knicks GM wasn’t the assistant GM for the Magic during all of that insani…oh, right.

“But the way that it all played out, with him coming back so late in the season and trying to find his rhythm, it just didn’t work. The fit wasn’t there. That’s not a knock on anybody. I think if you go across the NBA, for everyone outside of a few superstar players, the fit really matters.”

The quote is Kyle Korver talking about Isiah Thomas. I quote it here, because I think it’s something we overlook a lot when evaluating players. I think Kanter and Beasley looked much better before KP got injured because basically, their fit was very good to the roles they had. Now Kanter struggles more without KP beside him and Beasley has to play starter instead of playing against the other team’s bench for the most part.

He was improving, albeit a bit slowly, but then Orlando drafted Hezonja and traded for Fournier and decided Oladipo had no place anymore on the team for god knows what reason right after they won 35 games (their best post-Dwight season to date).

It’s just stupid management.

So yeah, I’m skeptical on everyone who “busts” in Orlando, and I don’t think Oladipo and Sabonis would have turned out to be much on their team.

With Oladipo, you think it was a case where maybe they had his role miscast (wasn’t there talk of them thinking he could be a point guard?), or that they gave him up too soon?