who knows, maybe he surprises everyone – who knows…

That is concerning especially when paired with his low career bpm, -0.8. Also not a perfect stat but when imperfect stats start piling up and saying the same thing they start to gain credence.

He is having his worst +/- and second worst bpm this year. Detroit was outscored by 13.5 pts per 100 poss when he was on the floor and outscored by 5.8 when he was off the floor.

Even with a lot of noise that is a sobering stat.

This +/- stat is about comparing the teams offensive and defensive ratings when a player is on and off the floor. It is on bref under play by play, +/- per 100 poss On/off.

Jerome James got a big contract with these very same New York Knicks because he played well in one series. Did that series prove something about Big Snacks’ intestinal fortitude and ability to deal with pressure or whatever? No. It was small sample size theater.

To be fair to Big Snacks, he never got a chance to play in another playoff series. He could have been saving himself for the “real season” to begin the whole time he played here.

Specifically, please explain to me why you have spent the whole day arguing that being guarded by Kawhi Leonard every two days is no different than being guarded by Kyle Kuzma on a random Thursday in February. Because that is the position you’ve been arguing against all day and longer.

Yeah, sure, playoff games are different. I have not once made the argument that regular season games are the same as postseason games.

OK but several posters have, and that’s what this argument was about.

The thing that I take issue with is that DDV is a “big playoff risk” but Dejounte Murray is somehow not a playoff risk, because Dejounte played well in one five game series. It’s that nonsense that I am arguing against.

Fair enough. I agree completely.

The thing that I take issue with is that DDV is a “big playoff risk” but Dejounte Murray is somehow not a playoff risk, because Dejounte played well in one five game series. It’s that nonsense that I am arguing against.

Variance and matchups are real things. There is not some sort of inner playoff greatness in Dejounte Murray that makes him less of a risk to play poorly in the playoffs. E has fallen into the fallacy of weighing small sample size performances WAY too heavily.

I mean, Jerome James got a big contract with these very same New York Knicks because he played well in one series. Did that series prove something about Big Snacks’ intestinal fortitude and ability to deal with pressure or whatever? No. It was small sample size theater.

It seems absurd to draw the same conclusion about Dejounte Murray, who is a player I actually kind of like! He’s not Mr. Playoffs because he had one good series.

Let’s do Josh Hart. Crushed it in the Cleveland series, his one and only playoff series at that time. Played legitimately great, helped us win that series. Does that make Josh Hart an official “good in the playoffs” player? In the next round he stunk. Bigger sample size. Regression to mean.

You get what I’m saying?

Today and many times in recent days Swifty made the assertion that regular season NBA basketball played in January is played at the same level as the NBA basketball in the Finals.

I found that to be preposterous and said as much, but surprisingly met resistance from Swifty, Pagliacci, and JK47.

So let me ask the three of you guys point blank:

1. Do you believe there is no difference between a Knicks Hornets game in January and a Nuggets Heat game in the NBA Finals?

2 (a). If you believe they are the same, please explain why.

2 (b). If you don’t believe they are the same, please explain why you are building straw men to argue with.

Case in point: Frank Ntilikina. There’s a guy who obviously sucks at basketball. Was just waived and probably has no future in the league. Obvious to almost anybody that watches him play that he is not a good NBA player. Yet there he is, +2.5 on/off for his career per 100 possessions. Positive on/off almost every year.

It’s not that Frank Ntilikina is a good player. It’s that the stat, on its own without lots of context, is useless.