Give Up The Damn Ball

There is often  a wide canyon that separates perception from reality.

All of us are guilty at one time or another for falling into the trap of our own misperceptions.  

I want to mention one to this board  and ask if anyone is  surprised by this.  Did you think differently before the actual statistics were reviewed.
I have read a lot of posts all year where the poster states that Kyrie Irving pounds the ball too much and in so doing he is in fact disrupting the flow of the offense.

There are statistics available on average number of seconds per possession.  I think that is a good place to start but it is only meaningful when compared to other PG's for example or players that initiate a lot of the offense on a team.

It should be no surprise that James Harden has the highest average seconds per possession.  Some things  are way too obvious to miss.  Hardin averages  6.35 seconds per touch.  Kyrie Irving averages 4.31 seconds per touch.

There are a lot of players that fall between Harden and Irving.  Here are some names, don't get bored.  This listing is for comparison sake.
DJ Augustin, Tony Parker, Chris Paul, John Wall, Damion Lillard, Trey young, Jeff Teague, Kemba Walker,  Colin Sexton, Demar DeRosan.

Let me stop right here but know this there are well over 60 players in the NBA with longer average time with the ball in their hands per touch.  Please take the time to check out the link.  These statistics clearly debunk the notion that Kyrie does not move the basketball fast enough.   He is simply not pounding the ball.  Here is a sortable link.

https://stats.nba.com/players/touches/?sort=AVG_SEC_PER_TOUCH&dir=1

On the same link there is a category on Points per touch.  You may be surprised to know that Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics in that category which begs the question why does he not get more touches?  You will not see a lot of PG's high in the rankings (because point guards are passing the ball and getting assists)  Jaylen does not get enough touches based on his productivity to score when he gets touches.

Well I guess I’ve been outed or proven wrong, not the first time. Maybe my perception was off cause during the last losing streak of a few too many I saw Kyrie lose the ball or get shot blocked too many times for my liking, but nobody’s perfect.

On Jaylen I noticed he can score in a lot of ways and thought I’ve already mentioned more than a few times he should be getting more shots and minutes. He can play in post better than anyone on the team and just needs more experience.

Jaylen needs to move more.  Move more, get better position and/or create mismatch, get more touches.

Interesting info on Kyrie.  I wouldn't be surprised if Jayson Tatum held the ball longer than Kyrie.  All that rocking back-and-forth before making his move gobbles up clock.


bob


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No Jason does not hold the ball longer.

I think players that are PG's and players that have the ball in their hands a lot will have corresponding higher amounts of possession time.

Jayson's problem is too much ISO basketball given his productivity in ISO situations. I detailed his numbers in another thread about him being compared to Melo.