08-25-2021, 12:30 PM
(08-25-2021, 12:08 PM)Kammrath Wrote: That is 100% a straw argument.
I offered 3,461 minutes of data. You can have the opinion that the data isn't saying anything significant to you, but please do not discount the extremely large sample sizes that are at work here and which I am referencing.
This is an irrefutable fact:
Of their 3,461 regular season minutes this year, the Mavs performed their worst (more than any other player with more than 600 minutes played) in the 1760 minutes that JR played, being outscored by 6.3 more points during those minutes when he was on the court. This is 2.9 points worse than the next closest player on the team.
I believe the vast majority (but probably all) of data analysts would see this data and see that JR was the poorest on-court fit with the Mavs this year and the on-court fit that needed to be addressed more than any other this offseason. Sometimes on/off can be hard to analyze and interpret, especially in the middle of the pack on the team. But at the extreme ends, where you get the superstars clearly being the single most positive on a team and then the weak links at the bottom, it is much easier to analyze.
In my opinion, "most important problem" is not something that can be measured by any particular box-score stat. If you disagree, I guess that's what makes horse races.
Additionally, the proposition that the team has been transformed by turning JR into a trade exception is just not the case. At the very least, the effect remains to be seen. If they can turn his trade exception into a transformative player, then sure. But, at this point, they haven't. They still need the playmaker he was supposed to be. Their critical problems were not solved by dumping him.