01-23-2021, 10:04 AM
(01-23-2021, 12:42 AM)pompelmo Wrote: That's one good game and two good shooting quarters covering for otherwise bad games in couple of instances if I remember right. He was looking more for and forcing his shot a lot, which is a lesser player than we need (which would basically mean another Burke).
I like his game better in the games after his break. He balanced his scoring and playmaking. More like the Brunson in his first year.
I started to do a big JB thread yesterday morning, but other responsibilities got in the way (so I'm glad this thread was revived). We are still dealing with a small sample size here (11 games), but Brunson has been FANTASTIC in the aggregate.
His PER of 17 is third on the team behind Luka and KP. His On Court and On-Off are second on the team +8/+9.2. His TS% at .620 (.611 before last night) is second on the team. But unlike #1 and #3 (Maxi and WCS), Brunson creates his own shots. He creates 75.7% of his 2's (Third on the team behind Luka and Burke) and 23.1% of his 3's (Second on the team behind Luka). Yes, he's taking .9 more FG attempts per 36 than last year, but right now with his TS% as good as it is, who do you want taking those shots instead. Is it "forcing" if they go in?
Another really encouraging thing that I've written about before is the improvement of Luka and Brunson in shared time. Last year they were a net negative in their time together. This year (8 games and 89 minutes) the pair is +17. Brunson is easily Luka's best net rating pairing in this small sample size.
I used the words "in the aggregate" because if you want to make any criticism of Brunson it is that he's had some really good games and some really bad games (and little in between). He was excellent against Pho, LAC, Chi, Ind and SAS. He struggled (along with everyone else) in the first Charlotte game and against Toronto. But, his only really bad +/- game was -9 against LAL (team was -23 that day). When he has started and when he has gotten big minutes and lately (January), he's been really good and the team has been good also. The team has an ORating/DRating of 127/119 in the four games he has started. It has a 136/119 when he gets 30 minutes of more (3 games). It is 118/115 in 7 games so far in January (when the team has been short handed).
Brunson (at least the version we have thus far this season) is WAY down my list of players I want to criticize and you have to look really hard to find anything to criticize him for.