(04-14-2021, 08:53 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: Below is from The Athletic Power Rankings (Mav's fall to 10th). They also did a Best/Worst Lineup piece. Strange stuff for Dallas. It would be interesting to see this post 2/1.
Yeah, that was really fascinating, so I dove a bit deeper in the numbers. The "Brunson" line-up basicaly didn't play together before February. "Luka" lineup logged 31 minutes in this stretch, so almost half of their total minutes. This was of course stretch hit by injuries and tough schedule.
In February "Brunson" lineup logged 36 minutes and was net negative -6.6. "Luka" one played 27 minutes and was negative at -9.1. Brunson unit had most of their minutes in first and third quarter where they were positive. They were absolutely killed in the fourth quarter with negative -115 in 7 minutes
Doncic unit got almost half of their minutes in the fourth quarter and they were negative 18 in this stretch (most used 4th quarter unit). These are of course very small samples.March was the month where Brunson unit got most minutes and best result. This correlates with best stretch of Mavs basketball this season. They have an awesome +47 net rating in this stretch, absolutely killing it in the first half with a positive 58 rating. Interestingly they logged only 2 minutes in the final quarter and were killed again with -75 in this stretch. "Doncic" unit played only 9 minutes in March and were awful -29.
Luka unit continues to be bad in April with -27, while Brunson unit is at 12. Brunson unit continues to dominate first quarters while Luka one was destroyed in thrid quarters. However, April gives extremely small sample.
Overall I would say Brunson unit is killing it in the second half of first quarter and second one. The unit also profited from overall good March performance when both THJ and Brunson were excellent. Minutes of Doncic unit were much dispersed all around and I can't decipher a pattern when they play together. It is a real mistery why this particular group shows so bad numbers. For example: 4 out of 5 most used 4th quarter lineups used both Luka and KP with different combinations of THJ, Brunson, Kleber, DFS and JRich along them. Two units are excellent +42, one unit is decent +9 and "Luka" unit is -22. The only pattern I could see - "worse" units include THJ and good ones doesn't. "Brunson unit" is unbelievable negative 109 in the fourth quarters for the season
(04-14-2021, 10:59 AM)dirkfansince1998 Wrote: THJ + Richardson sharing the floor has been a problem all season long. -112 in 706 minutes. By far the worst two man combination that is playing major minutes. Offfense tanks when both share the floor. 108.5 O-rating. 114.2 D-Rating. -5.7 net rating. Worst among all two-man combinations that played more than 300 minutes.
56.6% TS when both are on the floor. Again.Worst among all two-man combinations that played more than 300 minutes. Also rank in the bottom 5 in ast/tov ratio and rebounding rate.
Just a terrible fit. Not enough shot creation on offense. A SG sized wing defending the opposing SF on defense. Two below average rebounders playing next to each other.
Sure, but all of this doesn't explain why JRich and THJ actually work very well together with Brunson but not with Luka.