All true. I think if people weren't doing the homer justification thing this wouldn't even be worthy of any more mention.
Greivez Vasquez very likely had his assist totals artificially raised last year by cheating scorekeepers. Just flat out, the truth. Very likely. Just the way it has long worked down there. Something people should know when trying to assess or use numbers with New Orleans PGs.
However in Vasquez's case last year the inflation does not look to rise to such a level as to essentially overstate the nature of his game, so its not worthy of major talking pointness unless you consider that 9apg mark to be signficiant.
Now, the thing about the "made the right pass/who cares" argument is this: Vasquez's New Orleans' offense was not one of the better ones last year. Nearly identical to ours in percentages, and one of the worst in pts scored (which is likely pace related):
New Orleans FG% .448
Sacramento FG% .447
New Orleans 3pt% .363
Sacramento 3pt% .363
New Orleans Pts/gm 94.1 (25th in NBA)
Sacramento Pts/gm 100.2 (10th in NBA)
So when you say "who cares he made the right pass"...well it comes down to if the numbers aren't legit, and the team numbers weren't sparkling with him at the PG, just how legit is he?? And that's a legit argument. Its not like there is a visible Nash effect. In fact our team last year appeared to get it done just about as well as Vasquez was with his. But of course that's a complex debate with many factors that we could argue about for months -- teammates, offenses, ball dominance and just so on, and before we were doen with the debate the season would be upon us and we would just see.
Greivez Vasquez very likely had his assist totals artificially raised last year by cheating scorekeepers. Just flat out, the truth. Very likely. Just the way it has long worked down there. Something people should know when trying to assess or use numbers with New Orleans PGs.
However in Vasquez's case last year the inflation does not look to rise to such a level as to essentially overstate the nature of his game, so its not worthy of major talking pointness unless you consider that 9apg mark to be signficiant.
Now, the thing about the "made the right pass/who cares" argument is this: Vasquez's New Orleans' offense was not one of the better ones last year. Nearly identical to ours in percentages, and one of the worst in pts scored (which is likely pace related):
New Orleans FG% .448
Sacramento FG% .447
New Orleans 3pt% .363
Sacramento 3pt% .363
New Orleans Pts/gm 94.1 (25th in NBA)
Sacramento Pts/gm 100.2 (10th in NBA)
So when you say "who cares he made the right pass"...well it comes down to if the numbers aren't legit, and the team numbers weren't sparkling with him at the PG, just how legit is he?? And that's a legit argument. Its not like there is a visible Nash effect. In fact our team last year appeared to get it done just about as well as Vasquez was with his. But of course that's a complex debate with many factors that we could argue about for months -- teammates, offenses, ball dominance and just so on, and before we were doen with the debate the season would be upon us and we would just see.
Like another poster said, the only reliable scoring option was Ryan Anderson.
The Pelicans simply ran play after play with Vasquez as the floor general so that his usage was so high, which I think it is what people mean the system inflates the assist number. I actually think that execution ability is his strength.
Out side of really nice passing skill set, his other strength is his spot up shooting(he improves his shooting every year), floater, his passion, and caring about winning. His pick and roll game is exciting to watch.
Pelicans fans have been complaining about his defense, hero ball, turnovers, and even "inflated" assists.
I can agree with the defense liability, especially defending pick and rolls. Monty was hard on him about it. He was getting better though.
He had to play hero ball because he was pathetically the only option before Gordon came back.
He had a high ast/tunover ratio, and we all know he is not Chris Paul.