NBA Rookie Rankings XIII

[JB_kings]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id...s-iman-shumpert-kyrie-irving-ricky-rubio-more

1. Isaiah Thomas

Undersized point guards like Thomas are supposed to struggle on defense. But Thomas has been one of the NBA's better on-ball defenders this season. According to Synergy Sports, Irving gives up 0.658 points per possession against isolation offenses, placing him in the league's 79th percentile. Thomas's opponents shoot 33.9 percent when they go one-on-one against him. Even better, Thomas forces turnovers 19 percent of the time when he guards isolation possessions. The key to his defense is speed.

Thomas is quick enough to stay in front of just about any guard in the league. So instead of trying to blow by Thomas, many bigger guards will try to out-muscle him. But Thomas has learned to get position, absorb contact, and take charges, and this negates some of the size advantage opposing players have on him.

Thought this was interesting and noteworthy. Written by Sebastian Pruiti. While he is a blogger, he's also an assistant coach on an NBA-D League team.

 

[Boogie-havoc]

He's 5'9 - that automatically makes him a bad defender the last I heard. send him to the bench.

 

[Gary]

Yah, I had said this in other game threads where people complain about his defense.. His man D hasn't been bad at all.

The ONLY issue I have with IT's defense (which I have also brought up hen defending that he's a better defender than people give him credit for) was that he's a bit small on help D. There are times when we need the help defender to muscle the offensive player and IT can't do that as good as someone like Evans or Salmons could do. But PGs usually stick to their man so I have no problem with IT's defense man to man.

For some reason others do though... Not sure what games they have been watching.

 

[hrdboild]

I've been mostly happy with Thomas' defense. There is sometimes a problem when he gets switched onto someone who he has no chance of trying to stop, but that's more of a team-defense problem. The bigger issue for me as concerns the team defense is the cumulative effect of shifting Tyreke to SF thereby creating a lineup which is undersized at all three wing positions. You can cover for a guy who is undersized, especially when he works hard like Thomas does. But you can't cover for all three of them simultaneously -- not to mention Chuck Hayes as the tallest player on the court, Tyreke at PF and every other nightmare of positional misalignment Smart has hurled at us.

 

[gunks]

I think MT and Reke at the 3 hurt our D more than IT.

If we land a good 3 this summer, via draft (MKG!) or free agency (Batum!) and if Reke shoots a bajillion jumpers and comes back with a decent shot, we could actually have a decent defensive squad.

Well...A new coach would help too.

But those what ifs are all long shots.

 

[Mal]

Why do you keep saying "He's 5-9?" Not to be picky, but measured exactly as all the other players with shoes on, he's 5'10 1/4'" See NBA pre-draft camp measurement. Is Honeycutt listed at 6" 6.75?" Nope, he's listed at 6'8" Is Jimmer 6'2?" No, measured without shoes he's 6' and 3/4". The Kings have Cousins at 6'11" Without kicks he's 6' 91/2" So far as I've looked, Thomas is the only one on the roster listed at his "barefoot" height, rather than with shoes.

 

[Kingster]

Thanks for the post. One of these days there will be consensus - IT is a good defender. It might take a couple of years for that realization to occur for some. People point to what happens when there are switches and he gets bigs on him. Well, guess what, the same thing happens to 95% of the pgs in this league. You've got to be really hunting for something wrong with his D in order to find it. He's easily in the top 20% of point guards in this league when it comes to defense. And he's just a rookie.

 

[Boogie-havoc]

Thanks for the post. One of these days there will be consensus - IT is a good defender. It might take a couple of years for that realization to occur for some. People point to what happens when there are switches and he gets bigs on him. Well, guess what, the same thing happens to 95% of the pgs in this league. You've got to be really hunting for something wrong with his D in order to find it. He's easily in the top 20% of point guards in this league when it comes to defense. And he's just a rookie.

No no, i'm telling you man - he's 5'9. he CANNOT be a good defender. that much is not an option, so i've been told - no matter what the numbers say or what our eyes show us. Infact not only is he NOT a good defender, he's also a liability and the reason we suck.

5'9! SmallBall! bench the midget!

 

[netseee]

Isaiah Thomas

He ranked #1 on Rookie Ladder this week , really have a big chance to earn ROY this year

 

[upinsmoke]

IT is undoubtedly the steal of the draft but lets not get carried away.

 

[Spike]

Hoo boy.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Thomas is in a weird place right now.

I think some Kings fans (and national/local media) completely overrate him.
And I think some Kings fans cannot look past the '60th pick, too short' tag and completely underrate him.

 

[kingjatt]

IT is good but lets not get crazy, he would barely be seeing the court on a playoff team, probably not any.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

Isaiah has always reminded me of Avery Johnson

 

[Boogie-havoc]

IT is good but lets not get crazy, he would barely be seeing the court on a playoff team, probably not any.

He'd be seeing the court plenty - do not kid yourself. maybe wouldn't start yet on a playoff team in this stage of his career as a rookie - but he'd sure be seeing the court.

When you're one of the elite PNR scorers in the league aswell as a top isolation scorer - and also play hard defense and more then hold your own on that end AND can shoot the 3 - you're gonna see the court on just about any team in this league.

--

As for the rookie of the year - let's not get ahead of ourselfs. Kyrie is the ROY and that's not even a question - and if they count Rubio then he should be the number 2.

Isaiah should round up the top 3 and be an All-Rookie first team selection - which is awesome considering he's the 60th pick in the draft and came totally out of the blue.

 

[Section 101]

If Irving misses the rest of the year it's possible. He's played in 46 games. Rubio played in 41. Missing 20 games is 30% of the season.

 

[Bricklayer]

If Irving misses the rest of the year it's possible. He's played in 46 games. Rubio played in 41. Missing 20 games is 30% of the season.

No, its really not. There is no universe where they are going to ignore Irving, being annointed as one of the future stars of the league, as ROY. Its been over ever since Rubio went down. The rest is just more embarrassing mis-promotion by the Kings marketing peeps. Makes it hard oto shake the eternal 2nd class franchise/country bumpkin label when the team always loosk so out of touch with reality.

 

[netseee]

Actually, I would like petrie considers to trade him with some cash for 10-12 pick which can choose Kendall Marshall

 

[uolj]

Is anybody really saying Thomas is too short and therefore must be terrible at defense? It's easy to argue against something that people aren't actually claiming.

My impression has always been that the argument is that his height makes it difficult for him in certain matchups and that it makes it difficult to adjust the defense assignments, especially when other shorter than average guards are out there with him.

It's great that he's doing well on defense despite his height, but that doesn't make the questions about his defense and role go away.

 

[Glenn]

Is anybody really saying Thomas is too short and therefore must be terrible at defense? It's easy to argue against something that people aren't actually claiming.My impression has always been that the argument is that his height makes it difficult for him in certain matchups and that it makes it difficult to adjust the defense assignments, especially when other shorter than average guards are out there with him.

It's great that he's doing well on defense despite his height, but that doesn't make the questions about his defense and role go away.

Can't argue with that.

 

[Spike]

Is anybody really saying Thomas is too short and therefore must be terrible at defense? It's easy to argue against something that people aren't actually claiming.

My impression has always been that the argument is that his height makes it difficult for him in certain matchups and that it makes it difficult to adjust the defense assignments, especially when other shorter than average guards are out there with him.

Add in to the fact that if the other team's best player IS a guard, then it's likely that Evans would be switched over to guard him, meaning IT is on an island with MT over the other guard/forward combo. The results are not pretty. Starting IT means you have to think about how it impacts the rest of the team and their responsibilities defensively, and I think that is the crux of the issue. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[CruzDude]

Today NBATV in their rookie ladder rankings has IT as #1. Yep, #1 in the NBA. With injuries to Kyre And Rubio, Thomas easily jumped to the top spot after Rookie of the Month in both Feb and Mar. Check it out:

http://www.nba.com/rookie-ladder/