bajaden
Hall of Famer
There's been a lot of discussion at various times over the summer about Dalembert. What he brings to the team and how best to utilitize him. So I thought I'd do a little of who he is and what he's done in the past. He's been thought of as only an expiring contract by some. But we did trade Nocioni and Hawes to aquire him, and while there may be a consensus that they had no future in Sacramento anyway, I think this is more of an emotional judgement than a rational one.
Nocioni is a hard nosed player whose personal expectations exceeded his abilitites. However in the right situation on the right team, he has value. Hawes is the antithesis of Nocioni in the sense that his abilities exceeded his personal expectations of himself. If someone can light a fire under him, he could be valuable player in the league. Point is, the Kings did give up value to aquire Dalembert. For this reason I believe they may have plans for him beyound this season.
But first, who is he? He was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on May 10th, 1981. He moved to Montreal, Canada when he was 14 years old, and became a Canadian citizen on Aug 7th, 2007. He played his highschool basketball at St. Patricks highschool in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He went on to play 2 seasons at Seton Hall, where as a freshman, he was ranked 7th in the nation in blocked shots at 3.6 BPG. He declared for the draft in 2001 and was picked by the 76's with the 26th pick in the first round. For those interested, the first pick in the draft that year was Kwame Brown. Much to the regret of the Washington Wizzards.
From the 2001/02 season to the 2005/06 season, Dalembert was earning his spurs, and won the starting job in the 2005/06 season emerging as a rebounding and shotblocking specialist. He averaged 2.4 BPG that year.
In the 2006/07 season he continued his defensive and rebounding presence averaging 10.7 PPG, 8.9 RPG, and 1.9 BPG in 30.9 MPG. He followed this up the next year, the 2007/08 season with his best overall season to date. He averaged 10.5 PPG, 10.4 RPG, and 2.3 BPG in 33.2 MPG.
In the 2008/09 season things started to go sour. Mainly because of the 76's drafting Speights, who started to take minutes away from Dalembert. His minutes dropped from 33.2 MPG to 24.8 MPG. I think Dalembert thought he had earned his spot and minutes on the floor, and to have them taken by an unproven rookie obviously affected him, and unfortunately his performance. He averaged only 6.4 PPG, along with 8.5 RPG and 1.8 BPG. He still started all 82 games. As a matter of fact he's been quite durable starting or playing in all 82 games for the last 4 years.
Last year he rebounded with a good but not a great year averaging 8.1 PPG, 9.6 RPG, and 1.8 BPG in 25.9 MPG. It would have interesting to see what his numbers might have been if he had continued to average 33 to 35 MPG. His lifetime FGA average is only 6.3 APG. Thats not a lot of attempts folks. Especially when you figure that a percentage of those are tips. His lifetime FG% is .52.7%. Last year he averaged .54.5%. Whereas most of his shots come from around the basket, one would expect him to have a fairly high percentage rate. His lifetime freethrow percentage is 69.2%. However its slowly gone up through the years, and his average for the last 5 years is a respectful but not great, 72.4%.
So lets take a quick look at what he brings to the game in the way of offense, since most of us know what he brings defensively. Obviously he doesn't shoot the ball a lot with an average of just over 6 attempts a game. Last year out of 517 attempts, 364 of them came in the paint, where he made 224 and averaged 61.5%. Of the other 153 attempts, only 44 came from beyond the top of the key, of which he made 17.
So basicly 60% of his shots came from around the basket. 21% of those were dunks, and he made 94.4% of those. 5% were tip ins, and amazingly he only made 47.6% of those, getting 10% blocked. The other 35% of the 60% were jump hooks, post moves or short jumpers in the paint, averaging only 36.7% . But his overall shooting percentage in the paint is over 60%. The vast majority of his shots in the paint were assisted, and a large percentage came from running the pick and roll, which he executes very well.
So what do we know? We know the dude can dunk the ball with the best of them, and everything else drops off after that. The further he gets away from the basket, the less effecient he becomes. He's not a particularly good passer, and doesn't handle the ball very well. He also doesn't get to the line much, averaging only 2.9 FTA per 48 minutes.
So based on his past, he doesn't appear to be an offensive juggernaut. But when you consider that he only averages just over 6 attempts a game, and some of those are tips, its not hard to believe his offensive production could be increased without really taking away too many touches from other players. He understands offensive sets, and if he's utilitized properly, I can see him averaging around 8 attempts and 12 pts a game. Is that enough to keep him happy? I don't know! But if it is, then we'll have a happy defender on the floor. And thats a good thing...
Nocioni is a hard nosed player whose personal expectations exceeded his abilitites. However in the right situation on the right team, he has value. Hawes is the antithesis of Nocioni in the sense that his abilities exceeded his personal expectations of himself. If someone can light a fire under him, he could be valuable player in the league. Point is, the Kings did give up value to aquire Dalembert. For this reason I believe they may have plans for him beyound this season.
But first, who is he? He was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on May 10th, 1981. He moved to Montreal, Canada when he was 14 years old, and became a Canadian citizen on Aug 7th, 2007. He played his highschool basketball at St. Patricks highschool in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He went on to play 2 seasons at Seton Hall, where as a freshman, he was ranked 7th in the nation in blocked shots at 3.6 BPG. He declared for the draft in 2001 and was picked by the 76's with the 26th pick in the first round. For those interested, the first pick in the draft that year was Kwame Brown. Much to the regret of the Washington Wizzards.
From the 2001/02 season to the 2005/06 season, Dalembert was earning his spurs, and won the starting job in the 2005/06 season emerging as a rebounding and shotblocking specialist. He averaged 2.4 BPG that year.
In the 2006/07 season he continued his defensive and rebounding presence averaging 10.7 PPG, 8.9 RPG, and 1.9 BPG in 30.9 MPG. He followed this up the next year, the 2007/08 season with his best overall season to date. He averaged 10.5 PPG, 10.4 RPG, and 2.3 BPG in 33.2 MPG.
In the 2008/09 season things started to go sour. Mainly because of the 76's drafting Speights, who started to take minutes away from Dalembert. His minutes dropped from 33.2 MPG to 24.8 MPG. I think Dalembert thought he had earned his spot and minutes on the floor, and to have them taken by an unproven rookie obviously affected him, and unfortunately his performance. He averaged only 6.4 PPG, along with 8.5 RPG and 1.8 BPG. He still started all 82 games. As a matter of fact he's been quite durable starting or playing in all 82 games for the last 4 years.
Last year he rebounded with a good but not a great year averaging 8.1 PPG, 9.6 RPG, and 1.8 BPG in 25.9 MPG. It would have interesting to see what his numbers might have been if he had continued to average 33 to 35 MPG. His lifetime FGA average is only 6.3 APG. Thats not a lot of attempts folks. Especially when you figure that a percentage of those are tips. His lifetime FG% is .52.7%. Last year he averaged .54.5%. Whereas most of his shots come from around the basket, one would expect him to have a fairly high percentage rate. His lifetime freethrow percentage is 69.2%. However its slowly gone up through the years, and his average for the last 5 years is a respectful but not great, 72.4%.
So lets take a quick look at what he brings to the game in the way of offense, since most of us know what he brings defensively. Obviously he doesn't shoot the ball a lot with an average of just over 6 attempts a game. Last year out of 517 attempts, 364 of them came in the paint, where he made 224 and averaged 61.5%. Of the other 153 attempts, only 44 came from beyond the top of the key, of which he made 17.
So basicly 60% of his shots came from around the basket. 21% of those were dunks, and he made 94.4% of those. 5% were tip ins, and amazingly he only made 47.6% of those, getting 10% blocked. The other 35% of the 60% were jump hooks, post moves or short jumpers in the paint, averaging only 36.7% . But his overall shooting percentage in the paint is over 60%. The vast majority of his shots in the paint were assisted, and a large percentage came from running the pick and roll, which he executes very well.
So what do we know? We know the dude can dunk the ball with the best of them, and everything else drops off after that. The further he gets away from the basket, the less effecient he becomes. He's not a particularly good passer, and doesn't handle the ball very well. He also doesn't get to the line much, averaging only 2.9 FTA per 48 minutes.
So based on his past, he doesn't appear to be an offensive juggernaut. But when you consider that he only averages just over 6 attempts a game, and some of those are tips, its not hard to believe his offensive production could be increased without really taking away too many touches from other players. He understands offensive sets, and if he's utilitized properly, I can see him averaging around 8 attempts and 12 pts a game. Is that enough to keep him happy? I don't know! But if it is, then we'll have a happy defender on the floor. And thats a good thing...
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