This Just In: Dribbling and Shooting Prove Critical Skills for Playing NBA Basketball
Can we finally call time-out on convoluted defensive analytics and start actually watching basketball?
The 2020/21 Playoffs are already some of the strangest in recent memory, in part because both the Eastern & Western Conference №1 Seeds are out. Per Statmuse, it’s the first time it’s happened since 1994, and only the second time ever.
No two players have received more hostility across socials in the wake of their playoff exits than Rudy Gobert and Ben Simmons, and if you think I’m not going to jump on board to pile on some more, you’re sorely mistaken folks. NBA Fans are calling for Rudy to return his DPOY Trophy after getting endlessly exposed by the Clippers, and it seems a foregone conclusion at this point that Ben Simmons has played his last game in a Sixers uniform.
In case you missed it, feast your eyes on some of these stats courtesy of Statmuse to see just how bad it was…
Ben Simmons vs Atlanta: 9.9 PTS on 60% FG , 33.3% FT and a total of 3 made FG in 4th Quarters
Rudy Gobert vs LA: 12.5 PTS on 69.4% FG, 69.4% FT and only 4.2 made FG per game
The Playoffs have a way of exposing players’ flaws and we’ve been forced to admit that, no matter how many positions a player can guard or how many Screen Assists they generate per game, having gaping holes in their offensive skill set is a real issue. One that’s not talked about enough, in my humble, more-or-less completely unqualified opinion.
I’m a believer in analytics. I really am. But is it time we admit that the emphasis on advanced defensive statistics has overcorrected the NBA conversation around exactly how valuable certain players are? I refuse to subscribe to the idea that it’s a more sophisticated basketball take if you deep dive into elaborate advanced metrics around a player’s defensive impact to paint a picture of them as an elite player. The depth of said statistical dive doesn’t automatically correlate with how valuable it proves a player to be. Just because offensive value is typically easier to diagnose with traditional stats doesn’t mean it’s any less sophisticated or important. How about we spend a little bit more time watching the games and perhaps letting that lead the conversation around how impactful a player is or is not? See Rudy Gobert and Ben Simmons.
Just because offensive value is typically easier to diagnose with traditional stats doesn’t mean it’s any less sophisticated or important.
Ben Simmons, for all his elite defensive skills, is being paid $30 Million to bring the ball up the court and hand it off to Seth Curry or Tyrese Maxey, who make $10.3 Million combined, and go stand in the dunkers spot. He proceeds to look absolutely terrified to so much as look at the rim for fear of having to get a shot up or, even worse, go to the free throw line.
Or Rudy Gobert, despite receiving his third Defensive Player of the Year award, who was the subject of an astute in-game observation from Greg Anthony regarding Donovan Mitchell’s timing in the 1–5 pick and roll where he was getting Rudy the ball too early on the dive. It forced Gobert to bounce it once before going up instead of a straight catch and finish which was causing issues. Bounce the ball. Once. A Max Contract player, deep into a playoff run, who can’t be trusted to bounce the ball — the primary skill required to play basketball — without being a liability.
It has become increasingly fashionable to point out as quickly as possible when an offense-first guy like James Harden is not a “two-way player” and to harp on his defensive shortcomings (look at me defending James Harden — I feel dirty as I type this). So why not the same treatment of defense-only players? If the playoffs have proven anything, it’s that offensive deficiencies hurt a team just as much as defensive ones.
Rudy and Ben are fiercely lacking compared to the modern NBA Player at their respective positions. Ben can’t shoot a lick which negates much of the one skill he does bring to the table in his playmaking. Rudy can’t…well…shoot…or dribble…or pass, really. His offensive repertoire is limited to catching and finishing lobs — something that is neither complex nor impressive when you’re 7'1" with a 7'9" wingspan. I mean, consider for a moment some of the players similar in size to Rudy but who possess the capacity to perform groundbreaking manoeuvres like dribbling, shooting and passing: Giannis, Durant, Kristaps, Embiid, Jokic, Davis and more. Hell, even Brook Lopez can bounce the ball without looking like a baby deer on ice skates.
And yet we’re supposed to just ignore this because he blocks a lot of shots? I understand his defensive numbers are elite. I watch the games and I see the way it alters shots and changes the way teams attack Utah’s Defense. But we’re kidding ourselves if we’re not willing to admit that he’s half a basketball player at best, and that this matters. The playoffs drastically changed the narrative on these two players by simply pointing out exactly the player each of them have always been.
Both can both dominate games in stretches with their unique skill sets through the first 46 minutes of a game, but their limitations make them a glaring liability when the game is on the line. It’s not just that they’re at risk of missing free throws, it’s that they both have absolutely no element to their game that would employ their teammates to give them the ball to get a bucket when their team needs one. Ben has been the perfect example, to the point that Doc was getting him out of the game in late game situations by the end of the Hawks series.
Feel free to build a case all day to prove the impact of a player like Rudy, but sit down and watch the games with me and I wish you the best of luck trying to convince me he looks even close to being one of the best handful of guys on the floor, ever. Call me crazy, but I just think that being able to get a bucket is a big part of being an important NBA player, no matter how many times we like to squawk that ‘Defense Wins Championships.” All I know is that if you lined up 10 guys to pick teams old-school gym-class style, I’m taking Lebron’s lead and picking Gobert stone cold last every time.
