Posted by all3 on 3/21/2017 5:13:00 PM (view original):
Posted by moranis on 3/21/2017 5:05:00 PM (view original):
Posted by all3 on 3/21/2017 11:26:00 AM (view original):
James has Love and Irving - Westbrook has nobody even remotely close to either.
Doesn't matter. Look at the on/off numbers. James has by far the biggest difference of any player, which makes him the most valuable.
On/off is a worthless stat. A **** player on the court with 4 good teammates is going to have a better on/off than a great player on the court with 4 lesser players. James plays with two of the best players in the League, so his on/off should be much better that Westbrook, who plays with 4 average at best players.
But if that player with **** teammates isn't on the court, wouldn't they be even worse without him. I mean on/off absolutely shows a players value to the team. For example, when Harden isn't in the game, the Rockets are only like a point or two worse. When James isn't in the game the Cavs are something like 10+ points worse. This isn't hockey where you do entire line shifts.
Look at the back to back losses the Cavs had against the Pistons and Heat a couple of weeks back. James played 39 minutes against the Pistons and was +18. In the 9 minutes he was on the bench the Cavs were -23. The game before against the Heat, James again played 39 minutes and was +14. In the 9 minutes he was on the bench the Cavs were -22. Even the last game against the Lakers that the Cavs won by 5, James was +12 in 38 minutes and the Cavs were -7 in the other 10 minutes. How about the Jazz game, +14 in 38 minutes, Cavs were -6 in the 10 minutes on the bench. There are certainly games where that type of stuff isn't always the case, but they are rare.
James is not only the best player, he is the most valuable as the Cavs are pretty terrible when he isn't in the game.