Watch the NBA | The 10 most surprising players since the start of the game (Part I)
I'm working on a big draft. Recently, the review article is written less, and it is a relatively relaxed series.
Let's not do foreplay and get straight to the point.
10th place Saric
Putting Saric on the surprise list is somewhat thanks to the rest of the Warriors. While high-level stats don't always objectively reflect the game, I can responsibly say that the high-tier stats reflect that Saric is the Warriors' third- or fourth-best player, and not an overestimate.
Saric has been tepid, and his positioning has always been vague beyond the impact of injuries. He knows everything, but he doesn't have any specialized skills, and he is in an embarrassing state of being high or low. As a core player, Saric is far from capable enough, but he is not able to play enough value while only doing simple work.
As a result, Saric is a bit strong, but not very useful.
Saric had his best season with the Suns — before his injury — and basically one in which he really found his niche. As the No. 5 position on the bench, Saric's talent was unleashed to a certain extent:
The intensity of competition in the transition section is degraded, allowing Saric to take on a bigger role and become acceptable;
In most teams, the number 5 has more chances to touch the ball than the number 4, which makes it possible for Saric to play a bigger role.
The Warriors got Saric, and that's what they should have done. Especially in the case of the Warriors who want to raise Kuminga in the transition section, a No. 5 position who can shoot and respond to the ball will have better compatibility.
But for a variety of reasons, Saric has taken on a bigger role with the Warriors. On a personal note, this is certainly a good thing, and he has a chance to get a bigger deal next summer.
From the Warriors' point of view, relying too heavily on Saric reflects a downgrade in the Warriors' competitiveness, as Saric is characterized by superior functionality but not a high level of completion. If you're looking for a space point in the 4/5 position, a pick-and-roll, a hand-to-hand pivot, or a solution that digests the ball, Saric isn't a particularly good choice. As a substitute for these functional sub-positions, Saric should be correctly positioned as a jack-of-all-trades for the bench front, a 15-minute player in a high-end game. And now, as long as Saric plays with the Warriors, I will think that Kerr has not given him long enough, because the functionality he provides, especially the mid-effect outside of the constipation game, or the pick-and-catch hand, is the best way for the Warriors to attack when there is no way.
If Saric continues to play the role of "regular three" or "intermittent second" with the Warriors, then the Warriors will have no play this season. To put it bluntly, the players who were supposed to play these two roles had to pick their feet.
If one day, Saric retires to the Warriors' sixth or seventh best player without dropping at his current level, the Warriors will still be able to fight.
No. 9 Isaiah Joe
Isaiah Joe made seven three-pointers in the rematch against the Warriors.
That's not the point, the point is, he only made 7 shots in the game.
Joe is deadly, hitting 47 three-pointers so far this season, with 14 players making more shots than him, but Joe's 48.5 percent three-point percentage is at least 3 percentage points higher than theirs.
Joe's lethal three-point crosshairs still need to be annotated. While he's not the kind of secondary shooter who uses off-ball screens and hand-to-hand hands to develop a lot of offense, he does have some ability to catch the ball and shoot quickly after moving. This is important.
The other thing is that Joe's offensive functionality outside of projection is limited, which certainly doesn't sound like a commendatory description, but this trait can have an unintended effect:
Needless to say, if the opponent takes a player with strong defensive ability to defend Joe, he may be punished by his three-pointer;
If the opponent takes a single defense to defend Joe, and Joe does not play the main offense, it will feel like a waste of leading defense resources.
After these two types are ruled out, the player who is most suitable to defend Joe will not be a defensive strength.
But the Thunder have SGA, and if it is a single defense weakness to prevent Joe, it makes Joe a natural tool for SGA.
The Thunder have not fully explored this matter, which has to do with the employment of other positions of the Thunder. But it's a potential point, because the Thunder are really capable of posing for Joe as the weakest ball handler on the court. In this case, Joe becomes an optional cover option.
How well Joe performs in this matter will also go a long way in determining his playing value in the high-end game.
No. 8 Jalen Johnson
Players who just finished writing a few days ago:
It's a full-size, athletic, and all-round talent with a good ball quotient. He can do assistant defense, can change defense, can hold the ball to advance, can handle 4 to 3, can complete the transfer ball at 45 degrees, can play the ball in the high and low positions, and can also hold the ball to do some mismatch punishment. In addition to the need for improvement in outside projection consistency, Jalen Johnson basically has all the excellent qualities of a modern No. 4 puzzle, and the functionality he provides is exactly what the Hawks once lacked. He's the Hawks' best defensive forward in years, and he's also able to split the Eagles' playmaking tasks from the backcourt to the frontcourt, enriching the team's offensive options and making the team more unpredictable. If the Hawks have a chance to be in the top half of the Eastern Conference playoffs again, then Jalen Johnson must be the most important incremental point. The Eagles have tried countless answers on the front line over the years, and it seems that this one is the closest to the right solution.
Jing Yimo, public account: Jing Yimo's secretly powerful guys (twenty-two)
I was injured just after blowing. Take a break of 3-4 weeks.
For the Eagles, it was a big loss.
7th place Maxey
I might be a little late to blow Maxi?
When Maxey wins the Eastern Conference Weekly Championship or scores 50 points against the Pacers, it's time to blow a wave. His performance has been on a slight dip lately, and the 76ers' record has fluctuated, and the excitement about him has passed a little.
This past little bit means that there are too many strong players in the league this season, so that Maxey's BPM has risen to the top 20 in the league and has become the "hidden core" behind Embiid, but it has not been able to detonate public opinion. In the "small series" against the Pacers, what was talked about more was Haliburton, who had a total of 58 points and 32 assists and no turnovers in two games, but in fact, Maxey scored a total of 77 points in these two games, and 20 of 32 in that game was quite explosive.
But it is also the small series with the Pacers, compared to Haliburton, it can be directly seen that Maxey's improved passing and control, compared with the top dominators, still seems immature - OK, I went too far, how many guards are not immature compared to Haliburton?
However, Maxey's passing is really about what he has to mention this season. With Harden gone, Maxey became the team's de facto main control, with more time on the ball and more points and assists, which is not surprising. The mistake is only a slight increase is an accident. This season, Maxey has averaged 6.8 assists per game so far, with only 1.5 turnovers, and an assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.54, which can be described as quite solid.
Of course, there may be a little bit of "moisture" in this. Embiid is like a high-post "moving island", he can give hand-to-hand coordination and short-distance cards to several outside ball carriers, and can also receive their return balls as a mid-range, or, in his free-throw line sweet spot area, shoot the mid-range, this set of operations can actually improve each other's assist statistics.
This assist is not technically difficult, but it is meaningful.
The transition between the main attackers who can play with the ball can help each other reduce development costs and optimize offensive options. The 76ers are not a pure "two-person turn" team, in addition to Embiid and Maxey, there are other ball-holding points, but the interaction between the two is still decisive, and the quality of the two's blocking and hand-to-hand must represent the offensive ceiling of the 76ers. Compared to all the combinations Embiid has experienced in the past, his cooperation with Maxi is the most balanced one. In the past, with Embiid, in the end, the center of gravity will definitely fall on Embiid, so the real defense must start after the ball falls into Embiid's hand, and the center of gravity is very easy to grasp - refer to this year's series between the 76ers and the Green Army.
But the combination of Maxey and Embiid has a "46 open" posture. Maxey's ability to tear up the defense, and after tearing the defense, the higher-than-expected performance of finding teammates really made the 76ers' offense appear a "second pole".
So, Maxey's average of 6.8 assists and 4.54 assist-to-turnover ratios per game is just part of the 76ers' pass-and-miss progress. Embiid's 6.3 assists per game, and 1.70 are not exquisite, but they are the best assist-to-turnover ratio of his career, and perhaps the more important part.
The people who make the ball for Embiid are still there, and now there are people who can pick up Embiid's pot, and it has changed from one-way feeding to two-way running, which is the key to the 76ers' hostage change.
6th place Bitadze
In the past, when I wrote about magic, I would always talk about two resources that they lacked:
The first, backcourt projection. Needless to say, the Magic are one of the most constipated teams in the league;
The second, the position of center forward, is still necessary to be upgraded.
Of course, Wendell Carter is not a bad center, but he can't provide the breakthrough space that the Magic front line needs, and at the same time, he is a small interior lineman, and no matter how good the defense is, there is a ceiling.
What the Magic want is a real shooter-type basket guard.
It's hard to find such people. Objectively speaking, the Magic did not find such a player.
However, Carter's injury still made the Magic discover two things:
First thing, there's really something about the end of Big Wagner;
The second thing, Bitazé, this lottery ticket scratched by the Magic last season is too TMD-fierce!
Bitadze is a brutal basket protector, and the Magic are now second in the league in defensive efficiency, except for Suggs, who plays in the finals every round, and Isaac, who you have to cherish every minute he is on the court, another mainstay you can't ignore is Bitadze.
Not only that, Bitadze was able to pass the card ball that led the defender, which if the coach of a certain team saw it, he would inevitably reach the top of the skull.
Bitadze's 3.9 per cent block rate is better than 93 per cent of players in the same position. His turnover rate of 9.5 percent is better than 88 percent of players in the same position.
What's more, he gets a base salary.
"A defensive, smart center, how can you find it?"
"It's easy to say, with such a little money that can be used, how can you strengthen the No. 5 position?"
Do you mean Tyse?
If you have a heart, you can always think of a way.