Posts tagged as:

AJ Price

AJ Price Enters the Rotation, Helps Put Boston Away

by Jared Wade on January 7, 2012 at 4:12 pm · 2 comments

The Pacers were up 6 on the Celtics when the fourth quarter started last night. After a disgusting, borderline-unwatchable, lockout-rust-tainted first half, both teams had gotten back on the track. Boston shot 11-for-20 in the third quarter and looked to be readying their late-game comeback attempt. The mostly dormant TD Banknorth Garden crowd had been brought alive each time one of the team’s perimeter Hall of Famers knocked down one of their 3 threes in the period. Rondo was dishing out assists all over the court and brought some additional passion to the game on two verbals exchanges with a ref, the second earning him a technical. Even Keyon Dooling was wowing the crowd off the bench, breaking out a slick “Rondo Fake” deception move on the way to a driving layup late in the quarter.

But the Pacers soon took complete control of the game. At the helm was AJ Price.

George Hill did the glory work, sticking three jumpers to extend Indiana’s lead to 13 just over 3 minutes into the final period. But it was AJ’s steady work as floor general, which sparked an 8-0 run, that keep the offense moving and creating good shots

Pacers captain Danny Granger, who watched all this from the bench, was impressed. ”I thought [Price] was the player of the game,” said Granger. “I call him the player of the game because he came in — he only made two free throws but he ran that team. He didn’t overdo anything. He made the right passes: George [Hill] was hot, so he got George the ball where he needed it to be. That’s what you need from a point guard: a facilitator. So AJ was the player of the game to me because that gave us the lead — the cushion — that we needed.”

After the game, Coach Frank Vogel also had praise for the third-year guard he has seldom-used this season. “AJ Price hasn’t played a relevant minute all year,” said Vogel. “With Lance [Stephenson]‘s injury, I always have confidence in AJ Price. He was our backup point guard last year, and he’s a heckuva basketball player. He led that second unit in terms of organizing our offense.”

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star saw the same thing everyone in the Pacers locker room did. And he thinks this performance by Price proved enough that he should be ahead of Lance Stephenson in the rotation even when Born Ready’s ankle is ready.

“Price is just a better pure point guard. I feel like the Pacers are force-feeding Stephenson minutes when Price should be getting those minutes. … the second unit’s offense simply runs smoother when Price, who is called Juice by his teammates, is on the court.”

At this point, that’s hard to disagree with if you’re interested in the Pacers maximizing their chance to win every minute of every game. Few would argue that Stephenson has the higher ceiling of the two reserves guards — AJ probably tops out as a fringe NBA starter while Lance has the innate talent to be significantly better than that. But Lance has so far this season shown either signs of flash or inexperience, never the steady presence that AJ gave last night as the Pacers out-played the Celtics in Boston throughout the fourth quarter.

 

 

Related Topics: , ,

{ 2 comments }

The Pacers’ Recent Past & Near Future: Part 4, How the Other Guys Performed

by Kevin Hetrick on September 21, 2011 at 2:38 pm · 3 comments

(As his first contributions to 8p9s, Kevin Hetrick is digging deep into how the Pacers performed last year and what they can do to improve next season — whenever it begins. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of his series here.)

In our last installment, we looked at the “core six” players in terms of how they played last season and how they project to fit in with this franchise long term. Now, it’s time to look at the other players — some of which may not even be on the roster the next time the Pacers pick up a ball for a league-sanctioned game. Whenever that may be.

We will look at the rest of the squad in descending order by minutes played.

(Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference, 82games, BasketballValue, HoopData and ESPN.)

Brandon Rush

Rush will be 26 years old next year and is slated to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season. At best, he should be a fourth guard. Unfortunately for the Pacers he led the team in minutes in 2009-10 and was fourth in minutes last year. He shot an excellent 42% on threes, but was otherwise unspectacular with a PER around 10, which is basically replacement level. Seven of every ten shots he took were from outside 16 feet, resulting in him rarely getting to the foul line. This offsets his three point shooting and results in true shooting (54%) that is almost exactly average (surprise) at 54%.

On the strength of his long-distance accuracy, his eFG% shooting was a little better — but not much, only outpacing the league average SG by 1.5%. Worse still, he is a low-usage player who struggles to create his own shot, making only one unassisted field goal per game in 26 minutes.

He was average at rebounding and protecting the ball, but was 51st of 55 shooting guards in assist rate and 53rd in assists at the rim per 40 minutes (per Hoopdata). He’s not an elite defender and tends to lose focus, particularly off the ball and in rotation situations. While not completely indicative of his performance, the Pacers were 5 points per 100 possessions worse on defense last year when Rush was on the floor.

Mike Dunleavy

Since we’re going down the list in order of minutes played, it disconcerting to see Dunleavy behind Rush. Junior had struggles of his own last season, no doubt. But with Rush on the court last year, the Pacers were outscored by 5.98 points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, during Dunleavy’s 779 minutes at shooting guard, the Pacers outscored opponents by 7.94 per 100.

There certainly isn’t a 14 points-per-100 difference between the two players, but these numbers do reflect how much better the Pacers operated with a starting caliber NBA shooting guard. Dunleavy and Rush had similar usage rates. However, Dunleavy’s TS% and eFG% were 5 points higher than Rush’s, and he was also a much better distributor, recording nearly twice as many assists per 40 minutes with fewer turnovers. Dunleavy grabbed 16.2% of available defensive rebounds, ranking 17th out of the 107 NBA swingmen who played 40 games.

In sum, he plays effectively within both the team offensive and defensive systems, and doesn’t take much off the table. Dunleavy will be 31 next year and is a free agent.

Josh McRoberts

McRoberts was very effective last year as a role player. He didn’t try to do too much and played solidly when opportunities presented themselves. His TS% and eFG% were 6% and 7% higher, respectively, than the average power forward. While only shooting 60 three pointers, he made an impressive 38% while also finishing second on the Pacers in FG% at the rim (among those with at least 50 attempts).

He was a capable defender last year as a league-average rebounder, while averaging 2.71 defensive plays (blocks plus steals) per 40 minutes (compared to a league average of 2.33 for power forwards) against only 4.1 fouls per 40 (average is 4.7). The Pacers were 1 point per 100 better on defense with him on the court, and the combination of these attributes resulted in McRoberts having the lowest defensive rating of all Pacers.

McRoberts’ best skill is probably his passing — something even more valuable on a team bereft of passers. Of 57 power forwards who played 40 games; McRoberts was 4th in assists per 40 minutes, and 8th in assist-to-turnover ratio (per Hoopdata). McRoberts will turn 24 years old next season and is a free agent.

Jeff Foster

Foster will turn 35 next year and, like the last two players, is a free agent. After missing almost the entire 2009-10 season, Foster played nearly 1,000 minutes last year. As Pacers fans know, he has never been a very good scorer, peaking at 7 ppg, but he’s becoming even less effective as he ages. Last year he scored only 7 points per 36 minutes and had shooting percentages well below average for a center.

Focusing on scoring, however, obscures the thing that Foster is great at: getting the ball off the glass. Foster’s offensive rebounding rate of 19.1% was the best in the NBA last year, and the closest center only grabbed 13.9% of available offensive rebounds. Of players that played over 600 minutes, the nearest player (Dejuan Blair) was at 14.8%. No one in the NBA was in Foster’s neighborhood as an offensive rebounder. If he had played enough minutes to qualify, this would have been the third time that he led the NBA in this category. (He is 5th all time for qualified leaders since 1971.) Foster also takes care of the ball well; his assist-to-turnover ratio was 5th among 58 centers. In short, Foster was a very effective anchor for the second team.

James Posey

Posey will be 35 next year and, unfortunately, is not a free agent. (He has one year left on his contract, which, at $7.6 million for the final year, was the price Larry Bird accepted to obtain Darren Collison in that trade with New Orleans.) Last year all he wanted to do offensively was shoot threes, taking 88% of his shots outside the arc. Unfortunately again, he was not very good at making them. No need to belabor that Posey is probably not part of the team’s short- or long-term plans.

AJ Price

Price will be 25 next year and is under contract for one more season. After giving the team solid minutes in 2009-10, Price was very poor offensively last year. He shot 8%-9% below average for guards in TS% and eFG%, which is a shame considering his 23% usage. He was an average passer and below average rebounder.

The Pacers were 3.49 points per 100 possessions better with him on the court, but his adjusted +/- was negative 12.7 points per 100. That metric gives Price no credit for the Pacers successes when he was on the court. (Most of the credit appears to go to Foster, which we will discuss more in part five of this series.). Given Price’s offensive “contributions,” this seems reasonable.

TJ Ford

Ford is 28 and a free agent. He was likely the worst offensive point guard in the NBA last year. He was benched the second half of the season. There is not much to say about T. J. Ford as it relates to the future of the Indiana Pacers.

Dahntay Jones

Jones will be 31 next year and has two years remaining on his contract. It’s hard to make much of last season’s 600 minutes, but efficiency-wise, Jones had a career offensive year. His career high TS% of 56% was paired with career high usage. His turnover rate was at a career low. This may be due to playing primarily against back ups; in 2009-10 (in 1,900 minutes) his shooting was below average and he had the 7th highest turnover rate of all shooting guards. Jones is a solid defender, but is a below average rebounder that fouls too much.

Solomon Jones

Jones will be 27 next year and is a free agent. There is not a lot positive to say about his play last season. His eFG% and TS% were approximately 10% below league average for a center. Of the top 58 centers in minutes, Jones ranked 53d in defensive rebounding and fouled the 5th most times per 40 minutes.

Lance Stephenson

Stephenson will be 21 next year and is under contract for one more year. He was the 8th ranked player in the high school class of 2009, but through his one year of college and one year in Indiana, there are concerns about conditioning, shot selection and behavior. Larry Bird has said that he is the most talented player on the roster. So far, we have yet to see this reflected in his numbers.

 

Related Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 3 comments }

Game #75 Recap: Roy Hibbert Kickstarts and Darren Collison Closes in a Big Win Over Boston

by Ronald Eugene on March 28, 2011 at 11:33 pm · 6 comments

Just two nights after losing in Detroit due in large part to horrid foul shooting, the Pacers received some help from the Boston Celtics at the free-throw line. Rather than looking that gift horse in the mouth, the Pacers rode it to a 107-100 victory.

Playing against a banged-up team, the Pacers benefited from solid bench play and great showings from point guards Darren Collison (18 points on 8-of-9 shooting) and AJ Price (15 points in 20 minutes).

It was a night that both teams needed a win for different reasons. The Pacers, trying to hold off quickly closing Charlotte, began just one game ahead of the field for the 8th and final playoff spot. Boston needed help to catch Chicago for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

The game was a Jekyll-and-Hyde night that encapsulated a Jekyll-and-Hyde season thus far.

Predictably enough, the Pacers got off to their typical slow start. With five minutes remaining in the first quarter, Indiana trailed 22-12 due mainly to an inability to control Celtics star Rajon Rondo. Rondo was doing anything and everything he wanted to such a degree that, at the time, it seemed as though Collison would be incapable of redeeming himself for the poor defense he was playing.

With Boston shooting lights out in the opening period, Roy Hibbert kept Indiana within striking distance. Throw in a Price buzzer-beater as the quarter expired and the lead was cut to a manageable six at 33-27.

Enter the Bench Brigade.

Led by Price, Dahntay Jones, and the sharp-shooting Brandon Rush, the second string turned the 6-point deficit to a 5-point surplus in just 5 minutes. The starters capitalized off this energy. By halftime, Indiana had shot 60% and gotten 19 points from Roy Hibbert, who simply out-classed whoever Doc Rivers threw at the big fella (including Nenad Krstic, Big Baby Davis and even Jeff Green). The good guys led by 8.

The third quarter was the opposite story. Teams began trading baskets to start the half, the kind of back-and-forth against a superior team that makes conditioned Pacers fans ask “How long can this last?”

As it turns out, not very long. A 16-6 Boston run put the Celtics up by 2 midway through the period. But the Pacers weathered the storm.

Needing an impetus at the beginning of the final quarter, the Pacers responded to a Boston drought by going on a 7-0 run to grab a 3-point lead. Sloppy play and turnovers (I consider a jump shot by Josh McRoberts to be a turnover and am currently drafting up a proposal to the commissioner on the subject) prohibited the Pacers from stretching that lead any further. (I joke, but despite what the box score may tell you, McRoberts played very well, making several nice passes that led to buckets in the second half.)

The most surprising aspect of the game came with the Pacers new-found lead dwindling. With his team down one, Ray Allen went to the line for an automatic pair.

Then Allen missed his first foul shot since the Eisenhower administration, Indiana notched three quick buckets in under a minute, and the usually reliable Kevin Garnett shot off on a couple more free throws. Collison was at the center of the Pacers attack, hitting four big buckets late including a pull-up jumper, a steal/dunk alone in transition and a driving layup at the rim (on which he might have also gotten fouled).

Another big hoop by Hibbert, who had 26 on the night on 12-for-17 shooting, put the Pacers up 8. Whenever Indiana opened the door up for a potential Celtic comeback in the final 4 minutes, Boston was uncharacteristically quick to give the ball back.

On a night when they really needed a win — particularly with the Bobcats winning a thriller over the Bucks — the Pacers got it. With 9 games left and a 1-game cushion for the last playoff spot, nothing else matters.

Other thoughts:

  • Can we stop calling Pierce, Garnett and Allen The Big Three, please? None of them are currently the best player on their own team, and none of them even had the best career of all players currently on the team.
  • James Posey stands farther away from the team huddle than TV sideline reporter Stacey Paetz

Related Topics: , , , , , ,

{ 6 comments }

The Substitute Teacher Syndrome

by Tom Kester on March 11, 2011 at 1:45 pm · 0 comments

Sometimes the classroom gets out of hand. Sometimes the teacher needs to speak up, get the unruly little jerks back in their seats, and impose some guidance. No lessons are going to get learned when the students are bickering, pursuing their own interests, or even trying to hold class … because there’s a way this is supposed to work, and letting the students do their own thing isn’t it.

The Indiana Pacers, second youngest roster in the NBA right now, need some guidance.

After Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Timberwolves, the Indianapolis Star got second unit point guard A.J. Price’s take on the problem.

“Man to man, we all want to win individually, but we’re not all playing as a team and I think that’s why we’re not winning,” Price said. “Until we come back together as a team, we won’t win.”

“Lately we haven’t been in sync, and we haven’t been together as a unit,” Price said. “That’s why we aren’t winning games.”

Roy Hibbert added his thoughts.

“Teams are adjusting to what we’re doing and we don’t know how to win,” Hibbert said.

Of course they don’t know how to win. They’re the students in this scenario. Under the tutelage of the mean old teacher that used to run the classroom, they reached the point where they were trading skeptical sideways looks with each other, even making faces when the teacher’s back was turned. The old fellow tended to ramble on and on about his pet theories, after all. He would present reams of statistics for the students’ edification. He pushed his own ivory tower schematic of how a classroom is run, lessons successfully learned, tests completed with passing scores, even when the test results consistently placed his class in the lower echelons of academic accomplishment.

That’s why the substitute teacher (something Lester Connor called himself last year when he filled in for O’Brien) was such a breath of fresh air. No more odd educational theories need apply. Our class is back to basics. “Smashmouth,” old-school educating at its finest. Readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic.

The kids responded well. Enthusiasm for learning blossomed. Test scores soared.

But at some point, the whole glorious process faltered. We don’t really know why. Did the students start bickering with each other over who was the best student? Did that new kid cause friction? Is the substitute teacher just too inexperienced to keep the students following the curriculum? We don’t know. Even putting our ear to the classroom door reveals nothing but noise that seems inappropriate to a learning environment, but what exactly is all the commotion is about?

Don’t know.

The youth of the team is not the issue. The Timberwolves are even younger, and they put the Pacers out of that particular spelling bee early. What we do know, what is abundantly clear even to those of us with no teaching certificate, is that Teacher needs to step up his game. Soon. Like, now.

And the teacher in this tortured extended analogy, Coach Vogel, says he’s ready to fix the problem.

“Clearly we’re struggling on the offensive end. We’re struggling as a basketball team. We will work until we come out of it, and we will come out of it.”

Coach, teacher, all the concerned citizens of the school system hope you’re up to it. Classroom discipline is not always easy to regain once it’s lost, particularly perhaps for a substitute teacher. The results are going to go a long way toward helping the school board decide if the substitute teacher gets called back next term.

Related Topics: , , , ,

{ 0 comments }

← Older Stuff