03/21/2008
Emeka has been pretty consistent with his scoring - between 15 and 17 all season, and his numbers for pps do not waver too significantly. His rebounding numbers are up and down - but even when they are down, they are still very good, so no complaint from me on that. My only complaints? He is a poor passer, with the consistently low assists. For the most part, I am ok with his number of turnovers - big men can struggle with that (see Shaq), but his 2.9 per 40 mins in February was a bit high for someone who is not an offensive focus. All in all, I like his consistency, and contributions across the board - points, boards, and blocks.
But what about the ever important "team"? How is Charlotte faring with Emeka on the court (and off)? The results are somewhat surprising.
So, despite the relative consistency of Emeka - the team is all over the map. 3 months where they were better with him and 2 months where they were better, way, way better, without him. In December, that was in large part due to the inspired play of a recently acquired Nazr skewing the numbers. This month? Tough to explain how the defense is so markedly better with our best (only?) interior defender on the bench. Well, it looks to be a case of a small sample size - Emeka has not seen the bench much this month, on the court for about 2/3 of the available minutes. And in his absence, the most any other given lineup has played together? 10 minutes. Overall, 48 lineups have been used this month, sans Emeka, but all in very limited floor time together, totaling 168 minutes. With no other prominent lineup, the team seems to be matching up more based on the opponent, to good effect, as seen in the efficiency numbers for the month. Or, it could be a fluke, but it would be nice to think it might be competence.
Since I noted the consistency of Emeka in looking at his numbers, it is worth noting a a fairly consistent impact he did have: 4 out of 5 months, the offense is worse with him on the court, and 3 out of 5 months, did not manage even a point per possession. Not totally Emeka's fault, as previously noted, he is not the focus of the offense, but still, not a terribly encouraging sign.
Final thoughts: Emeka has been far more consistent than Nazr, though his overall impact on the team seems to be pretty fluid. And those two still do not seem to work well together - the team is at -10 points per 100 possessions on the season with them on the floor together. The team is still lacking the interior complement that Emeka needs - though what that might be is debatable, it seems clear that a 7ish footer that prefers to shoot mid-range jumpers, and does little defensively is not the answer, as Primoz and now Nazr have not clicked with Emeka. Sean May? George Hibbert? Brook Lopez? We shall see.
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After taking a hard look at his numbers, that cast a none too flattering light on Nazr, it seems only right that I follow that up with a similar look at Emeka. After all, they are competing (to a degree) for minutes - and, at this time, only one is under contract for next season. To the numbers:
| Month | Points/ 40 mins | Points/ Shot | Off Reb Rate | Def Reb Rate | Blocks/ 40 mins | Assists/ 40 mins | Turnovers/ 40 mins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | 15.0 | 1.26 | 13.5% | 25.7% | 2.4 | 0.5 | 1.6 |
| December | 16.0 | 1.29 | 9.4% | 20.4% | 2.0 | 0.9 | 1.7 |
| January | 16.8 | 1.36 | 10.8% | 22.0% | 2.1 | 1.4 | 2.3 |
| February | 16.5 | 1.18 | 10.6% | 30.8% | 1.6 | 1.1 | 2.9 |
| March | 16.1 | 1.25 | 9.4% | 24.0% | 2.1 | 0.9 | 1.8 |
Emeka has been pretty consistent with his scoring - between 15 and 17 all season, and his numbers for pps do not waver too significantly. His rebounding numbers are up and down - but even when they are down, they are still very good, so no complaint from me on that. My only complaints? He is a poor passer, with the consistently low assists. For the most part, I am ok with his number of turnovers - big men can struggle with that (see Shaq), but his 2.9 per 40 mins in February was a bit high for someone who is not an offensive focus. All in all, I like his consistency, and contributions across the board - points, boards, and blocks.
But what about the ever important "team"? How is Charlotte faring with Emeka on the court (and off)? The results are somewhat surprising.
| Month | Off Eff | Def Eff | Net Eff |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | 97.2/105.4 | 101.0/112.9 | -3.8/-7.5 |
| December | 99.6/102.6 | 110.2/98.3 | -10.6/4.3 |
| January | 107.5/99.3 | 102.9/107.5 | 4.6/-8.3 |
| February | 98.7/103.2 | 111.1/122.1 | -12.4/-18.9 |
| March | 101.8/113.5 | 113.1/94.7 | -11.4/18.8 |
So, despite the relative consistency of Emeka - the team is all over the map. 3 months where they were better with him and 2 months where they were better, way, way better, without him. In December, that was in large part due to the inspired play of a recently acquired Nazr skewing the numbers. This month? Tough to explain how the defense is so markedly better with our best (only?) interior defender on the bench. Well, it looks to be a case of a small sample size - Emeka has not seen the bench much this month, on the court for about 2/3 of the available minutes. And in his absence, the most any other given lineup has played together? 10 minutes. Overall, 48 lineups have been used this month, sans Emeka, but all in very limited floor time together, totaling 168 minutes. With no other prominent lineup, the team seems to be matching up more based on the opponent, to good effect, as seen in the efficiency numbers for the month. Or, it could be a fluke, but it would be nice to think it might be competence.
Since I noted the consistency of Emeka in looking at his numbers, it is worth noting a a fairly consistent impact he did have: 4 out of 5 months, the offense is worse with him on the court, and 3 out of 5 months, did not manage even a point per possession. Not totally Emeka's fault, as previously noted, he is not the focus of the offense, but still, not a terribly encouraging sign.
Final thoughts: Emeka has been far more consistent than Nazr, though his overall impact on the team seems to be pretty fluid. And those two still do not seem to work well together - the team is at -10 points per 100 possessions on the season with them on the floor together. The team is still lacking the interior complement that Emeka needs - though what that might be is debatable, it seems clear that a 7ish footer that prefers to shoot mid-range jumpers, and does little defensively is not the answer, as Primoz and now Nazr have not clicked with Emeka. Sean May? George Hibbert? Brook Lopez? We shall see.
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| GWIII Says: | I was at the game tonight (3/22 vs. the remnants of the Miami Heat), and Emeka only logged 23 minutes, not playing at all in the fourth. On the pregrame radio show, Steve Martin suggested the team knew what they had with Okafor, and might be planning to look at their other big men to see if re-signing Okafor would be worth it. It seems to me that he has been struggling much more on offense that in previous years, and his interior defense has been OK, but his blocks are way down from last year, and his effort in getting blocks has been down... |
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| Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:13 pm |
