We completely exploited that weakness in the ECF. Dont ou remember game 5 in Miami? It was Rondo to KG all night long.
Need to do it again, we didn't in the opener.
No stat ever gives you a full picture. But look at someone like Harden. He was great as a 6th man, but projected out to starter minutes, his numbers might keep pace. Guys who play 40 minutes and are still taking over games (indicating they still have the legs) will have lower stats if they are given less minutes due to a top reserve that the team wants to keep involved, or if the team wants to reduce wear and tear for the playoffs.
Most stats are actually produced in a game, in many cases that is not possible for 36 PER because most don't play 36. That makes it a projection or tool to project which is largely speculation.
I was glad to see Sully play well too. He was overdue.
Its not a projection rather its an equalization of the minutes played among players. People who cite per/36 aren't claiming "this is how many rebounds Sullinger would get in 36 minutes". Rather its a way to even out the rebounding, scoring, assisting, etc rate that happens in game.
Look at it this way, EVERYTHING per/36 can equivalently be expressed as per minute. Rebounds per minute, points per minute, etc. That's not a projection but an indication of exactly how many points, shots, rebounds, assists, etc. that a player gets per minute. It gives exactly the same information as per/36 or per/40.
The only reason we say per/36 or per/40 is that it produces nice round numbers that we find easier to look at.