Thank you for posting that clarification and I concur 100%.
I did a pretty detailed article on this very topic last week on the front page of CB:
http://www.celticsblog.com/2014/4/17/5625374/pounding-the-ball
Caution - it is long, there are numbers, and some of the best stuff is in the comments.
The short version is that I can see no reason to think that Rondo is not a good fit for Steven's motion offense.
I read your article, and thank you for your efforts. However, I didn't see what I would assume would be the most important stat re Rondo, namely the average number of seconds he takes to advance the ball to half-court from the beginning of the possession. Seconds per touch incorporates all his touches, not the first one alone, which is what I would be interested in...
Also, the average number of seconds before making his first pass each possession would be quite useful...
This question was addressed in the comments. Basically, your concern boils down to: Is the average time of possession per touch watered down by a ton of other touches that are very short in duration?
While this is a valid concern, in reality that is based on a misconception about how the flow of touches works out. The misconception is that a player (Rondo, Parker, whomever) is touching the ball multiple times during a possession.
The reality is, if you do the math, is that they average just a little more than one touch per possession.
Tony Parker, for example, averaged 76 touches per game. He was on the floor for about 57 possesions per game. Thus, he averaged 1.33 touches per possession.
On the vast majority of their possessions then, the 'bring up the ball and initiate the play touch' is the only one they may have on that possession. On some smaller share of the possessions, they may get an additional touch, if the ball comes back to them and on a very, very small share they might get a third touch. I.E. Tony is getting an extra touch maybe every third possession or so.
I spent some time watching videos of the various point guards mentioned in the article, watching for this and that's pretty much the pattern. On the vast majority of possessions the point guard would get one touch, during which some 5-ish seconds would pass as the offense would setup or go in motion or whatever and then the ball would leave their hands. Only occasionally would it come back for an additional touch.
Obviously, there is some variance to all this, but this was the general pattern and this suggests that, in reality, the initial touch is likely the largest statistical weight in the average.
Topic: Drafting for Stevens ball movement offense (Read 11260 times)