Ben Mclemore and Draymond Green: Impressive this season

[Tr1boy]

We have different definitions of impressive.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2578213/ben-mclemore

10.5 PPG?  That is impressive?

I think he is performing more where he was drafted but impressive is a stretch.

He is 21.

[D.o.s.]

We have different definitions of impressive.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2578213/ben-mclemore

10.5 PPG?  That is impressive?

I think he is performing more where he was drafted but impressive is a stretch.

He is 21.

Looks like all that newly-legal drinking really has relaxed his nerves.

[Endless Paradise]

Well, McLemore barely looked like an NBA player last year. He still can't really pass or dribble, but at least he's found his stroke.

Exactly, it's impressive relative to his production last year.  If Melo dropped 40 points in a game this season, no one would bat an eye; if McLemore dropped 40 points, everyone would rave about it much like they did with Terrence Ross and Corey Brewer's 50 point games last season.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I am sold.

Living in the Bay Area i get to see Dubs games, and boy, I tell you, Draymond Green is the real deal.

He's the new Andre Iguodala. He does everything on the court. Great passer, versatile defender, improved shooter.

We gotta have this guy. I mean, we gotta.

[BballTim]

yep.  McLemore proved he could shoot in College.  He had a rough rookie year, but the kid was 20.  I really don't understand how people can call someone a "bust" after a single season.  That's ridiculous.  Avery Bradley shot like 25% his rookie year. 

Anyways... McLemore is showing what he already proved he could do in College.  He's averaging 10.5 points with 45%/40%/87% shooting ... that's exceptional if he keeps up those percentages.  He's 21 years old. 

  The shooting's good but it's on a really low usage rate. He's probably the 4th option on offense or so. You'd have to see him do it at a higher clip to decide if it's all that impressive. Right now his usage% is about what Perk's was over his career in Boston.

[LarBrd33]

yep.  McLemore proved he could shoot in College.  He had a rough rookie year, but the kid was 20.  I really don't understand how people can call someone a "bust" after a single season.  That's ridiculous.  Avery Bradley shot like 25% his rookie year. 

Anyways... McLemore is showing what he already proved he could do in College.  He's averaging 10.5 points with 45%/40%/87% shooting ... that's exceptional if he keeps up those percentages.  He's 21 years old. 

  The shooting's good but it's on a really low usage rate. He's probably the 4th option on offense or so. You'd have to see him do it at a higher clip to decide if it's all that impressive. Right now his usage% is about what Perk's was over his career in Boston.

so? 

He shares the court with some ballhogs.  He's clearly made improvements this season in almost every regard.  http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2014/12/3/7330415/the-emergence-of-ben-mclemore

He's doing what people expected when he was drafted.  Great young prospect who can shoot lights out.  Would have loved to have him in Boston.

[Celtics18]

There are lots of decent young prospects in the league.  I don't see the point in worrying about each one of them that doesn't play for the Celtics. 

We happen to have a few on our squad as well. 

[BballTim]

yep.  McLemore proved he could shoot in College.  He had a rough rookie year, but the kid was 20.  I really don't understand how people can call someone a "bust" after a single season.  That's ridiculous.  Avery Bradley shot like 25% his rookie year. 

Anyways... McLemore is showing what he already proved he could do in College.  He's averaging 10.5 points with 45%/40%/87% shooting ... that's exceptional if he keeps up those percentages.  He's 21 years old. 

  The shooting's good but it's on a really low usage rate. He's probably the 4th option on offense or so. You'd have to see him do it at a higher clip to decide if it's all that impressive. Right now his usage% is about what Perk's was over his career in Boston.

so? 

He shares the court with some ballhogs.  He's clearly made improvements this season in almost every regard.  http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2014/12/3/7330415/the-emergence-of-ben-mclemore

He's doing what people expected when he was drafted.  Great young prospect who can shoot lights out.  Would have loved to have him in Boston.

  So you don't realize why playing with 3 guys who command more of the defense's attention than he does might help his shooting percentages? How about the fact that he doesn't create much of his offense and about 75% of his shots being assisted? Again, he might be coming around, but you're getting a little more excited than the situation warrants.

[LarBrd33]

yep.  McLemore proved he could shoot in College.  He had a rough rookie year, but the kid was 20.  I really don't understand how people can call someone a "bust" after a single season.  That's ridiculous.  Avery Bradley shot like 25% his rookie year. 

Anyways... McLemore is showing what he already proved he could do in College.  He's averaging 10.5 points with 45%/40%/87% shooting ... that's exceptional if he keeps up those percentages.  He's 21 years old. 

  The shooting's good but it's on a really low usage rate. He's probably the 4th option on offense or so. You'd have to see him do it at a higher clip to decide if it's all that impressive. Right now his usage% is about what Perk's was over his career in Boston.

so? 

He shares the court with some ballhogs.  He's clearly made improvements this season in almost every regard.  http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2014/12/3/7330415/the-emergence-of-ben-mclemore

He's doing what people expected when he was drafted.  Great young prospect who can shoot lights out.  Would have loved to have him in Boston.

  So you don't realize why playing with 3 guys who command more of the defense's attention than he does might help his shooting percentages? How about the fact that he doesn't create much of his offense and about 75% of his shots being assisted? Again, he might be coming around, but you're getting a little more excited than the situation warrants.

yeah tim, but he played with those same guys last year.  He's vastly improved this year... which makes sense.  He proved to be a fantastic shooter in college, he has all the athletic tools... but he wasn't ready.  Not surprisingly, he's showing progress in his second year.  He has one of the smoothest looking shots in the league... inevitably they were going to start falling as the game slowed down for him.  His ball handling is vastly improved.  His defense is vastly improved.  He looks great.  He'll likely continue to improve.  He's 21.  Should see a steady increase in his production over the next 4 years.

[indeedproceed]

Where the hell did Draymond Green come from, and where the hell did Jae Crowder go?

[colincb]

yep.  McLemore proved he could shoot in College.  He had a rough rookie year, but the kid was 20.  I really don't understand how people can call someone a "bust" after a single season.  That's ridiculous.  Avery Bradley shot like 25% his rookie year. 

Anyways... McLemore is showing what he already proved he could do in College.  He's averaging 10.5 points with 45%/40%/87% shooting ... that's exceptional if he keeps up those percentages.  He's 21 years old. 

  The shooting's good but it's on a really low usage rate. He's probably the 4th option on offense or so. You'd have to see him do it at a higher clip to decide if it's all that impressive. Right now his usage% is about what Perk's was over his career in Boston.

so? 

He shares the court with some ballhogs.  He's clearly made improvements this season in almost every regard.  http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2014/12/3/7330415/the-emergence-of-ben-mclemore

He's doing what people expected when he was drafted.  Great young prospect who can shoot lights out.  Would have loved to have him in Boston.

  So you don't realize why playing with 3 guys who command more of the defense's attention than he does might help his shooting percentages? How about the fact that he doesn't create much of his offense and about 75% of his shots being assisted? Again, he might be coming around, but you're getting a little more excited than the situation warrants.

yeah tim, but he played with those same guys last year.  He's vastly improved this year... which makes sense.  He proved to be a fantastic shooter in college, he has all the athletic tools... but he wasn't ready.  Not surprisingly, he's showing progress in his second year.  He has one of the smoothest looking shots in the league... inevitably they were going to start falling as the game slowed down for him.  His ball handling is vastly improved.  His defense is vastly improved.  He looks great.  He'll likely continue to improve.  He's 21.  Should see a steady increase in his production over the next 4 years.

McLemore's a below average offensive player with a PER under 10. His team is below average defensively and he's below average on his own team according to +/-.  Much improved over a disasterous first year. So what? He'll be average by the time he's 4-5 years in?

[BballTim]

yep.  McLemore proved he could shoot in College.  He had a rough rookie year, but the kid was 20.  I really don't understand how people can call someone a "bust" after a single season.  That's ridiculous.  Avery Bradley shot like 25% his rookie year. 

Anyways... McLemore is showing what he already proved he could do in College.  He's averaging 10.5 points with 45%/40%/87% shooting ... that's exceptional if he keeps up those percentages.  He's 21 years old. 

  The shooting's good but it's on a really low usage rate. He's probably the 4th option on offense or so. You'd have to see him do it at a higher clip to decide if it's all that impressive. Right now his usage% is about what Perk's was over his career in Boston.

so? 

He shares the court with some ballhogs.  He's clearly made improvements this season in almost every regard.  http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2014/12/3/7330415/the-emergence-of-ben-mclemore

He's doing what people expected when he was drafted.  Great young prospect who can shoot lights out.  Would have loved to have him in Boston.

  So you don't realize why playing with 3 guys who command more of the defense's attention than he does might help his shooting percentages? How about the fact that he doesn't create much of his offense and about 75% of his shots being assisted? Again, he might be coming around, but you're getting a little more excited than the situation warrants.

yeah tim, but he played with those same guys last year.  He's vastly improved this year... which makes sense.  He proved to be a fantastic shooter in college, he has all the athletic tools... but he wasn't ready.  Not surprisingly, he's showing progress in his second year.  He has one of the smoothest looking shots in the league... inevitably they were going to start falling as the game slowed down for him.  His ball handling is vastly improved.  His defense is vastly improved.  He looks great.  He'll likely continue to improve.  He's 21.  Should see a steady increase in his production over the next 4 years.

  He played with them all last year, but his usage has actually dropped since his rookie year, something which you wouldn't expect to be typical. I haven't seen him play much this year, but I don't know that you can just ignore "9th on the team in usage and scoring rate". If he was asked to play a bigger role on offense, would he maintain that efficiency? What if he had to create more of his own offense? These are legitimate questions.

[Eddie20]

Good article on McLemore, which illustrates the strides he's made this season and why we should've traded for him when we had the chance:

http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2014/12/3/7330415/the-emergence-of-ben-mclemore

Ben McLemore has arrived.  After a difficult first season that showed flashes of promise but was mostly filled with frustration, Ben has arrived as a different player this year.  Confidence, ball handling, defensive awareness, shooting, passing, they all seem dramatically improved.  It's very early in the season, but it's been long enough now to know that the change is legitimate, rather than another flash in the pan.  But how, specifically, has Ben improved? The numbers show us two key areas.  Let's take a look.

Defense

This has been the most obvious and dramatic change.  Last season McLemore was better known for getting lost on D and leaving shooters like Kyle Korver and Steve Novak open for three.  This season, McLemore is not just improved, he's a huge net positive on the defensive end.  Watching the games, his head is on a swivel.  He knows his assignments, knows his role in the system, and is playing lockdown defense.  The numbers support the change we're seeing.

The most important stat is that line to the far right.  McLemore went from allowing opponents to shoot 4.6% better than their average last season, to holding them 5% below their averages.  That's a nearly 10% swing on the defensive end.  Now, the numbers still aren't pretty inside 10 feet, but that just makes the overall numbers even more impressive.  What it tells us is that McLemore has become a lockdown defender on the perimeter.

This is the exact defense we wanted to see from Ben.  This is the defense we thought he should be capable of.  But even the most optimistic of us didn't expect this kind of change to occur in a single offseason.

Shooting

McLemore was drafted so high primarily based on his shooting.  Even when he was missing, he had one of the purest strokes in the league.  And yet he shot poorly throughout most of his rookie season.  His three point shooting was the biggest concern.  The Kings desperately needed floor spacing, but Ben couldn't hit threes at a good enough rate to keep defenses honest.  Last season Ben shot 32.2% from deep.  32.8% on catch-and-shoot, 30.4% on pull ups.

This year Ben's shooting from deep has been lethal, even after a slow start in the first few games.  He's shooting 40% from deep, which is phenomenal.  37.5% on catch-and-shoots.  And an absolutely absurd 71.4% on pull ups.

And it isn't mattering if he's open or guarded.  If a defender is nowhere near Ben, 6 feet or farther away, Ben shoots 41.5%.  That number drops to 38.7% if the defender is within 4-6 feet.  But even when a defender is within four feet, which is tight defense when you consider that distance is based on body mass rather than the insane wingspans of the NBA, Ben still shoots at 37.5%.

One final note on Ben's shooting improvement.  You may have heard that McLemore is flirting with the 50/40/90 club.  He's currently at 47.3/40/87.  For reference, the 50/40/90 club has been reached 12 times in NBA history (since the invention of the three point line, and counting players who played in at least 50 games).  The names on that list are guys like Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Steve Kerr, Kyle Korver.  Basically a grouping of some of the most elite shooters in the history of the game.  Plus one crazy season by Jose Calderon that I'll never understand.  But if McLemore hits that threshold in just his second season, he'll have truly announced himself as an elite NBA shooter.

Conclusion

We're over a fifth of the way through the season, and Ben McLemore has shown dramatic improvement from his rookie season.  He's no longer the guy missing open dunks, clanking open threes, and losing his man on defense. Instead, he's the player who is shooting lights out, throwing down monstrous breakaway dunks on defenders, locking down the perimeter, and filling a major void in the Kings' lineup.

[Eja117]

I expect Dray to take a step back towards Earth when David Lee returns and Ben Mc might get challenged by Nik Stauskas at some point

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I expect Dray to take a step back towards Earth when David Lee returns and Ben Mc might get challenged by Nik Stauskas at some point

Doubt it. From what I hear from "Warriors insiders" here on local radio, Steve Kerr really wants David Lee to embrace that off the bench role.

Draymond will be starting for this team even when Lee returns, atleast from what I've heard. And while he may get a little minutes cut, his impact, especially defensively should still be the same.