Why so sad Brendan Haywood? Or is that your game face? Then again, maybe you’re thinking about free-agency and how Dallas might not be the best fit. I mean, you’re the guy formerly known as Brend-A and can’t even get a start over a guy who’s still known as Eric-A. It’s like you versus Etan for the glory of starter’s minutes all over again. Sure, an NBA championship is now on the line, but you’re a free-agent FCOL! Damn Rick Carlisle.
This is the face of a man who ‘Don’t see no fat lady.‘
Which begs the question, what does Shawn Marion see?
Maybe he’s wondering how he and Caron Butler managed score a combined 31 points on a combined 31 shots in game four, sharing just two free-throw attempts between them (thanks to Tuff Juice).
To talk about Caron some more. His bread and butter, at least in terms of the frequency of his offensive attempts, is isolation plays and spot-up shots (according to Synergy Sports Technology) … which is particularly disheartening because Butler isn’t the best driver nor does he have the best jumper. He’s known as a “tough” scorer, but this season, in both Washington and Dallas, he’s been horribly inefficient. Guess that Eddie Jordan’s pro-style Princeton offense was his crutch.
In D.C., 28.6% of Butler’s offensive plays were isolations — he only scored 39.5% of the time, got to the free-throw line just 5% of the time, and produced a measly 0.81 points per possession (PPP).
In Dallas, his isolations have decreased to 22.1% and he has become more efficient, scoring 46.6% of the time, getting to the FT line 6.8% of the time and netting 0.99 PPP.
Spot-ups accounted for 18.7% of Butler’s offense with the Wizards. With these opportunities, he fared slightly better than isos, scoring 40.7% of the time, getting to the FT line 7.8% of the time, and netting 0.86 PPP. Still not great.
With the Mavericks, Butler’s spot-ups have increased to 20.8% of his offensive opportunities, but he only scores on 36% of them, getting to the line just 4.5% of the time and at a 0.78 PPP clip.
Overall, on Butler’s offensive plays that end in FGAs, TOs or FTs, he scored 0.86 PPP in Washington, which ranks 334th, and in Dallas, 0.87 PPP, ranked 318th. Not the Tuff Juice Mark Cuban thought he was bargaining for, but certainly the guy Wizards fans became familiar with this season.
Good to know from playing with point guards Gilbert Arenas to Randy Foye to Jason Kidd, some people never change. If Dallas was looking for Butler to be a maverick from his past inept wizardry, they should look somewhere else.
What say you Mr. Cuban?
By the way, I’m not around these parts too often. My name is Kyle Weidie and I’m the Washington Wizards blogger in ESPN’s TrueHoop Network at Truth About It.net. And since my team is crappy, might always be, perhaps I’ll pop up on H-Wood Paroxysm every now and then like I used to. That is all.
[...] few lasting images from Game 4, courtesy of Kyle Weidie (normally of Truth About It) writing at Hardwood Paroxysm, as well as a Mark Cuban GIF that I hope I don’t need to re-use here later tonight, and this [...]
[...] rest of the summer. I know what you’re thinking, and Mark Cuban shares your sentiments. [via Hardwood Paroxysm, [...]