Amir Johnson - Detroit Piston Tracker - Page 31 - Detroit Pistons Fan Community

~~buddahfan~~ · #**301** (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 02:09 PM

Shaq has been the main touch for years. How many assists has he averaged?

mikhail1973 · #**302** (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 05:07 PM

Notes from the Warriors game:
Amir looked noticeably taller than Tay.

~~buddahfan~~ · #**303** (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikhail1973

Notes from the Warriors game:
Amir looked noticeably taller than Tay.

It is all an optical illusion brought on by their relative positioning on the floor; i.e., the top of AJ's head is a greater distance from the floor than Tay's.

~~buddahfan~~ · #**304** (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Also, and you had to see this coming, Amir Johnson. As I wrote for HOOPSWORLD this morning:

Amir Johnson, who didn’t play at all in Tuesday’s loss, played nearly 11 minutes on Wednesday, scoring three points with four rebounds, two assists and a block. All in all, he did a solid job filling up the box score in just a handful of minutes and appeared to grow more comfortable the longer he played.
Johnson, 20, obviously needs more seasoning, but it’s encouraging to see that he compared favorably to Brandon Wright, a lottery pick acquired by the Warriors in a draft-day trade for Jason Richardson. Wright played six minutes and finished with three points, four boards and a steal.

I’ve noticed that Johnson has appeared to need a couple of minutes to really get into the flow of things. Some players are like that, others are not (see: Hayes, Jarvis; Maxiell, Jason). That said, I think this could just be a temporary thing, a function of missing virtually the entire preseason, and perhaps more importantly, dealing with an ankle/Achilles injury early in the year.

I know he’s supposed to be very close to completely healed, but you can still see him stretching it during timeouts. He may just need a couple of trips up and down the court for it to get completely loose (or for him to trust it 100%). In any case, once he’s loose, he finds the ball. His lone field goal of the night came on a nice dunk in traffic — that’s the kind of thing we should end up seeing on a regular basis once he’s in the groove. And, for what it’s worth, he was +8 for the night and was the only Piston with a positive plus/minus number heading into halftime.

Detroit Bad Boys

FreshPrince22 · #**305** (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buddahfan

Shaq has been the main touch for years. How many assists has he averaged?

He averaged almost 4 for a couple season between 1999-2001, and was over 3apg throughout his prime (And has had a number of PTS-REB-AST triple doubles throughout his career). Amir averaged 2.1 apg last year in the D-league.

~~buddahfan~~ · #**306** (**permalink**) 11-16-2007, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshPrince22

He averaged almost 4 for a couple season between 1999-2001, and was over 3apg throughout his prime (And has had a number of PTS-REB-AST triple doubles throughout his career). Amir averaged 2.1 apg last year in the D-league.

I missed something here.

I had mentioned that AJ got a lot of touches against the Clippers and that he had a couple of games with 6 or 7 assists last year at Sioux Falls.

I also said that Shaq got a lot of touches and asked how many assists did he average.

Sorry but I don't know how we go from the above to me saying that AJ got a lot or few touches at Sioux Falls. I saw him play in maybe 4 or 5 games in those games he exhibited above average passing skills for a big man. I don't recall if he got a lot of touches in those games or not.

He averaged only 11 FGA and about 7 FTA in 35 minutes a game. Shaq by comparison has averaged 18 FGA and 10 FTA in about 36.5 minutes over his career. In addition Shaq has averaged only 2.8 APG, not the 4 that you mentioned. So if you take AJ's 2.1 APG last year at SF and multiply that number by 1.6 to adjust for the fact that Shaq has averaged about 60% more FGA and FTA for his career than AJ did last year at SF you get (2.1 X 1.6) = 3.4.

So using the FGA and FTA as a rough measure of touches in a game then AJ last year at SF averaged about 20% more APG adjusted than Shaq has for his career. This despite the fact that except for the last few year in Miami Shaq has always been the main go to guy and AJ was no where near the main go to guy last year in SF as I show below.

Shaquille O'Neal Statistics - Basketball-Reference.com

Other Sioux Falls players last year
-----------------------------------
Graham averaged 18 PPG on 14 FGA and 6 FTA.
Brown averaged 15 PPG on 12 FGA and 5 FTA.
Grier averaged 19.5 PPG on 14 FGA and 7 FTA.
Williams averaged 16 PPG on 13 FGA and 4 FTA

So there were four guys on the team that took as many if not more shots per game than AJ. So no way was he the main guy in SF.

In L.A. when Shaq and Kobe were together there was only one year in which Kobe scored more than 1 PPG more than Shaq, so in L.A. Shaq was the main man. In Orlando Shaq was clearly the go to guy and in Miami it has been primarily Wade since Shaq has been there, but that is only for a few years and during those years Shaq has averaged only 2.3 APG.

Bottom line is that using FGA and FTA as a rough measure of touches AJ generated 20% more APG last year in SF that Shaq has for his career even though Shaq has been the main go to guy for most of his career where ever he played and AJ was not last year in SF.

Click on the individual player to see their stats for the year.

NBA Development League: ScoreBoard

On the other hand Wilt averaged 30 PPG. 46 MPG, 22.5 FGA, and 11.5 FTA per game over his career and still managed to dish out about 4.5 APG. Now there was a guy who got a lot of touches.

Wilt Chamberlain Statistics - Basketball-Reference.com

~~buddahfan~~ · #**307** (**permalink**) 11-16-2007, 08:13 AM

Quote:

And forward Amir Johnson also saw valuable floor time, playing 11 minutes, including nine when the team desperately needed to make a run in the second quarter. He was on the floor when the Pistons cut the Warriors' 22-point lead to 13.

"He needed that experience, that battlefield experience as I call it," Wallace said. "Being down big and being put in the game to see what you can do, see if you'll be a chump and fold or have some heart and go ahead and fight. And he had some heart."

Quote:

Lessons learned

Amir Johnson was thrust into the Golden State game. He came out of it a little bruised but better for the experience.
"He got some of that battlefield experience, I call it," Wallace said. "Being down big in the game, you get put in to see what you can do. Are you going to be a chump and fold, or are you going to show some heart and fight? I thought Amir showed a lot of heart."
Johnson played 11 minutes, and helped trigger an 11-3 run at the end of the first half which enabled the Pistons to cut a 22-point deficit to 13. He had three points, four rebounds, two assists and a block. He also had a lane violation on a Warriors free throw and an offensive three-second violation.
"He had some good time in there," Flip Saunders said. "He got to play some meaningful minutes and he did a good job. He's still learning, but the best way to learn is to get thrown in there."

PISTONS CORNER: Team's big comeback inspires Chauncey Billups

Victories pile up under the radar

~~buddahfan~~ · #**308** (**permalink**) 11-17-2007, 09:32 AM

Including the game last night vs the Lakers

AJ's ranking per 40 minutes

1st in rebounds
1st in block shots, just a hair ahead of Cheikh
1st in assists for non guards

4th in the Roland Rating before last night. After last night's performance he could have moved into 2nd. We we know later when the site is updated.

PISTONS: 2007-08 Pistons Regular Statistics

Detroit Pistons NBA stats and data from 82games.com

TaShawn · #**309** (**permalink**) 12-13-2007, 06:29 PM

Is it safe to say that our theory that Saunders was hiding Amir last year for the contract extension has been invalidated?

mikhail1973 · #**310** (**permalink**) 12-13-2007, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TaShawn

Is it safe to say that our theory that Saunders was hiding Amir last year for the contract extension has been invalidated?

Yes, we can definitely say that. Also, we can start being concerned with Joe's words in the off-season are just that - words. And when the season started rolling he took a step back as many of us were afraid he would.

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