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G-Man · 10-10-2010, 02:32 PM

Uh oh. RC is still full of JJB Love. Fisher wrote this on 10-10-2010

in the opinion of Mavs coach Rick Carlisle (who’s fainting spell on Friday kept him home), Barea is a “difference-maker.’’
“He has established consistency," Carlisle said last week. "He's been a difference-maker for us, as a bench player and as a starter. He's not a guy that people should write off by any stretch. He's proven who he is and what he can do. We need him."
Carlisle says the record shows that when JJB starts for the Mavs, Dallas “wins two-thirds of those games, at least.’’
Hmmm. Really?
Yup. Really.
We looked it up. We should’ve known; when Carlisle starts riffing on statistical trends, we always end up discovering that the facts back him up. So it is again:
Last year, when Barea started at the 2-guard, the Mavs were 11-5.
The previous season, when Barea started at the 2-guard, they were 10-5.
That’s 21-10. That’s “two-thirds … at least.’’
Want more?
Basketball-reference.com has a player finder that can give you all the games Barea has started. We did some digging into the boxscores, which revealed that the only times JJB started as a point guard was March 3, 2010, against the T'Wolves, with Butler and Marion starting at the wings (meaning Jason Kidd sat out), and January 24, 2010, against the Knicks, alongside Terry, Marion, Dirk and Gooden. (Again, obviously, no Kidd.)
And son-of-a-gun, Dallas won both those games, too.
So again, Carlisle knows his numbers – and uses those numbers to back (and even make) his decisions. Certainly, it helps JJB’s record that when he starts in the backcourt, it’s usually at the 2-guard alongside one of the greatest point guards of all time, as was the case here.
But as we keep digging, we see proof that Dallas values Barea as a point guard more than it values, say, Jason Terry there. We have to go back to March 27, 2009, a game against the Nuggets, to find an outing in which Terry played minutes at the point. The boxscore shows that Kidd sat out, Barea played 30 minutes, and Jet – a point guard on Dallas’ 2006 NBA Finals team just three years earlier -- played almost his entire season’s minutes as a 1. … largely because Carlisle preferred to go with JJB as the backup there.
So we can argue that JJB isn’t exactly a point guard.
And we can argue that he’s flawed as a 2-guard.
But when Rick Carlisle says he’s a “difference-maker,’’ the numbers make it difficult to argue.

10-10-2010, 02:32 PM	#34
G-Man Platinum Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: New Mexico Mountains Posts: 2,394	Uh oh. RC is still full of JJB Love. Fisher wrote this on 10-10-2010 in the opinion of Mavs coach Rick Carlisle (who’s fainting spell on Friday kept him home), Barea is a “difference-maker.’’ “He has established consistency," Carlisle said last week. "He's been a difference-maker for us, as a bench player and as a starter. He's not a guy that people should write off by any stretch. He's proven who he is and what he can do. We need him." Carlisle says the record shows that when JJB starts for the Mavs, Dallas “wins two-thirds of those games, at least.’’ Hmmm. Really? Yup. Really. We looked it up. We should’ve known; when Carlisle starts riffing on statistical trends, we always end up discovering that the facts back him up. So it is again: Last year, when Barea started at the 2-guard, the Mavs were 11-5. The previous season, when Barea started at the 2-guard, they were 10-5. That’s 21-10. That’s “two-thirds … at least.’’ Want more? Basketball-reference.com has a player finder that can give you all the games Barea has started. We did some digging into the boxscores, which revealed that the only times JJB started as a point guard was March 3, 2010, against the T'Wolves, with Butler and Marion starting at the wings (meaning Jason Kidd sat out), and January 24, 2010, against the Knicks, alongside Terry, Marion, Dirk and Gooden. (Again, obviously, no Kidd.) And son-of-a-gun, Dallas won both those games, too. So again, Carlisle knows his numbers – and uses those numbers to back (and even make) his decisions. Certainly, it helps JJB’s record that when he starts in the backcourt, it’s usually at the 2-guard alongside one of the greatest point guards of all time, as was the case here. But as we keep digging, we see proof that Dallas values Barea as a point guard more than it values, say, Jason Terry there. We have to go back to March 27, 2009, a game against the Nuggets, to find an outing in which Terry played minutes at the point. The boxscore shows that Kidd sat out, Barea played 30 minutes, and Jet – a point guard on Dallas’ 2006 NBA Finals team just three years earlier -- played almost his entire season’s minutes as a 1. … largely because Carlisle preferred to go with JJB as the backup there. So we can argue that JJB isn’t exactly a point guard. And we can argue that he’s flawed as a 2-guard. But when Rick Carlisle says he’s a “difference-maker,’’ the numbers make it difficult to argue.