In a recent blog entry, Gilbert Arenas clarified some points from his November 2nd interview with Sports Illustrated:
“There are a lot of people who look better in certain systems because that’s what type of player they are. People said, “You threw Larry under the bus.” No, I didn’t throw Larry under the bus, and this is why I want to clarify. I’m trying to tell you that you want to utilize him. You paid Larry money because Larry did something well: he scored. You can’t have a guy who averaged 22 points one year and then go somewhere new and not get the same average and then you bash him. No, if you want him to be what he was, you need to change the tempo of your game. Besides Ilgauskas, you have runners. You have a team that wants to run. A team like Cleveland can run up and down and still bog down on defense. Their leader is one of the top athletes in the world. When we used to play them they always had us down 20 in the first period because they just ran and you couldn’t stop them on the break.”
A few comments:
- I agree with him on the point that certain coaching systems favor certain styles of players. That makes sense to me.
- I also agree than Mike Brown is not an NBA offensive mastermind.
But why blame the system when Larry’s shot selection is clearly so poor? Why not take responsibility? Are you really advocating that Larry just needs more attempts? Can you blame the system for shooting 67% from the free throw line last year? Can you blame the system for shooting 27% on three pointers this year?
Do you know how Larry could have had a better PPG average in 2006-2007?
SHOOT BETTER.
In the 2006-2007 regular season, if Larry had shot:
- 48% on his 2 point attempts
- 40% on his 3 point attempts
- 85% on his FT attempts
He would have scored 18 points per game. That’s plenty.
Tonight Daniel Gibson shot 5-5 from the floor (and that includes 4-4 on 3 pointers). If Gibson can go 5 for 5, is it to much to ask for 50% from Larry?
6 responses so far ↓
1 Ed // Nov 15, 2007 at 1:21 pm
yeah, Mike Brown’s not an offensive genius but his offensive system or lack of one, doesn’t seem to be holding LeBron, Z, Gooden, and Daniel Gibson back. Sasha is still shooting okay.
Arenas is an idiot trying to stick up for Hughes. Hughes is awful, he takes terrible shots and clangs wide open looks.
Arenas is part right though. When he talks about “systems” - Larry Hughes is/was a creation of that system in Washington. They ran and ran because they didn’t care about winning, just racking up stats, so Hughes put up a bunch of meaningless stats.
His TRUE stats like fg% were still awful 40.9% his last year in Washington, but because of their “system” Hughes put up some stats in overrated categories like PPG.
2 Madre Hill, Superstar // Nov 15, 2007 at 4:30 pm
If Gilbert thinks Larry’s getting hosed that badly, he should start campaigning to bring him back to the Wizards. In fact, we should start a campaign to convince Agent Zero to plead to Wes Unseld to take Larry back.
3 Slick // Nov 15, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Can they just play 4 on 5? Sure, we can say it’s early, but the season is a tenth gone. He’s got his worst PER ever. The last two seasons with the Cavs, he’s been basically a slightly-below average NBA player with PER’s of 14 and 12. This year he’s at 4. 4. 4.
Larry please take better shots!
4 t-bone // Nov 15, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Just wanted to say I just got this site forwarded to me today and thanks for the laughs. Hope you keep it going all year.
5 mike // Nov 16, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Larry. You make me puke. 12 million dollars…. DAMN the kinda of talent we could have for 12 million….. Hey remember teen wolf with michael J fox… and the highschool basketball team he played on… that fatass white guy that was on the team……. YEA i’d rather see his jelly rolls stumbling up and down the court at the Q than see you shoot. Trade yourself, quit basketball, or go join the developmental league so you can work on what you like to call a jump shot. Tool.
6 sponng // Dec 31, 2007 at 9:06 am
Nice tattoos, Gilbert. Who did them, Mr. Gund?
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