robpollard

January 30th, 2020 at 2:07 PM ^

First, Duncan Robinson is amazing as a pro. I don't mean that to say he's an All-Star or something close; I mean that I am amazed, considering his college career, that he is a legit, 30-plus min a game player who makes many meaningful contributions to a Top 8 NBA team. Did not see that coming, and it's great.

That said, + / - is a garbage stat, and it saddens me that it's starting to catch on.

Michigan had its big run in the 2nd half when Nunez happened to be out there. He contributed almost nothing during that time (e.g., 0 pts; 0 rebs).

Yet I'm supposed to take his +15 (and Wagner's 0) as indicative as something meaningful about their individual games?

GTFO with that stat.

jmblue

January 30th, 2020 at 2:24 PM ^

I don't think anyone's going to argue that Nunez was our best player at Nebraska.  In individual games you can get quirky results.

But I think the stat has value overall, given a larger sample size.  Even for Tuesday's game, it shows that we at least were able to hide his shortcomings when he was on the floor, to the extent that we even went on a big run with him out there.  (Though it may say more about how bad Nebraska is that anything.)

Dr. Explosion

January 30th, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^

It's not a garbage stat in the context of this post, at all. If your team scores more points than its opponent when you are on the floor... but your team loses... you simply cannot be blamed for that loss. 

In other words, the time when Boston outscored Miami was when Duncan was sitting on the bench drinking water. To then blame him for the loss is assinine. 

robpollard

January 30th, 2020 at 6:38 PM ^

I have no opinion on whether Duncan Robinson can be blamed for the loss in that game, as I didn't see one second of it. Very likely, he shouldn't be blamed, as it's a team game.

But that has nothing to do with plus/minus -- it's not a reliable indicator of a person's contribution. Adrian Nunez was (supposedly) 15 points better than Franz Wagner in the Nebraska game. That's not close. And by that stat, when we played Wagner, it was an even chance that UM loses; if we played Nunez more (e.g., in Wagner's place), we completely blow them out.

If you watched the game (as I did), that's no remotely correct. Wagner kept us in the game, when we were struggling to score points at time; Nunez was just a guy struggling to hit open shots and not doing much of anything else.

Streetchemist

January 30th, 2020 at 12:21 PM ^

I’ve watched an absolute ton of DRob this year with the Heat. It’s true, he’s getting called for a lot of fouls.  Sure some are the right call. But about half of them are a complete joke and majority of the league (especially all stars and above) just do not get called on them with any consistency.  He’s basically a rookie and though it’s stupid, this is how it goes for newcomers in the NBA. Hopefully with more experience, he’ll improve and also start to get a little more respect from the officials. 

Cruzcontrol75

January 30th, 2020 at 1:48 PM ^

this is what i couldn't and still can't stand about the ASSociation.  calls are made for and against some but not others.  And part of why i only watch about 2 or 3 NBA games a year for past 5-6 seasons.  Donaghy even acknowledged that the league instructed refs to make certain calls against teams and players.   And it's not always a rookie vs vet thing.  Case in point, McDyess was a seasoned vet once he arrived in Detroit.  He got the raw deal on most nights, although a very good defender he was in foul trouble often.  

Alumnus93

January 30th, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^

Don't understand why you would post a negative Robinson article, especially when he's among the most successful Wolverines in the pros, and ESPECIALLY coming from where he did.  Stupid.  His story of his rise to the pros is as good as it gets.  Total Longshot...

BlueinKyiv

January 30th, 2020 at 5:49 PM ^

Let me get this right, we should only post positive articles on anything Michigan.  Basically, your vision is Fox news for the Michigan fan.

Living in Miami, attending Heat games, and subscribing to the local press there, I have been the sole poster of every positive article on Duncan on this board. That said, his defensive weaknesses (though greatly improved over the last six years) has been a leading topic on this site over the much of that time and remains relevant to our current team where we hope a lanky shooter can guard.