Should We Be Concerned With How Much BBD Gets Blocked?

This is a typically well done post, Roy.

The “passing when in poor position” improvement would be the most helpful, I think. He’s not exactly the most willing passer. His assists per 36 minutes and ast% are both the lowest or near lowest of all the players listed above.

Blocks aside, I am often impressed with the small spaces into which Davis can squeeze shots. Considering how many inches he gives up inside (listed at 6’9" but did Reggie Miller say he was more like 6’5" the other night? He does look suspiciously shorter than Pierce) he gets off some very impressive shots. But lately he doesn’t get off even more. I wonder if Davis is also impressed with his ability to find the blue sky and is forcing the issue even when he’s surrounded. For all his experience getting swatted this year, you’d think he’d have a better sense of when to get rid of the ball.

To my eye, it seems he gets the majority of those shots blocked after offensive rebounds, and when he’s surrounded by the opposing team’s bigs. He needs to pass out in those situations. When he’s able to make his move within the offense, he can pretty reliably get off his half hook without getting it blocked, so at least this is an issue that he can avoid if he smartens up.

How doc is going to give him minutes. Oh yea , how many times did "uno uno " go to the line ?

were just finding this out know… i watch him and perk go up soft as helll everytime they shoot, it pisses me out if your over 6’7 in the nba you should be able 2 dunk around the basket… not everybody is vc or lebron but damnn go up with it strong.. i see both of them go up soft every night.. it should concern us because howard will smack dat soft shidd 2 half court

You can live with that from your 3rd big… he can fix it easiest by cleaning up his post moves and throwing in some up fakes…

Appreciated as always Roy. Would like to have his “fouled shooting inside” to go with the block stats. Seems a no brainer that he would benefit from better recognition of when to pass out. The biggest problems come when he is bracketed. If there are defenders on more than one side, he really struggles to keep even guards from getting a piece of his shots. His release point is almost always below the rim and there isn’t a player in the Association that can’t reach higher.

How is this even an argument amongst those who have commented whether or not BBD getting his shot blocked is a concern?

It is a concern because every night we lose a potential 6-10 points. plain and simple. It is a concern,and a problem

It’s even more of a problem when BBD gets blocked 3 or 4 times a night, and then doesn’t get any blocks himself..so he’s not even neutralizing or canceling out his shots that get blocked.

Also dont look at the fact the BBD gets his shots blocked and thats the end of the story…..many times those Blocked shots are essentially TURNOVERs, because the other team winds up with the ball and leads into the fast break.

For anyone to say its not a problem, I scratch my head and try and understand that logic. but I just can’t get past the fact that for any player to get his shot blocked is a concern, simply because its a potential 2 or 3 pts. that are gone and can never be retrieved. But when its the same player getting his shot blocked 3 or 4 times a game, its beyond “concern”…..

…Like I said in my book, Blocked shots are essentially TURNOVERS, and especially the kind of shots BBD gets blocked.

Someone explain to me whats the difference between the kinds of shots BBD gets blocked and……….if BBD were trying to dribble thru traffic (dbl or triple teamed) from the top of the key to get to the basket, but loses the ball, gets it back and goes right back to trying to dribble thru 3 guys from the top of the key again, losing the ball once more, and then attempting once more dribbling thru the triple team until finally getting the ball stolen; when all he had to do was look over towards the wing and pass to a wide open Pierce

‘current’ factor on one of the most polarizing players currently on the Celtics.

No doubt it would behoove Davis to become more efficient in this category.

There is a lot I can say, but I think I’ll save most of it for an article I plan to do on Davis when the season is over.

but to address just the yearly stats mentioned here…

year one: Davis was just an afterthought to opponents in his rookie season. He could (and did) slip in behind defenses and score.

year two: Davis was asked to space the offense and stand outside early in each set. His rebounding numbers suffered, but when he did go in offensively, I would guess that he was picking his spots and opportunities.

year three: Davis is asked to do the exact opposite of last season. He is supposed to mix it up inside – to open things up for Sheed outside (which I was of the opinion was a mistake). By being inside so much more, standing still, he has had to try to go up with ball – not a strong part of his game. But he is doing his role as best as he can under the circumstances.

Davis will be more successful if he can get the defensive player(S) moving, pass the ball out, or go to a fade away when possible.

I had hoped that it would be a quicker learning experience than it is proving to be. But I agree that with practice, working on making contact, and the opposite – working on creating space that he can and will improve.

BB has a ton of energy and grabs a lot of rebounds per minute of play. Percentages like you post can be misleading since it’s how many total go in the hole that counts. A lot of his blocked shots he grabs again and puts it in the hole. Total energy and effort means a lot. So I was thinking about this and looked up how many offensive rebounds per minute played he gets. Turns out he’s ranked 4th in the league out of the 50 power forwards. Not surprising to me…See the link:

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?position=pf&sort=offReboundRate&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fstatistics%3fposition%3dpf%26sort%3doffReboundRate

Carl Landry being right up there makes me think “playing small” is a factor. These two don’t really play like long and/or tall interior players, maybe relying more on skill and having fewer instances of easy putback dunks, etc.

I feel like Big Baby will get blocked twice in a row after grabbing an offensive board and trying to go right back up with it, but even then he’ll often get it back and eventually put it in. Other bigs might be able tip or dunk in offensive boards more easily than Baby and Landry. That’s one thing that sticks out, anyway.

It will stop being a problem when he grows to be 6.10 or 6.11

I like to compare BBD with Sir Charles. They have the same type of body. Both are undersize for their positioins. But I didn’t remember Sir Charles being blocked as often as BBD. So, other than just size, there must be something else that BBD does not do right.

Fact is, BBD gets to the line when those attempted blocks are called for fouls.

Wallace played twice as many minutes as BBD this season…but BBD had more FTA`s.

They don’t mention that a good portion of those blocks happen on the same play. While he does get blocked he gets it back and keeps trying to put it back up which often time results in another block. While getting blocked isn’t a good thing it also means he is at least taking the ball up strong to the hole. While I’m not a big fan of BBD he does hustle and at least draws fouls. But still rather it be Leon Powe on the court instead of him.

Baby is trying to do the low post scoring that Powe did for us in the past. The difference is that Powe knew how to get the other player to foul him. Powe was undersized down there as well. I hope that BBD develops some craftiness down there so he can turn those blocked shots into fouls on the opposing bigs.

This season’s block % is a career abberation.

And what’s the biggest reason for statistical abberations? Usually, it’s an injury, and sure enough, Baby hurt his thumb, and later sprained an ankle after returning from the thumb injury. The thumb injury hurt his ability to finish inside, leading to a loss of condifence (you can’t go up strong and confident if any one hit to your thumb sends pain shivers up your arm), while also physically eading to block shots since his hand-grip was compromised. Further, his later ankle injury really threw off his conditioning, meaning he put on weight, compromising his lift from both extra weight and a bum ankle.

So, in terms of why the % rose this season, I think we can look at the injuries he had at the beginning of the year and conclude that they are the main reason.

Of course, Baby has put more focus on offensive rebounding, and as such has created more put back opportunities, usually against 2-3 players, situations which increase his likelihood of getting blocked. As he goes forward, he needs to get better recognizing when to go back up with a put back and when to kick it out. That’ll come with more experience…

At least Baby is taking it STRONG to the bucket every time. He’s undersized — what should we expect? He’s going to get swatted.

The comparison that springs to mind almost immediately is our old buddy ’Toine’s inside game. He got stuffed like crazy, too, but when HE did, it drove me NUTS, mostly because he tried to quick-shoot it and flip it up every time.

If BBD takes it strong, there’s not much more we can ask for.

i’ve said this recently, but i firmly believe that a post player cannot be “afraid” of getting their shot blocked. i’m sure tommy heinsohn would agree, that if you force the issue at the rim, good things eventually happen, as evidenced by his performance the other night. i agree fully that baby needs to pass out of the post much more, which will cut down a lot of blocked shots. but if his shot is blocked when he is making a good storng move towards the rim, he needs to keep going at it even if he gets blocked, because he will eventually (hopefully) get a foul call, or he will be able to make the adjustment and find the blue sky. davis is often underestimated in his jumping ability and most of his game is to surprise the opponent. also, we know that his game is energy and at his best, his game is an all out barrage of hustle.

Not only is he undersized and lacking lift, but sometimes he does a very poor job of reading the defense. Sometimes he jumps toward the defense instead of toward the daylight. It is a little painful to watch sometimes- like he’s a highschool kid who snuck into an nba game.

He’s a very nice player for a 2nd round pick, and he can either improve this or become more cautious. Charles Oakley was a near all-star for years and was much worse at this than Big Baby. He just learned not to shoot when he was in traffic.

He tends to make severe spin moves and is not balanced when he releases. This is his biggest fault. He also doesn’t use his bulk to get shooting space. He doesn’t have a bump and release move, like Pierce, or a a hitch move, like Big Al. He could even learn a few things from watching Rondo.

put his finger on it. BBD doesn’t have nearly the lift right now that he had during last years playoffs. During that run he was dunking more than I have ever seen from him and now he doesn’t even try. He is getting to the rim and because of his aggressive moves he is getting the calls. It will be interesting to see how he does in more limited minutes behind KG.

The reason for the increase in his shot being blocked is probably correlated with the reduction in shots outside the paint he takes. Doc told him he wanted Baby to focus more on rebounding and going in the blocks. His rebounding per 48 has probably gone up alot. The bottom line is that we play we more energy when Glen is on the floor, both defensively and offensively, versus Sheed, or even Garnett (there, I said it).

Yes, he gets blocked alot..yes a problem but…a bigger problem would be to not go to the paint everytime we can…put their bigs in foul trouble early..game over…would anybody be surprised if Mr. Davis was the first off the bench tonight? ..

if he’s swarmed he should be looking to kick it out. he is good at getting to the line and i like that.