Season Review Part III: Ben Gordon

by Scotter on May 29, 2007 1:20 PM CDT Comment 23 comments

Ben Gordon may have improved more than any Bull last year. Before this season, I had doubts about how much room Gordon had to improve. Then he posted a career high 18.31 PER after not topping 15.00 in either of his previous seasons. That placed him 11th in PER among SGs. Gordon also improved the most of any Bull in Oliver's system. Gordon went from .381 and .383 PW%s to a .662 PW% and nearly doubled his Player Win total from last year, going from 4.2 to 8.2. Hollinger said this of Gordon in his 05/06 season review, "But without a high TS%, it's hard to envision stardom for him -- at the moment he's a guy who creates a lot of shots but doesn't bring much else to the table. Gordon responded this season by raising his TS% 4% from 53.1% to 57.2%. He did this by dramatically improving his inside scoring for the second consecutive season. Improving from 41.3% to 45.4% to 50.3%. Ben has done this by largely eliminating the signature shot of his rookie year, the floater (and in the process thankfully reducing the use of "the giant killer" on Comcast). More and more Gordon has driven all the way to the rim for layups or pulled up for a jumpshot, both are higher percentage shots and more likely to draw fouls. Which was the second ingredient to Gordon's rising TS%. Gordon shot an additional 2 FTA/40 min compared to last season. However, he still has to raise his TS% another 2-3% to be among the league leaders for guards and acheive the stardom Hollinger described.

Gordon also spent significant time at the point for the first time in his NBA career. According to 82games.com, Gordon played 5% of the team's minutes at PG. That's almost 200 minutes without Hinrich or Duhon on the court. Gordon was suprisingly effective with a 31.8 PER. That isn't an argument for Gordon starting at point, but it does support the idea that for 5-10 min/g Gordon can play a pseudo point where he looks to score every time down the floor. Helping to end the Duhon saga.

Where can Gordon still improve? If he ever has a good first month of the season, his overall numbers will be better in reference to other players. But, it won't mean he's a better player. The obvious place to look is turnovers. Hopefully next season Gordon can bring his turnovers down the way he did in his 2nd season. (I'm speculating that when a player expands his offensive game that a rise in turnovers accompanies that expansion. Then the following season is when that player reduces his turnovers back down. Gordon and Deng both reduced their turnovers in their second seasons only to have them rise when they expanded their offensive games this season.) Gordon still could get to the FT line more. His personal fouls have also trended down all three seasons. His decision making and passing have improved enough that he could finally play some point, and should continue to get better with experience. Gordon's height will also probably feel alot more tolerable when his defensive replacement is actually taller than little Ben. For now he's still the only player on the team that consistently can create his own shot.

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I'd be curious

to see what the situation was when those minutes came where he was the only PG on the floor.

Don't Lose. Ever.!

by bullshooter on May 29, 2007 1:31 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

have to disagree

BG should never play point; and Luol improved far far more than BG

by milesgmsu on May 29, 2007 1:51 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Agree

on both counts.

Who will come and who will go? Stay tuned!

by sue369 on May 29, 2007 2:03 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

That may be, but Gordon

had the biggest jump in statistical performance.

You have to change how you define pg play when it comes to Gordon. Gordon is effective at point when he plays it like Gilbert Arenas. When he's at point he drives until he can get his shot or a double team forces him to pass. It works for Gordon because it forces him to do what he does really well, create shots. He can't disappear if the ball is in his hands everytime down the floor.

by Scotter on May 29, 2007 6:55 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

agreed

I think Gordon bringing the ball up the court works just fine, and an improved Sefolosha (who has shown signs of being a decent slasher and finisher) would give the Bulls a nice, different look on offense for short stretches of a game.

by Paxson Jackson on May 29, 2007 7:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

but he's so short! :-p

ahh...better efficiency with even more minutes.

But I'm greedy and want him on the floor even more next season. As you said his decision making (both on offense and defense) is getting better, giving Skiles fewer reasons to put him in the doghouse.

I was discouraged by his series against the Pistons, but I still think he deserves another season as a full-time player to make a better projection on what he can be in the future. There are few players like him in the NBA so it's hard to judge...a shorter Gilbert Arenas? A more efficient Allen Iverson?

He also still has that tendency to not shoot for quarters at a time...

by your friendly BullsBlogger on May 29, 2007 2:20 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

For us "Outsiders"

who don't plunk down for ESPN Insider status: what does TS% stand for?

by paxson43 on May 29, 2007 2:21 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

True Shooting percentage

factors in 3-pointers and foul shots

http://www.nba.com/sonics/news/stats101.html

by your friendly BullsBlogger on May 29, 2007 2:28 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Do you have the ability to track a player's

statistics against particular opponents?

For example, can you isolate Gordon's efficiency against teams that start taller guards? Or against the better teams in the League?

by 1958ChiTown on May 29, 2007 4:49 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

no advanced stuff

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/splits.cgi?player=gordobe01&year=2007

but you can get the just of it

by Paxson Jackson on May 29, 2007 5:15 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think you can isolate performance against

specific teams on both espn and nba, but you'd have to look at each team specifically.

Who says it can't be done?

by wjb1492 on May 29, 2007 7:12 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

PER = Championship? Or, Defense wins championship

Do any of these analyses factor in defensive effort/efficiency? How much is the PER relevant to winning a championship? In any case, thanks for your time and effort! Gordon can score usually when the opposing guards are weaker defenders and ONLY when he does not have to expend much energy on defensive end (and doesn't contribute much anything else). BG may get better, so does every SGs on other teams. He is already behind many starting SGs (eg, Hamilton, Wade, JJ, Carter, Redd... even behind Crawford/Richardson, A Parker...and many of the West starting SGs). Additionally, some of the younger SGs, like B Roy, M Collins ... could outplay him in a year or two (K Martin has already outplayed BG) because they can guard the opposing SGs, are tall (so it's not easy to be defended) and of course they can shoot. Don't get us wrong. Okafor and BG were our favor college players on that UConn championship team. Personally, we want to see BG as the Bulls starting SG forever. On the other hand, we want to see the Bulls win championships. We are torn between... It is just we have not seen any championship teams or championship contender teams have a starting SG as weak as BG. He may be more suitable as a starter on a team that just tries to get into the playoffs. Even Duncan (the best low-post scorer besides Shaq) couldn't win a championship without a tall/good defender SG. Duncan won last championship with a multi-talented tall SG like Ginobili; prior to Ginobili, he won with two different tall SGs - both are great defenders. Well, we could be wrong... However, the Bulls' records make us think otherwise...
Hinrich's PER is underrated because he has to expend so much energy on defensive end to baby-sit BG, which significantly affects his offensive outcome; consequently his PER suffers a great deal (when you are tired, you don't shoot well and tend to make wrong decision and have TOs). Regarding the Cavs-Pistons series, Kerr wrote, "Tayshaun Prince is expending so much energy chasing LeBron that he can't buy a shot. He was 0-8 from the field and is now 1-19 in the series" We were thinking this is what's happened to Hinrich from time to time during the regular season and in the playoffs (particularly in the Bulls-Heats series when he had to chase Wade all the time). In addition, it's really an inefficient way to use your PG as a Bowen-type defensive specialist, and it also affects his growing as a PG. If we try to do both things at the same time, can any of us do well?
The Cavs are much more competitive against the Pistons (although the overall talent of the Bulls' roster is better). Why? A main reason is that the coach of the Cavs understands that he needs to use two guards with good defensive ability to guard Billups and Hamilton at the same time and he is not afraid of using the rookie Gibson because he can guard Billups. Well, we could be wrong again... Hey, the Bulls don't have to assemble their roster based on how well they will match up with those elite teams.

by smton on May 30, 2007 2:55 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

FYI (and the Y stands for "yous")

Hinrich is always going to be defending the better perimeter threat on other teams. It's not Gordon's fault Hinrich is a good defender.

"even behind Crawford/Richardson, A Parker..."

That's an awfully low opinion of a player who scored the seventh most points in the NBA last season.

by Paxson Jackson on May 30, 2007 8:13 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

We are fascinated

by the use of we. Are there two of you? Are you foreign? Are both of you foreign?

Draft pick rodeo -- Yi Hawes!

by preverbal on May 30, 2007 8:40 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

vee are not foreign!

by Paxson Jackson on May 30, 2007 8:47 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

i was beat to the "we" joke

but don't you dare give any credit to mike brown; the reason whyt he cavs are more competitive is a mixture of

matchingup well in terms of tall players vs our speedy players

shooting the ball decently, as opposed to us most of the series

and det coming back down to earth offensivley

by milesgmsu on May 30, 2007 10:21 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Detroit's Offense

I know Cleveland has more sizr and everything but Detroit's offense has been pretty damn bad. Makes me wonder if the bulls serieswas an aberation or if Cleveland is better than us in defense, regardless of how we matchup. Watching the game, Billups has turned into a below average point guard, Prince has been off (might be because he has to guard james, hamilton doesnt get the ball enough and the pistons are missing lots of shots that they were making and should be making.

I hate cleveland and do not like to think they were better than us. Oh and Daniel Gibson scored 21 points. Not a bad player but he shouldn't be able to get to the line so often. What gear is Detroit playing in? as they like to say.

by Sambossanova on May 30, 2007 11:51 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

technically the Bulls had a better defense

during the season.

But Cleveland's was very close, and they're bigger and play at a slower pace so maybe that helps them against a similar team like Detroit.

by your friendly BullsBlogger on May 30, 2007 12:05 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I've decided that Cleveland's success

is all due to the Bulls. Like last year, the talking heads kept going on about how the Cavs wore them out and Detroit had nothing left for the Heat? This year the Bulls are filling the Cavs role, and the Cavs are the beneficiaries! ;)

Who says it can't be done?

by wjb1492 on May 30, 2007 1:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs