How Cousins is used in the offense

#1
There's a lot of Cousins threads going on right now but this is something I've been wondering for a while and it doesn't seem to fit in any of the current threads.

How come Cousins never gets any easy baskets?

Now there's a lot of you here that pay better attention to basketball fundamentals than I do but why is it that Cousins never gets set up by his teammates for an easy bucket? When I say never, I'm talking like I can only remember one or two easy buckets for him on the entire season where we ran a set play and at the end of the play you had a pass to Cousins that set him up for an easy score. His efficiency for a center is terrible at 45%. It's not because he's not good at getting the ball in the basket. It's because every one of his field goals is a hard fought, 1 on 1, 1 on 2, 1 on 3 affair where he's either doing it all on his own or shooting from the outside. It's no wonder why he's not very efficient for a center.

One thing I've noticed is that we never use him in a pick and roll. He comes out to screen and when the point guard runs by him, instead of rolling to the hoop like Cauley Stein or Kofous, he just steps back behind the 3 point line or just inside of it. Why is this? I'm all for his solid 3 point shooting but can we get the big man an easy bucket once in a while? I don't understand the point in forcing him to have to work so hard to get points when no one else seems to have to deal with it.

Now I don't buy the idea that we can't do that because he's always double teamed. There are plenty of other superstars in the league that get a free 4 or 5 points a night due to their teammates setting them up. I just don't understand why we force Cousins to battle out of these insanely predictable sets that are the root cause of him turning the ball over 6-7 times a night now that the league has caught on.
 
#2
Because Cousins is the Playmaker; simple as that. He's exactly the same role that Westbrook and Harden are in right now; the teams rely on him to create for himself/others and shoulder a huge burden of the offensive load. A HUGE reason why we've been so much better on the offense end is we've turned the offense over the big fella and the rest of the guys are all actually getting involved on the offense. That hasn't been the case at basically any time with Rudy on the team before.

And frankly, the talent isn't there to get Cousins easy looks. Teams aren't going to stop doubling or tripling him to make life harder for the likes of Darren Collison, Ben McLemore and Anthony Tolliver. It's up to those guys to hit their shots (and they have been lately, which is why we're seeing the W's) when they're available.
 
#3
There's a lot of Cousins threads going on right now but this is something I've been wondering for a while and it doesn't seem to fit in any of the current threads.

How come Cousins never gets any easy baskets?

Now there's a lot of you here that pay better attention to basketball fundamentals than I do but why is it that Cousins never gets set up by his teammates for an easy bucket? When I say never, I'm talking like I can only remember one or two easy buckets for him on the entire season where we ran a set play and at the end of the play you had a pass to Cousins that set him up for an easy score. His efficiency for a center is terrible at 45%. It's not because he's not good at getting the ball in the basket. It's because every one of his field goals is a hard fought, 1 on 1, 1 on 2, 1 on 3 affair where he's either doing it all on his own or shooting from the outside. It's no wonder why he's not very efficient for a center.

One thing I've noticed is that we never use him in a pick and roll. He comes out to screen and when the point guard runs by him, instead of rolling to the hoop like Cauley Stein or Kofous, he just steps back behind the 3 point line or just inside of it. Why is this? I'm all for his solid 3 point shooting but can we get the big man an easy bucket once in a while? I don't understand the point in forcing him to have to work so hard to get points when no one else seems to have to deal with it.

Now I don't buy the idea that we can't do that because he's always double teamed. There are plenty of other superstars in the league that get a free 4 or 5 points a night due to their teammates setting them up. I just don't understand why we force Cousins to battle out of these insanely predictable sets that are the root cause of him turning the ball over 6-7 times a night now that the league has caught on.
Because Cousins isn't our center, but our playmaker right now. And most of his turnovers are on forced attempts late in the clock, where we couldn't get anyone open, or are a direct result of his sometimes questionable decision making. When he is under control and runs the offense with some patience, he is actually a pretty good playmaker. He just suffers from the "needs to do it all-syndrom" from time to time. Cousins isn't the best option in pick&rolls, because he barely gets off the floor and using him more in pick&rolls would mean Lawson starting next to him and Koufos, which kills spacing and gives the bench troubles, because now Willie has to run with DC.
The only time, when we could actually play Cousins as a usual center, is when he is paired with Tolliver or Barnes at the 4 and Lawson at the point. But most teams would still collapse on Cousins in every pick&roll and would opt for Lawson, Tolliver or Barnes to beat them from outside the 3pt line or from mid range. This is the huge difference to guys like Jordan. Teams opt for a lob to Jordan over a kickout to Reddick or an open jumper by Paul, when defending the Clippers, making it easy for Jordan to get buckets. Won't happen with Cousins and our wings and guards.
At the end of the day DC and Temple are solid players, but creating shots for others is not one of their best traits. I would expect Cousins playmaking attempts to go down a bit, as soon as we can get our hands on a capable PG.
Until then he basically plays like some nightmare version of Marc Gasol or like the big man version of Russel Westbrook.
It's not pretty, but as long as it gets the job done I'm fine with it.

tl;dr? What The Jamal said 6 minutes ago, because it takes me too long to write in damn english....;)
 
#4
Grevis and rondo were the only pg's who could pass to cuz on the roll. Everyone else cant make the pass or cant see it because they are too short. They make for wcs because they can the ball up higher for him to go get.

IT was the absolute worst on passing in the pnr to cuz.
 
#6
Other than being the playmaker now, it's because he never rolls. One aspect of his game that is really missing this year is rolling to the basket off a screen. Very good at finishing and drawing fouls in that play.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#7
he's used as a player who is supposed to do everything on the team; score, rebound, defend, assist...he doesn't get easy shots because there are no players that can put him in those situations. it's strictly throw the ball to him in the post or from the top of the key and let him go 1 against 3 or 4.
 
#8
Many have covered it already but we depend for EVERYTHING on Cousins offensively and he is the guy that the opposing teams focus on. If you even try to run him off low block screens to get him an easy look the defense just collapses on him.

I think this team would benefit significantly from another genuine superstar that demands as much attention as Cousins. That would make DMC's life so much easier and you can play him more out of the post because there is also someone else that demands just as much of an attention and Cuz does not get banged up as much on the block.
 
#9
The chronics of Cuz turning into our playmaker:

Just watch the changes in DMC's Month-by-month assists per game:
  • November '16:... 3.5
  • December '16:.... 4.3
  • January '17:........ 5.9
  • February '17: (only 5 games, but...)
Are you ready for this?
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
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8.0 assists per game!

That's more than Steph, Kyrie and 75% of the PGs in the league
(http://stats.nba.com/players/...)

It's more than Wunderkind Jokic, too... ;)
 
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VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#10
The chronics of Cuz turning into our playmaker:

Just watch the changes in DMC's Month-by-month assists per game:
  • November '16:... 3.5
  • December '16:.... 4.3
  • January '17:........ 5.9
  • February '17: (only 5 games, but...)
Are you ready for this?
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
8.0 assists per game!

That's more than Steph, Kyrie and 75% of the PGs in the league
(http://stats.nba.com/players/...)

It's more than Wunderkind Jokic, too... ;)
Makes a big difference when the people you pass to actually make a shot once in a while. :)
 
#11
The chronics of Cuz turning into our playmaker:

Just watch the changes in DMC's Month-by-month assists per game:
  • November '16:... 3.5
  • December '16:.... 4.3
  • January '17:........ 5.9
  • February '17: (only 5 games, but...)
Are you ready for this?
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
8.0 assists per game!

That's more than Steph, Kyrie and 75% of the PGs in the league
(http://stats.nba.com/players/...)

It's more than Wunderkind Jokic, too... ;)
I'm not so sure I'm impressed to be honest with you...

Generally speaking, it's very good when a big man has an AST/TO above 1, so from that standpoint, kudos to Cousins for being at 1.3 this year! However, if you're going to be the main playmaker/distributor/set-up man, that AST/TO is not going to cut it because you're no longer being compared to your fellow DeAndre Jordan or Rudy Gobert. You're being compared to the John Wall's, Chris Paul's, etc. of the world who are the primary playmakers for their teams. I'm going to arbitrarily say that a 2.0 AST/TO ratio is what would be preferred in this role.

You brought up his overall assists without a mention to his TOs. Why? It's similar to saying that X player scored 40 points but he took 50 shots to do so. The absolute numbers need the efficiency context.

In the month of February, Cousins has a 1.3 AST/TO to go along with his 7.8 APG. Among the the top 50 assist leaders in February (using your link), Cousins is dead last in AST/TO. Either he needs to make better decisions, or we need to add the necessary talent around Cousins so he doesn't have to carry this burden of being a high volume, inefficient playmaker.
 
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#12
I'm not so sure I'm impressed to be honest with you...

Generally speaking, it's very good when a big man has an AST/TO above 1, so from that standpoint, kudos to Cousins for being at 1.3 this year! However, if you're going to be the main playmaker/distributor/set-up man, that AST/TO is not going to cut it. I'm going to arbitrarily say that a 2.0 AST/TO ratio is what would be preferred in this role.

You brought up his overall assists without a mention to his TOs. Why? It's similar to saying that X player scored 40 points but he took 50 shots to do so. The absolute numbers need the efficiency context.

In the month of February, Cousins has a 1.3 AST/TO to go along with his 7.8 APG. Among the the top 50 assist leaders in February (using your link), Cousins is dead last in AST/TO. Either he needs to make better decisions, or we need to add the necessary talent around Cousins so he doesn't have to carry this burden of being a high volume, inefficient playmaker.
Since I was curious, I figured I'd share my work with the rest of y'all. Here's the A/TO monthly breakdown:
  • November '16:.... 1.29
  • December '16:.... 1.22
  • January '17:........ 1.40
  • February '17: ..... 1.30
http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/202326/advanced/?sort=AST_TO&dir=1

Also since I was curious, here's how he matches up with Marc Gasol, who I think would be a model for a passing big man in a Joerger-esque system (Gasol's AST/TO is 1.98):

http://stats.nba.com/vs/advanced/#!?PlayerID=202326&VsPlayerID=201188