Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:

PorkChop wrote:It's remarkable that Shabazz has gotten so much flack for being a defensive black hole and now there's some proof that he's made progress and he gets no love!

I think the flack was justified in years' past, but he has certainly stepped it up this year. We also have to keep in mind that he is doing it mostly against bench players. He is rarely the guy having to guard Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, etc. But yes, he has definitely improved on that end of the floor.

Bazz certainly earned the reputation as a poor defender but at this point of the season with plenty of games to go on it kinda pisses me off that some people including some media that should know better haven't noticed he has been solid the whole season.

I remember one play from the Pacers game where he was guarding Paul George. George made a move baseline looking like he was going to get to the basket easily and somehow Bazz shuffled over there cutting him off and went straight up. He got called for a foul but it looked like pretty good D to me. Regardless he kept George from scoring. I'm not suggesting Bazz is a really good defender or anything but generally speaking he has done his job both as a individual defender and as a team defender which is really something. It's espcially significant considering how terrible Bazz was espcially early on last season where he was the worst defender on the team probably by a large margin. I didn't think he showed some signs of progressing defensively last year but part of that was they employed that switching defense which generally benefitted Bazz (and other players too) so I wasn't sure how much stock to put in it.

Q12543 wrote:Good stuff LST. Congrats on your team's victory and best of luck to you and your partner!

Squash has always been a curiosity to me, but I do know it's pretty big here out east. I've just never had occasion to watch it or play it. You've piqued my interest!

Same here LST. I'm glad your travels have been something you enjoy and you have had some great success. I've never looked into squash but I may check it out also.

Here is a comparison on the lineup numbers for our starting 5-man unit of Rubio-LaVine-Wiggins-Dieng-KAT last season and this season thru Zach's injury:

Last Season:
Offensive Rating - 113.5
Defensive Rating - 109.6
Net Rating - +3.9

Thru February 3 (this is the last game Zach played prior to getting hurt)
Offensive Rating - 107.5
Defensive Rating - 109.7
Net Rating - -2.3

Here is how the Rush starting unit has done when Zach has been out (including two games in January):

Rubio-Rush-Wiggins-Dieng-KAT:
Offensive Rating: 114.5
Defensive Rating: 106.5
Net Rating: +8.0

And here are our updated Net Ratings by key rotation player, meaning guys that are now getting regular minutes in the rotation:

Tyus Jones +6.1
Brandon Rush +3.2
Gorgui Dieng +1.4
Shabazz Muhammad +1.0
Andrew Wiggins +.8
Nemanja Bjelica +.6
KAT +.4
Rubio -1.0
Dunn -1.1
LaVine -3.5

Fun Stat...

Vs. Sacramento... Belly and Tyus Jones combined to shoot 6 - 23 fg.

Yet, they were +27 and +23 respectively in that game... the #1 and #2 marks that night in the entire NBA.