I don’t need to read any fluff articles , thank you for providing one though.
The article is for reference; in case you wanted to see another objective take from a disinterested and dispassionate observer? I guess that's not the case?
You not see Beal have his ass roasted by DeRozan going off for 37 on 14/23 ? He couldn’t match him on offense either with a measly 9 pts 3/11 on below average stats.
Are you suggesting these past two games outweigh the seasons worth of information we're discussing?
Those type of games from Beal happen way to often for my liking. He’s suppose to be Washington’s 2nd banana , 9 points without doing something else to contribute like play stellar D or dish out 7 assist or snag 4 steals. Something , anything.
I wanted to see if your eye test was correct; and .. not entirely unsurprisingly, it isn't. But even I was surprised by the similarity in production between Beal and DeRozan given just how different they go about scoring the ball.
The standard deviation of points scored for Brad Beal in 2016-17 was 7.66 PPG; for DeRozan it was 8.20 PPG; in 2017-18, for Beal it was 8.57 PPG; for DeRozan it was 9 PPG. This year, Beal scored 22.6 PPG on 18.1 FGA/g, DeRozan scored 23.0 PPG on 17.6 FGA/g; a difference of 0.5 FGA/g and 0.4 PPG; with Beal having a marginally lower overall variance of -0.27 PPG... But effectively, these two players are equivalent, this year, both their average scoring per game and the variance thereof.
So it is not a reasonable conclusion, not one backed by evidence, that Beal is "too often" not contributing scoring-wise compared to say, Demar DeRozan... That's simply not true.
My best guess as to why you've come to have this opinion is because last season DeRozan was putting up 27 PPG+; but that's since gone down. I also think you're overvaluing high scoring games of DeRozan's while ignoring games where he scores in single digits (happens often), while doing the reverse for Bradley Beal.
We can actual measure this. Let's look at the Top 10 scoring games from DeRozan this season (I'll ignore dates, just the points scored ranked highest to lowest):
1: 52
2: 45
3: 42
4: 42
5: 37
6: 37
7: 35
8: 35
9: 35
10: 33
I'm sure some would then immediately say,
"see? he's a beast!" Now let's look at Bradley Beal, same season:
1: 51
2: 41
3: 40
4: 39
5: 38
6: 36
7: 36
8: 34
9: 34
10: 34
Is there really any difference here? .. What if we average the Top 10 highest scoring totals out, any difference there? Not much: DeRozan, 39.3 PPG, Beal, 38.3 PPG..
But what about "too often" not scoring (implicit comparison, DeRozan). Well, let's flip the measurement around to the Bottom 10 scoring games, what then?
Well for DeRozan we get:
1: 2
2: 7
3: 8
4: 8
5: 9
6: 10
7: 11
8: 11
9: 12
10: 13
Hmmm.. What about Beal?
1: 4
2: 4
3: 7
4: 7
5: 8
6: 8
7: 10
8: 11
9: 13
10: 14
Is that really any different? Let's take the average again and see? Well, for DeRozan we get 9.1 PPG, and for Beal we get 8.6 PPG. Not much difference there, 0.5 PPG - roughly comparable to their season averages.
So what's all this telling us? Well, it tells us that (1) there is no real appreciable difference between Beal and DeRozan with respect to either consistency or variance in their production; (2) DeRozan's floor this season was 0.5 PPG higher, and his ceiling was 1 PPG higher; in fact, his highest scoring game of 52 was only 1 point higher than Beal's of 51, while his lowest scoring game of 2 points was just 2 shy of Beal's 4 points. So again, while you might feel or believe DeRozan is on another level as a scorer compared to Bradley Beal, as of this season and even over season's past, that's not necessarily true.
Now, I do think DeRozan has more ability to drive and draw contact and free throws, and is better in the mid-range when pulling up off the dribble. But in saying that, it does not mean he's an overall better scorer and can consistently score the ball better and at a higher efficiency than Bradley Beal -- that's
factually untrue. It must also be said that Bradley Beal is a
significantly better shooter than DeMar DeRozan, so when neither is able to draw fouls, Beal will still have his shooting stroke to fall back on. What's more, DeRozan is a terrible three point shooter; while Beal is one of the better three point shooters in the league.
So, with all this being said, and given the fact that Beal is a more complete two-way player and is also a solid defender at his position; yeah, I don't think it's a stretch to say these two players are effectively in the same tier of shooting guard. Whichever one a team might prefer would likely come down to team needs and fit more so than pure capability on either of these players part.
Beal in his 6th season is who he is at this point ..
Beal has consistently improved year over year since entering the league. I suggest you take the time to read the article I provided you with as it goes over this at length.
Give me Devin Booker all day long. He’s still only 21 in his 3rd season and trending up and past Beal, he also has a slightly larger frame . He wants out of Phoenix in the worst way and they have the chips to replace him.
FWIW, Booker has a higher variance in his points produced over last season than either Beal or DeRozan; he also has a higher volume of shots taken... Just saying..
Nonetheless, I'm not here to knock Booker, he's a excellent up and coming player...
