I'mWithDan
"Straight Cash Homie"
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The paint was packed once Syracuse finally realized that they can't afford to let Zion score at will...and then (with no Jones or Reddish) RJ was basically the only offensive option. So good defense more than selfish chucking is the explanation.
A good game to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Zion, too.
On one hand, while he's a great ballhandler for a PF/C, he's really not good enough to actually create 1-on-1 from the perimeter...as a result, Cuse was able to pretty much take him out of the game by denying entry passes and bringing aggressive doubleteams in the paint. He only scored 7 points in the last 13 minutes of the second half and OT, 6 of them off RJ assists (and the other one on a bad shooting foul call).
On the other hand, his gravity in the paint is crazy. It's going to be such a huge boon for whatever NBA team gets him, especially if he gets better at passing the ball back out to open shooters. He's a huge reason why Duke shot 43 threes, most of them open or wide open, and when and NBA team shoots 43 threes they're going to make more than 9 of them most nights.
Appreciate it.
I didn't mean to bag on RJ, I imagined there was some logical reason, given how out of bounds it was in relation to the rest of his season. I don't really get caught up in the ebb and flow of a single shooting night, I was just floored by the attempt number.....given it represented more than 15% of his 3PT attempts, on the season.
He did just absolutely stuff the stat sheet when looking at his REB / AST / TO total though......amazing he could play that many minutes, with that much assist production and only have a single TO. It has to be tough to sustain outside shooting on the minutes load he is taking. He played 85 game minutes in a 48 hour period......and while his shooting sucked (against Cuse'), he only had 4 TO's in those 2 combined games, which is remarkable given his usage.
He is getting run in to the ground a bit though, especially with his night to night role. Nearly 83% of the teams' minutes (on the season) is just too much.......but I'm sure that won't change. That's a 40 minute a night pace at the NBA level. That would lead the NBA by a hair under 3 minutes a game (Harden is at 37.1 as the league leader). With injuries, it may get worse though......so I'd imagine he will just have nights where his shot will not go down, because he's beat up or his legs are shot.....or both.
I think that shows up in 0 and 1 day rest stats (4 Games).....they are just horrendous shooting wise:
31/86 FG (36%), 7/36 3PT (19.4%)
Shooting on 2 or more days rest (12 games):
109/227 FG (48%), 26/68 3PT (38.2%)
So it will be interesting to see how Duke survives the first few rounds of the NCAA tournament. Seems like their recipe for winning a NC is to be bounced early from the ACC tournament and allow Barrett to really get his legs back, after what will likely be a very grueling regular season minutes wise.