I guess to play this game of "what if" a lot of it would boil down to: what role would Tyus play on offense and what role would Elijah play? If Tyus took all of Buddy's minutes AND reprised his role from last season as the less efficient, high-usage focal point of the offense (which would mean less contribution from Elijah and no contribution from Buddy) - I think it's fair to speculate that the offense would not be as good as this year's edition. But the defense would almost certainly be better with Tyus in place of Buddy.
The primary reason that our offense is a lot better this year is because our highest-usage player this year (Elijah) is having a better year than our highest-usage player last season (Tyus). Elijah is shooting better than Tyus did from 3-pt range, from 2-pt range and from the FT line - and Elijah has a higher assist rate than Tyus did. That's not to say that Tyus was bad last year... but I think Elijah's season is definitely under-appreciated (except for maybe in JB's post-game press conference rants).
I can tell from your posts that you're not a big advanced stats guy when it comes to basketball. And that's fine, they're not for everyone. There are still people who look at baseball stats and think that a .300 batting average or 100 RBI are automatically markers of a good season. (They're not.) But a team's overall adjusted efficiency rating on offense and on defense is absolutely something that smart basketball people should care about. (Not just those of us who pony up $19.99 per year to access kenpom).
Yeah, the "what if" games are boring, but since we're not doing much this year - it's all I got at the moment!
Last year we seemed to function best when Eli was hitting on all cylinders, but the trend if I recall, was that he often had dominant first halves, and GARBAGE second halves - which many attributed to poor conditioning on Eli's part. I don't think Tyus would be so ball dominant that it would negate Eli or take away all that many opportunities over the course of an entire season though.
Eli this year is definitely better than Tyus last year, but maybe with an improved Eli, JGIII at point (some consistency - and BB to give some relief) we see Battle revert to his Frosh 3PT numbers. He's shooting 38% in the G-League this year fwiw. Who knows, I just think the fact that he's so multi-dimensional, would be insanely helpful against athletic teams, and in general. Accordingly, with the improved Eli/JGIII, I think the offense is still much better than last year, and better off this year.
That's more or less where I discard all the efficiency ratings - regardless of what they say we can do on offense, as often that's what is thrown out in defense of the guards, those offensive "skills," quite notably with BB, tend to dissipate considerably when the other team has athletes - which, if we're playing them 40MPG, seems silly to just keep going to the same well that we know is close to empty.
I get that people think Goodine is awful (I know this is NOT the debate at hand), but my point this season is more that I don't think he's THAT awful, and that he can play defense. Plus, a more well rested Buddy/JGIII could likely give more effort on defense......and they're already bad at max effort.
Anyway, fun argument! Thanks!
