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[QUOTE="malpearl31, post: 3314507, member: 6520"]
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).
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