I meant to post this last week, but forgot.  This is from shot quality and does NOT include the Dayton or VCU debacles.  No idea how those games would change this. 


I am not sure why, but I can’t figure out how to paste an image here from my phone, so the link is here: https://twitter.com/a10stats/status/1476605849380560898?s=21

The upshot is that to my surprise, our best lineups have been each used been used very little and surprise me:

1) Freeman, Adams, Bishop, Lindo, Qwanzi - small sample size.  Net rating +67

2) Freeman, Adams, Bam, Lindo, Noel - small sample size. NR +64

3) Amir, Brendan, Bishop, Bam, Brown - small sample size .

All the good lineups are small sample sizes and all driven by great defensive numbers. NR +46


Our worst lineups have been:

1)  Freman, Adams, Bishop, Bam Lindo.  NR -52. 
Many of us have called for this lineup because it seems to be our 5 best players, but if I understand this chart, this lineup has played 19 minutes - and been outscored 52 -67.  Hard to believe they could give up 67 points in 19 minutes, but I’m guessing the goal with this lineup is to push the pace and it’s failed miserable because opponents have an effective FG% of 76.8 (!) against this line and this line is giving up 168 points per 100 possessions (for context, the worst defense in the nation on KenPom, North Dakota, gives up 120 points per 100 possessions).  Yikes.

2) Freeman, Adams, Dean, Bishop, Lindo. NR -51.
Putting Dean in for Bam has made no difference. In 20 minutes, this line has been outscore 25-47.  Defense better, but offense bad.

3) Harris, Adams, Bishop, Bam, Lindo.  NR -51.  Small sample size. 


Our most common units are:

1) Adams, Bishop, Bam, Brown, Lindo - the usual starters.  NR -22. 
In 80 minutes, they’ve been outscored 108-134.

2) same line with Dean instead of Brown. NR -8.

A little better with Dean instead of Brown; but in 36 minutes, we’d been outscored 55-62.   Still not good enough.

3) Adams, Bishop, Bam, Lindo, Qwanzi.  NR +19.
This has been our 3rd most common lineup and it’s good - out scoring opponents 59-46 in 33 minutes.  Maybe it’s just a small sample, but with Qwanzi on the court, our Defense is MUCH better than with Brown or Dean or neither. 

Best offensive unit:

1) Freman, Bishop, Bam, Brown, Lindo. Offensive rating 132.

Only played 16 min together. Defense subpar, but Outscored opponents 33-28.

2) tie between Harris, Adams, Bishop, Bam, Lindo
And freeman, Adams, Bishop, Qwanzi, Lindo. 

Offensive rating 128 points per 100 possessions and both have good defenses.  Surprising, but also small sample sizes.

Best defensive units:

1) Freman, Adams, Bam, Brown, Lindo.  Defensive rating 47 points per 100 possessions.
Incredible number, but it’s only 11 minutes (outscore: opponent 20-9)

2) Freeman, Adams, Bishop, Lindo, Qwanzi.  Defensive rating  69.
Also only 10 minutes, but outscored opponent 28-15.

3) Adams, Bishop, Bam, Lindo, Qwanzi.  DR 74.

This unit has played 33 minutes together and outscore opponents 59-46.  Of our 6 most frequent lineups, it’s BY FAR been the best one. 


Again, none of this includes Dayton or VCU games, so no idea what lineups did what against them. 


But some conclusions I draw:

1) Qwanzi may look like a liability on offense, but our defense is much better with him and some of our best lineups have him. Maybe it’s small sample fluke or has to do with him playing not against opponents best players, but keep an eye on his playing time and how we do. 

2). The lineup with our 5 best players on the floor together has been a total disaster on disaster on defense. Could be the way we try to play with them, but it’s been as bad a defensive unit as you’ve ever seen.  This was a surprise to me (I think Jonn Feinstein even suggested these 5 play together more, but so far it hasn’t worked).

3). Only one unit without Biship had played more than 10 minutes together, and it’s our 2nd best unit.  I’m a bishop believer, but this was noticeable to me. 

4) Very little has worked well this year, though everything here mostly feels like statistical noise because few lineups  have much time together on the court, and almost none have succeeded Over more than a handful of minutes - though I guess when you are ranked 277th in efficiency, this is what it looks like.

Last edited by Free Quebec (1/13/2022 10:16 am)