re: Official Pelicans Free Agency Thread(Updated with transactions)

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Baxter Holmes @BaxterHolmes 3 minutes ago

As reported, Celtics and FA Evan Turner reach agreement. Celtics will use part of their mid-level exception to add him.

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When you're talking about 3PA, the only fair way to assess that is to compare per36.

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Aw, you can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forfty percent of all people know that.

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Monty erred greatly in utilizing Morrow

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Galactic Inquisitor

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In animal movement theories, a Hunting Ground is an area a predator regularly visits find prey. Applied to principals of law enforcement and crime analysis, a Hunting Ground is an area a serial criminal attacks victims in a regular, patterned, and predictable manner.

Applying notions of unique decision-making processes and rational choice theory, the concept of a Hunting Ground directly applies to the way a basketball player “hunts” for scoring opportunities. The areas on the court an individual regularly visits (either by personal choice, coaching discretion, or the guidance of teammates) are typically driven by the likelihood of success. The extremes are easy to identify: Andre Drummond scores exclusively in the paint, James Harden attacks from the top of the arc, and Al Jefferson is deadly from the left block. The point is this — all players have preferred areas they will consistently (and predictably) attempt shots from; the clusters of continued successes over the course of a game, season, and career become their Hunting Grounds.

To extend the metaphor a bit further, animals, criminals, and basketball players all operate relative to their counterparts. Every lion cannot attack the same watering hole; each bank robber cannot rob the same branch in Times Square; every player cannot exclusively shoot corner 3-pointers. Each is bounded by its associates, either other predators, offenders, or teammates. Thus, their activity space is shared, and the Hunting Grounds of fellow teammates specifically address floor spacing and lineup continuity issues.

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Further, each group seeks to avoid countermeasures from adversaries. These opponents include hunters, law enforcement, and the other team’s defense.

Unique to basketball, however, is the notion of a fixed spatial dimension. Lions and bank robbers can self-organize across terrain and cities; each is able to operate in naturally defined activity space. Conversely, a five-player lineup is bounded by the court. As such, the distinct space a player occupies for scoring opportunities should theoretically be as unique as possible, minimizing overlap with teammates.

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So what? The point is this — if we render the Hunting Grounds for a given lineup on the court at the same time, a successful team should exhibit little-to-no overlap; a rainbow of unique color across the court (the past two San Antonio Spurs teams come to mind). Less successful teams/lineups should experience chronic overlap and/or a general lack of activity; anecdotally this is the 2013-2014 Detroit Pistons (The Josh Smith Experience).

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Adrian Wojnarowski ?@WojYahooNBA

Utah's trading John Lucas, Malcolm Thomas and Erik Murphy to Cleveland for Carrick Felix, future 2nd and $1M, sources tell Yahoo.

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Adrian Wojnarowski ?@WojYahooNBA

In Murphy, Lucas and Thomas, Cavs get three non-guaranteed contracts to facilitate trades -- or a trade. Another step toward Kevin Love.

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Rim Protection” is essentially point prevention. By stopping an opposing offense from scoring, either by dissuading players from shooting near the basket all together or simply forcing more misses than would otherwise be the case, these intimidators are providing value by “saving” points.

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n simplest terms, any defensive impact a player makes on a game could be measurable in terms of points. More specifically, points prevented; how many points would the opposition have scored without the presence of the player we are looking to evaluate. SportVU’s “Defensive Impact” stats provides important data for just this measurement. Given that SportVU tells us both the number of “rim attempts” (as defined by shots form 5 feet or less) the player has contested, as well as the resulting FG% on those attempts, we can begin to estimate the impact.

Expressed logically, it’s simply

(Expected Points – Actual Points).

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Honestly, it could probably be argued that he is, but that's no knock on Davis. I'd say that's one of the strongest parts of Rolo's game, but god forbid he step out defensively.

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Davis has a sick defensive game based on length more than strength. He erases a lot of mistakes in a way that most of the rim protectors cannot.

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I think we just need to recognize how narrow of a definition of rim protection they are using here

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Marc Stein ?@ESPNSteinLine 52s
New Orleans, as expected, has released newly acquired forward Omri Casspi, who will find new team in free agency if he clears waivers

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