re: Let's be honest about our basketball roster

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This team misses Tremont Waters and Kavell Bigby-Williams immensely. They have no replacement for either. Almost all of their offensive woes are due to having no point guard and almost all of their defensive woes are due to having no rim protector.

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Do people actually look at the number before making such claims? Or you just spouting out uncorroborated group-think?

What "offensive woes" are you taking about? This teams offense every bit as good, if not better than last season's offense. The PPG are almost identical. Same for the efficiency rating. In fact, this year we are slightly BETTER. This team is 2% BETTER in FG % than last year.

But the turnovers have been a killer. WRONG

LSU is only slightly worse in the TO dept this season. Less than 1% difference in TO's per possession.

Yeah, but no rim protection has been a killer....not really

The block % from this year and last are close (6.6% v. 7.1%).

But teams are shooting a much better % from three because we have to sag to make up for the lack of size, right? Nope (34.3% this year compared to 33.7% last season)

Despite the lack of a "presence" at the rim, teams are shooting MORE 3 pointers this year. LSU just isn't guarding them.

The dirty little secret is that LAST year's defense wasn't really that good either EXCEPT for one mitigating factor we don't have this year. LSU was among the nation's leaders in steal %. They aren't this year. THAT'S where we miss Tremont. LSU was almost as poor defensively last season...but teams attempted less FG's per game because LSU literally STOLE those possessions away

You do realize those stats are relative right? If Days has to do the things Smart does his number would be lower than Smarts. Since SEC play started Smart has been our #2 guy and #1 performer up until this past week.

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You do realize those stats are relative right? If Days has to do the things Smart does his number would be lower than Smarts. Since SEC play started Smart has been our #2 guy and #1 performer up until this past week.

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Your first point really doesnt make much sense. Of course a big power forward isn't going to play the role of a combo guard. Everyone has their role and plays to it.

I'm not saying Smart is not valuable or anything, or less valuable really than xyz, just stating as a player he isn't on the level of those other guys this season and used some facts to back that up. Smart HAS gotten better in conference play, the top 4 guys I mentioned still have notably higher PERs in conference ONLY play over him though. Manning's PER is right on Smart's level in conference play. Obviously Smart has way more volume than Manning, but as far as how overall they playing, roughly similar tiers.

Dont get me wrong, not a set of posts meant to bash anyone, just using the stats to put these guys into tiers of how "well" overall they play pretty much.

So you expect LSU to go 2-5 over the next 7 games?

That’s pretty low expectations

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Im an just wondering but have you ever looked at the individual conference stats for these players?

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Smart PER in conference only play - 17.2
Mays PER in SEC only - 23.9
Williams - 23.6
Watford - 21.4
Manning - 17.7 (although obviously small sample size compared to those guys)

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Yea I hear you but the PER is a skewed stat just like most. Last season KVB was our most consistent player in that area with Waters moving past him during conf play but the point is the lower the responsibility the higher the PER usually.

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PER is only skewed really if you're less efficient of a player, it's a pretty good metric to use and often used on all levels of basketball. There's plenty of other things to take into account, but it can expose a lot too. It can show a lower "volume" guy being hyper efficient or a higher volume guy being rather inefficient overall. Total value can be argued back and forth, but I'm not arguing about total VALUE of these guys to the team. Obviously Smart has a lot of value with the minutes he plays, just stating he's not really the type of player those guys are from an overall standpoint. If you want to argue that's because he plays too many minutes, sure maybe I could see that, but Mays also plays as many minutes and is much better there.

Smart's value to the team obviously cannot be denied whatsoever, and certainly has gotten better in SEC play, just as a pure player not necessarily putting him on the level of those other 4 in term's of how WELL they play. There's always going to be the volume vs. efficiency debate on whats the cutoff there for how "good" a player is playing for sure.

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I think a point needs to be made that Smart is actually playing out of position this year as well, he really isn't a PG but he took that role cause the team needs him too. When he can move over into Skylar's role (off ball handling guard) I think he will be a big time player.

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I dont think people realize him and Mays both share ball handling duties. Neither is really pigeonhole'd into a PG role this year. In fact in conference play Mays actually has more assists than Smart does. They are both ball handling combo guards basically. They switch running the offense and have fairly similar usage rates.

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I dont think people realize him and Mays both share ball handling duties.

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This is true and much more once we started playing better, early in the season It was more skewed towards Javonte playing primary ball handler on offense. And I think its pretty evident how much better Javonte has been playing since they all bought into the co ball handling responsibility.

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We agree it’s easier to be more efficient when you’re role requires fewer responsibilities. But when you say “level of player” Smart has proven higher of anybody. Remember last season he was a 2 guard, sometimes combo guard, his natural position. And when called upon to carry this team in a situation we have been in fewer than 3 times in the last 30+ years he had his best games. The 29 point game to lead us past a top 5 team and into the conf title and the 4 game stretch with Waters sick averaging 20ppg as a true freshman. None of these guys have done anything like that. His new role has stunted his development but as far as levels go he’s at the top.

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Smart's ceiling is very high (higher than almost anyon on team even), no disagreeing there, but it's not just about the highest of highs, but taking into every single game.

If there's 1 thing that hurts Smart is the more wild variation probably compared to the other guys. In conference play he's certainly more normalized there a bit, but I think we tend to see just more consistency in their roles (the Top 4 I mentioned) which leads to better efficiency stats in the end.

I think Smart will be the man next year, he's improved a good bit from his freshman year at this point, and he obviously has NBA game. He is underrated from 2 point range and nails at the line. I think if he just concentrated more on that than shooting up 3's he doesnt make at a good rate it could really complete his game. It's not eliminating the 3, but maybe eliminating the bad 3's he takes really.

Next year Smart I think makes that jump to the upper echelon and on a more consistent basis game to game.