I was reading these articles on Truehoop and the comments this guy Wayne Winston, a statistician made were pretty interesting.

Wayne Winston: Mark Cuban's Stats Expert Isn't Bashful, Part 3
October 2, 2009 2:20 PM
Wayne Winston is a professor at Indiana University and for the last nine years he has been Mark Cuban's stat guru for the Dallas Mavericks. Winston's recently published book "Mathletics," explains much of his work -- complete with formulas and spreadsheets. The first few posts have generated a lot of discussion, and an apology to Troy Murphy, on TrueHoop, Wayne Winston's personal website, and the foremost basketball analytics discussion board. In this installment, Winston begins by discussing Tim Thomas and Danilo Gallinari.

Here's an example of a guy I think is really underrated, and if he's healthy can help the Mavericks immensely: Tim Thomas.

Last year, every good lineup the Knicks had included Tim Thomas. They traded him. I don't know why.


Winston says Danilo Gallinari was the key to the Knicks' good play for a stretch last season. "The guy just can shoot with his eyes closed. And he's not a bad defender."
(Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images)
The Knicks had a streak last year where they were pretty good, right? The way they were pretty good was they put [Danilo] Gallinari, Thomas and [Al] Harrington on the floor. They spread the floor and they were unguardable.

Gallinari ... his effective field goal percentage was like the best in the league. The guy just can shoot with his eyes closed. And he's not a bad defender. They were really making a playoff run and than he got hurt and that was it.

And they got rid of Thomas and they didn't have that lineup anymore.

He also went on the mention MDA and his system:

On Mike D'Antoni and Going Small
Mike D'Antoni, I think, is the guy who changed the game. You spread the floor and go small, and these big guys become dinosaurs. That was a stroke of genius. Didn't win a championship, which is too bad, but that's the biggest change in the game I see.

Who'd have thought that Brandon Bass, Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard, Jason Terry and Jason Kidd is the Maverick's best lineup? It hardly makes sense. But for the last two years, that's been by far the best thing they've got.

Now he's talking about statistically what lineups work best. For us it's clear that we played better when Gallo was on the floor and part of that is the fact that he forces teams to defend him and that spreads the floor. If you have him out there with 1 or 2 more 3 pt shooters, the offense flows like water and we're tough to stop.

A lot of people kind of like Gallo, it will be fun to see if he got the goods!

I got railed on when I said the Knicks would miss Tim Thomas' 3 pt shooting.

The Knicks take a lot of 3's but don't have a ton of guys that hit a high percentage. Its an inherent problem with their offense.

I think the theory with Sessions was that he could get into the lane and kick it out from there.

Douglas can't shoot treys either.

That Hill draft pick is really going to bother me for a while. He doesn't add anything to the team and won't for a while, yet there were guards of every variety that we could have picked.

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by Nalod:

A lot of people kind of like Gallo, it will be fun to see if he got the goods!

To me the whole point is that he's already showing that he's got the goods and we haven't even seen the best of him yet. He clearly doesn't have the stamina and explosion he used to have. He's gonna get in better shape and he's gonna improve as a player the more he plays. He's still basically a rookie.

We already know that he can pass, shoot and to a decent degree play D. He's been doing all of this at less than prime conditioning. Imagine how he'll look with more PT and better conditioning. The real question is gonna be can he become selfish when we need him to be? Will he eventually develop into a lead player? Will he ever really get to the point where he can create his own shot and thus become a crunchtime go to guy for us?

Small correction -- you say "he already doesn't have the stamina and explosion he used to have".

Gallo was never explosive - even before his back injury....it's just not the type of athlete he is. He will always struggle with quickness and explosion in his game. He can improve but we aren't talking about a typical NBA athlete.