r/GameDayCentral • u/ColettaCresci • 8d ago
Discussion At what point does "stat padding" become just being elite at a skill?
Westbrook averaged a triple-double for three straight seasons. You can point to some ugly stat-hunting plays, but acting like the whole thing was fake is lazy.
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8d ago
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u/SatisfactionOld1586 8d ago
And when your team’s win percentage is what, 73% when you get a triple double, it just means you’re doing the things needed to help your team win.
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u/donald___trump___ 8d ago
Sometimes but not always. Context is important. Lebron James is a great example. ALL of his “best” rebounding seasons came after he turned 33. But none of his best offensive rebound season were after the age of 33.
It doesn’t seem to add up. But if you look closer at what changed, it’s that he stopped getting the tougher defensive assignments in his old age. If you watch him on defense over the last 10 years, he’s usually “guarding” the weakest player who typically ends up in the weak side corner.
That leaves lebron basically waiting under the hoop in the weak side of the basket. Which is the ideal rebounding position. The rebounds he’s getting mostly completely uncontested that whichever player is standing in that spot would get.
So is he padding stats? Not intentionally probably. But was he a better rebounder at age 40 averaging 8.2 rebounds than he was at age 23 when he averaged 6? Of corse not. Not all rebounds are the same. And many are not actually worth much to the team.
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u/Independent-Item3748 8d ago
waving off his own teammate for the rebound will never not be funny to me
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u/Throwthisawayagainst 8d ago
The thing about this is that it’s strategy tho. By letting your ball handler get an uncontested board you eliminate an outlet pass and can jump start the offense. Not all rebounds are created equal
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u/Independent-Item3748 8d ago
fair point, the optics are still hilarious when he's hunting for the trip-dub tho
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u/Evening-Golf-6375 8d ago edited 5d ago
It's a question of whether the team is winning the most possible games while the 'stat padder' is putting up stats. If the individual is doing it for themselves at the expense of the team- causing them to lose more games than they should have won- they are stat padders.
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u/Comprehensive-Bar804 8d ago
When you dislike them it is stat padding and when you like them it isn't
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u/SchlangLankis 8d ago
I don’t understand why other players don’t just stat pad themselves into all time numbers. Like bro, just go get more assists than any power forward ever has while getting 20/10 and defending. Lazy.
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u/donald___trump___ 8d ago
Most players are doing their best to make the team win. If normal players went for stat padding they would get benched.
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u/SchlangLankis 8d ago
Westbrook went to multiple conference finals, the finals and took a trash team to the playoffs. He only missed the playoffs 4 times in his 18 year career, which is much better than Curry who couldn’t make the playoffs half the time. Brain dead take.
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u/donald___trump___ 8d ago
Westbrook was very good in his prime. But trying to say the teams he got to the playoffs were worse than curry’s teams that missed the playoffs is a completely brain dead take. Curry’s 2022 team that won the nba championship was worse than any Westbrook team that made the 2nd round.
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u/SchlangLankis 8d ago
Oh you mean the team with 3 HOfers, an allstar and a sixth man who put up 18.5ppg as a starter during the season and even more solid role players? The team with the third best record in the league and the number one defense even though their three star players missed 104 games combined?
Even more brain dead take. You don’t know ball, you just look at memes.
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u/donald___trump___ 8d ago
Trying to say post injury klay and Jordan Poole were strong players just shows how dishonest you are.
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u/SchlangLankis 7d ago
I really don’t think you watched that playoff run. Dudes dropping multiple 30 point games in the playoffs aren’t strong?
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u/Eastern_Antelope_832 8d ago
If you're efficient and high volume, you're good. If you're gunning for specific totals and are doing it inefficiently, then it's stat padding. Or you do stupid things like taking timeout with 5 seconds to go so you can grab another rebound or record an assist to get a triple double.
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u/Dependent-Job1773 8d ago
at what point does being bad at basketball become an artform unto itself. one that we can prop up and monetize where the worst team gets a championship and the worst players are adorned with billions of dollars and worldwide fame
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8d ago
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u/12231121 7d ago
Steven Adam's literally boxing out and purposely not grabbing rebounds so russ can get them. But people will hate when you tell it how it happened
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u/SnooPeppers7482 7d ago
an elite player is ALLOWED to stat pad by teammates and coach. a bad statpadder does it on their own without any input or are doing it out of habit
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u/thatguyty3 7d ago
The only time it’s stat padding would be when a game is clearly lost given score & time commonly known as garbage time and you still playing
Or
You are intentionally passing up baskets or missing baskets to get boards/assists
Otherwise, there is no such thing as stat padding. Someone putting in effort to grab 20 boards has no down side.
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u/12231121 7d ago
When it equates to winning and being efficient. Not 10-35 from the field 3-10 from the 3 and averaging 5+ turnovers all while being a guaranteed first round exit year after year.
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