Genuinely curious, have you watched any Lakers games this season? Neither Nance nor Kuzma “passed” him in the rotation. Luke decided prior to the season that Randle would best help the team by coming off the bench. Also, even in the “positionless” NBA, he and Kuz are completely different players serving completely…

“I realize that PER isn’t the end-all statistic; that being said, it’s one of the better advanced metrics.”

You just responded to a post about basketball metrics by invoking a football metric. Please tell me that you understand how absurd this is.

This reads like an article by someone who doesn’t actually watch NBA basketball, but plays a lot of 2K.

This Kinja, is bad Kinja.

You’re making some really good points, specifically your last point about people reading my thoughts objectively.

There’s a pervasive problem on this website regarding reading comprehension. When people read comments, and respond to them in an argumentative fashion by mischaracterizing, or re-characterizing the original poster’s statements, it shows that the responder didn’t care to read carefully. I don’t care for that.

The funny thing is you tried to craft a witty response by completely mischaracterizing my main points. For what it’s worth, it’s clear you still either haven’t read all of my comments on this thread, or that you’re purposely remaining oblivious to them for the sake of pursuing whatever it is you believe I’m stating…

Appreciate that you can admit that. Frankly, I’m surprised that posters like JohnSterling above either cannot understand the points I’m making or are choosing to mischaracterize them on purpose.

Best closers. You were uncertain about a closer with a 2.30 ERA, 83/21 K-BB ratio, and an ERA+ of 172? Ok, bud.

You clearly didn’t understand my comment. Either that, or your completely altered my argument to craft your own all-too-long diatribe. The point is NOT that stats are completely meaningless, as you somehow concluded I argued. The point is that, when you reach the post-season, what a pitcher did over the course of 162…

I should have clarified that I don’t think starting Darvish was the wrong move. He easily could/should have been slotted to start a game. That being said, if you want to talk advanced stats/stats from before the World Series:

I didn’t intend to make either argument. I should clarify that I don’t think starting Darvish was the wrong move. Not at all. My argument is that Kershaw should have been slated, tentatively, to start games 1, 4, and 7, in the same exact way the Indians utilized Kluber last season. Of course, you can’t anticipate what…

I think it’s pretty obvious that my “pulling starters too early” claim refers to the early portions of the series, which the OP failed to address. Pulling Rich Hill multiple times when he’s pitching, by nearly any account, pretty well? Roberts and the Dodgers tried to use sabermetrics to their detriment. Sure, if you…

I agree with your point regarding the statistical insignificance of one game of baseball. But I think you’re neglecting a really important fact here: those teams just played seven games. And, I love Dave Roberts (Padres fan here), but how can you claim the Dodgers couldn’t have done anything differently? What about…

It’s truly mind-boggling. Especially when you consider that the Padres didn’t want to re-sign him b/c they were unconvinced that his arm would hold up.

I don’t disagree. The problem is that he’s been worlds better this season because he was absolutely dreadful last season. I think he’s been very impressive at times this year, and has actually looked good down the right with Aurier.

I agree wholeheartedly; that is, the direction of the club (youth set-up, management, stadium) will guarantee the club is going to remain a staple at the top of the league for the foreseeable future. In the next few years, I fully expect that Edwards, KWP, Onomah, Sterling, and Oakley-Boothe will become fixtures in…

He’s no Ted Lasso.

This is a great point that should have been addressed. IF Spurs sell any of the big guns, it will be interesting to see how the money is spent. While Davinson Sanchez looks to be a fantastic signing, the other signings under Poch have been pretty underwhelming (Sissoko, Njie, Nkoudo).