[外電] 班蛙與活塞

[LOJ (魯夫)]

The stats say Pistons hardly miss the qualities Wallace oozed
Numbers Game
by Keith Langlois
Friday, March 30, 2007
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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/langlois_blog_070330.html

翻的有點糟 請大家多多校正... (￣□￣|||)a
--
Mark Twain, the only author I’m taking with me on that little Pacific island I
’m sure I’ll inherit, famously said “there are three types of lies: lies,
damn lies and statistics,” though Twain assigned the original quote to
Benjamin Disraeli, who, I believe, was a defensive-minded power forward for the
Albany Patroons.

 看原文  (／‵Д′)／~ ╧╧

I could cite you all sorts of statistics to suggest the Pistons are essentially
the same defensive team today that they were a year ago, but I don’t think I’
d get very far.

 我可以引用所有的數據來告訴你，
 現在的活塞跟去年這時候的活塞是同樣防守等級的隊伍，
 不過我不部認為我會講的太深入。

It’s counterintuitive to believe that the Pistons could shed Ben Wallace, the
reigning and four-time defensive player of the year – and the same guy who
speared 19 rebounds against his old buddies in a two-point Chicago win Thursday
night – and not go from superior to merely good, or from very good to average,
or from however you want to categorize what they were last year to whatever you
want to categorize them as this year.

 這不是什麼情報對於活塞隊會讓班蛙離開，
 這位四次年度最佳防守球員，禮拜四晚上在他的老朋友們面前抓了19個籃板的同一個人。
 不論你如何拿去年的數據跟今年的比較，
 由淺入深來說，這不僅僅是好而已，不只是比平均要來的更好。

But the truth is this: The Pistons are the third-stingiest team in the league
this season, giving up 92 points a game. OK, that’s up slightly from last
year, when the Pistons surrendered 90.7 a night. But points per game is almost
never the first statistics coaches look at to gauge a team’s defensive
potency. Field-goal percentage is a more trustworthy barometer. And by that
standard, this year’s Pistons are a better defensive team. They were
middle-of-the-pack a season ago, but this year they’ve gone from .452 to .443.

 事實上：活塞在失分排行榜上是第三名，平均一場掉92分，
 好吧，這的確是比去年高了一點點，去年平均只掉90.7分。
 而以這種防守走向的球隊來說，每場得的分數更是第一流的。
 命中率更是直得信賴的，以這種標準來看，
 今年的活塞比去年更具有防守性的，上個球季他們只是一般水準而已，
 不過這季，對手的命中率從.452下降到.443。

“It doesn’t really surprise me,” Chauncey Billups told me the other day. “It
’s had to happen a different way. We haven’t been able to rely on just Ben
back there, blocking shots and changing everything. We’ve had to hold
ourselves a lot more accountable.

"這並沒有嚇到我。" 槍溪某一天告訴我。
"這的確必須要不一樣了，我們以前都一直依賴著班蛙在後面補防、
 蓋火鍋或是改變所有的事，我們必須告訴自己必須更負責任的。"

“There are still a lot of really good defenders on this team and we’re still
a good defensive team. We just can’t rely on one guy anymore. When you have
breakdowns, we have to all look at each other in the mirror and say, ‘All
right, that’s my fault. My bad. I’ll take the challenge a little better.’ We
’ve done that a lot of times this year and that’s the reason why our defense
has stayed pretty much consistent.”

 "隊上還是有許多很好的防守者，我們還是一隻很好的防守隊伍。
  我們只是不能再那麼倚賴其他人了，當我們出現狀況時，
  每個人都要看著鏡子裡的自己，說：好吧！這是我的錯，
  我下次面對挑戰會做的更好。我們今年已經做了很多次這樣的事了，
  所以我們現在的防守才會有這樣的水準。"

It’s also helped that they’ve incorporated a variety of zone defensive looks
seamlessly and no longer seem to regard it as a sign of weakness when Saunders
signals them into zone. It works better some nights than others, but just
having it in their tool chest plays on their opponents’ psyches. It shouldn’t
be lost on anyone that the reason Saunders practically abandoned his pet zone
schemes a year ago was that Wallace bristled at the very mention of it.

 這當然也是因為活塞們接受了使用區域防守，他們用了多變化的區域防守，
 當一開始老桑剛叫他們使用區域防守時，他們把它是為弱者的象徵。
 有些晚上他們的區域防守做的比別人更好，是他們壓迫對手心理的工具。
 不應該被遺忘的，老桑去年幾乎要被迫放棄他的區域防守，
 原因就是只要提到區域防守，班蛙就會有著強硬的態度。

“It’s been good for us,” Billups says. “It doesn’t allow teams to stay in
a certain set and keep hurting us one way – pick and rolls, (isolations). When
you go to that zone, you’ve got to run a little bit of a different offense and
a lot of teams are not prepared to do that.”

 "這對我們是個不錯的玩意。" 槍溪說到。
 "這會阻止別人待在同一個地方，用同樣的方式(擋拆或是單打)來傷害我們，
 當我們用了區域防守，對於各種的進攻戰術我們只需要做稍稍的改變，
 大部分的球隊都還沒對這準備好。"

The Pistons were a little uncertain of themselves early in the season. Who can
forget the opener when Milwaukee hammered them at The Palace, the Pistons
giving up a frightening 70 points in the paint? But you know what? They now
have the same confidence that if a game comes down to one crucial defensive
possession, they can lock down as well today as they did in the Big Ben heyday.

 在球季初期，活塞們對自己有些許的不確定。
 誰能忘記在奧本上皇宮的開幕戰被公鹿隊重擊，禁區被海幹了70分呢？
 不過你知道嗎？他們現在有跟以前一樣的信心，
 如果現在必須要拿出關鍵的防守，他們可以做的跟以前大班還再的時候一樣好。

“We do,” Tayshaun Prince said. “Yes, we do. It’s more communication we have
to do. With the chemistry we had with Ben, we didn’t have to communicate as
much, so we’ve just got to talk a lot better than we have in the past. The
most important thing is defense leads to offense, especially for us. That’s
something we really have to rely on … into the playoffs.”

 "我們的確可以。" 小王子說。
 "是的，我們可以。我們現在必須要有更多的溝通，當大班還在時，
 我們的化學效應使我們不需要有這麼多的溝通，
 所以我們現在有很多的溝通是比以前好的ꄊ 不過對我們來說，最重要的是防守會帶領我們進攻，
 這是我們必須要依賴的，尤其在季後賽時。"

OK, but what about rebounding. Gulp! – they’re actually a better rebounding
team now than they were then. With Ben Wallace in the lineup, the Pistons were
a net-minus rebounding team a year ago and this year they’re a net-plus.
Together it adds up to about a half-rebound per game – so, essentially, they’
re the same rebounding team as they were with one of the greatest rebounders in
franchise history anchoring their lineup.

 好吧！那籃板呢？(痾)
 他們的確是比上季更好的籃板隊伍，當大班在先發陣容中時，
 他們是低於平均的籃板隊伍，不過他們現在是高於平均了。
 同時這也意味著 half-rebound per game，所以實質上，
 他們是跟歷史上最好的籃板隊伍同樣好的。

Last year they finished third in the league in blocked shots. This year they
rank second.

And so it goes. You can argue the margins here however you want, but the bottom
line is this: If it had cost the Pistons $60 million over four years to retain
Ben Wallace, as it cost the Bulls to woo him, it would be apparent already that
it was money ill spent.

 去年總結他們是獲得聯盟中阻攻第三名，今年暫列第二。

 這就是這樣！你可以對這些差距有意見，
 不過帳冊底線是：如果必須花6千萬留住大班5年，
 不如讓公牛花這麼多的錢去贏得他，很明顯的這是不值得花的錢。

Wallace is consuming roughly 25 percent of the money that pushes a team into
luxury-tax territory and about 30 percent of the salary cap. For that chunk of
change, you need someone who affects a game emphatically every night. It’s
pretty clear he doesn’t do that anymore. The Bulls are a better team this
year, but how much of it is Wallace and how much is the improvement of young
players like Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni and the
addition of other key parts?

 班蛙會超出球隊的豪華稅底限25%，大概會佔球隊30%的總薪資。
 對於這麼大的改變，你必須花在每天晚上都會很明顯的影響球隊的人，
 很明顯的，班蛙不會是這樣的人了。
 公牛今年變成了更好的隊伍，不過班蛙影響了其中的多少，
 而其他年輕球員：滷蛋、古蛋、韓瑞奇和路西歐尼的進步又佔了多少？

Wallace has been good for the Bulls, but he hasn’t been $15 million good. He’
s been, by the metrics of the NBA marketplace, about half that good. And if the
Pistons could have kept Ben Wallace – a happy Ben Wallace, at least, a Ben
Wallace who wasn’t grousing about a coach who had the audacity to suggest
scoring points in today’s NBA is every bit as important as not surrendering
them – for that amount, for $30 million over four years, then it would have
been a no-brainer.

 班蛙對公牛是好的，不過是要花1500萬的好。
 那是因為經過了NBA自由市場的洗禮，他其實只有1500萬一半的好。
 如果活塞對留住了班蛙，至少是要快樂的班蛙，
 不會對教練主張要在現今的NBA中努力得分而大發牢騷的那個班蛙，
 如果是這樣的話，大概花4年3000萬就可以很容易的留下班蛙。

OK, I’ll anticipate the argument of those who still insist the Pistons should
have opened their checkbooks and kept him, damn the cost: The Pistons won 64
games with Ben Wallace and will struggle to get to 54 without him. Isn’t
winning the only statistic that matters?

 好吧！我會預期還是有很多爭執對於那些主張活塞應該打開帳冊
 把班蛙留下來不管花費多少的人，活塞在班蛙還在時贏了64勝，
 或許他不在後要很辛苦才能獲得54勝，不過這都只是統計的數字罷了，不代表什麼。

Well, sort of. But when Joe Dumars took over, his mission statement was pretty
simple, and it said nothing about winning more regular-season games than
everybody else. Dumars made it clear the Pistons were in the business of
chasing championships, and if that means retrenching occasionally for long-term
health, so be it.

 好吧！是有那麼丁點。不過當JD接管局面，
 他的任務表示我們不用在例行賽比別人贏的更多，
 他表示的很清楚，活塞是要角逐總冠軍的，
 為了長期來講，偶爾的節省是必要的，所以就這麼做吧！

The playoffs start in about three weeks. If the Pistons rid themselves of the
flu bug by then and have all their moving parts, well, moving, this team is
going to be feel better about itself going into this year’s postseason than it
did a year ago, when there was a certain ill-at-ease feeling in the air – the
aftermath of Wallace’s sit-down strike in Orlando and his growing restlessness
with the direction Flip Saunders was taking a team that, Wallace aside, eagerly
followed

 季後賽再三個禮拜就要開始了，如果活塞們能遠離感冒病毒，
 並且要運動的部位都能保持健康，這個隊伍會感到比上季季後賽更好，
 當時在空氣中有些許的不安，對於班蛙在奧蘭多罷賽的餘波以及
 他心神不定於老桑與其他球隊熱烈的會談。

The Pistons knew all along that if they had managed to retain Ben Wallace,
there would come a point in the contract when his salary would have had a drag
effect on their ability to contend for titles. The statistics, however you want
to bend them, suggest it might have been as soon as this year.

 活塞們都知道的，如果當時管理階層決定把班蛙留下來，
 那他的巨大合約會成為競爭冠軍的一個拖累。
 那些數據，不論你想如何扭曲它，這季就是這樣了！

--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) 
◆ From: 220.134.25.137
推 limitlesscit:不過我還是很想念班蛙
推 CHERRYCOLA:可以問一下嗎???什麼叫豪洨球呀???看不懂..
推 webberorz:有Webber在防守就別想多好了
推 RAYBO:反正活塞不缺大個子可以打防守戰~
推 kitano:三樓的不用這麼嗆吧?
推 linkfoot:有看有推  感激
推 srtlct:推
推 gitaboy:當初誰也沒料到Webber會被76人waive 再被低薪簽下來
→ gitaboy:那時候活塞隊的戰積一點也不像是去年拿64勝的那支球隊
→ gitaboy:就像回頭看gay跟8d2的交易 誰會想到後來簽下Wells跟synder
→ gitaboy:                                               Snyder
→ gitaboy:所以結果看來好像是成功的 其實卻不然
推 LOJ:我是覺得篇比較自high 有淡淡的戰意 XDD
推 gitaboy:我沒有戰啦...囧
推 pennymarcus:少了班蛙 其他人都知道要靠自己了 這樣也不錯啦 XD
→ LOJ:哈  我是說這個作者寫的這篇啦 不是說吉他男孩啦
推 studylance:有看有推!