DeMar DeRozan spent this week getting used to playing with his new teammates during training camp. Before the team heads into a day off Sunday, DeRozan spoke to the media Saturday after practice. One of the things he discussed was Keon Ellis and how he reminds him of his former teammate Alex Caruso, who is known for his tough defense.
“Young guy is amazing. I remember him last year a lot, defensively, the things he was doing. But to be out there with him to see his awareness, especially on the defensive end is definitely amazing. And the way he has been shooting the ball, definitely amazing. So, he reminds me of one of those Alex Caruso type of guys, and that’s the type of player you want to have on your team. Somebody hard-nosed, go out there and do all the dirty work and get down and dirty defensively,” DeRozan said.
Let’s briefly look at the comparison between Ellis and Caruso. Each player’s game is built on defense and efficiency. In his first two seasons, Caruso averaged 5.9 points, 2.5 assists, 2.1 rebounds and .8 steals. In his first two seasons, Ellis has averaged 4.6 points, 1.2 assists, 1.8 rebounds, while adding 0.8 steals per game. (Caruso averaged around 3 more minutes per game.)
In his second season, Caruso averaged 44.5% from the field and Ellis averaged 46%.
In terms of their on/off stats, Caruso was a +0.3 in his first season and a +3.8 in his second season with the Los Angeles Lakers in terms of efficiency differential, according to Cleaning The Glass. The Lakers jumped from a +1 to a +10 in his second season in terms of expected wins with that efficiency differential. In Ellis’ second season, the Sacramento Kings had a +2.8 efficiency differential, which was good for a +7 expected wins impact. Last season, Ellis was in the 91st percentile for opponent effective field goal percentage. In his second season, Caruso was in the 93rd percentile for that category.
Both players take care of the ball. For his career, Caruso has averaged 1.2 turnovers a game, while in his first two seasons, Ellis only committed .5 turnovers per game.
Moving forward, Ellis definitely is on the path to being a Caruso type that serves as a high-impact defensive role player with versatility, hustle and efficient shooting, something he is already showing and DeRozan noted.
The DeRozan and Sabonis DHO game
Mike Brown is starting to get more of a sense of what the dribble-hand-off game could look like between DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis.
“It can be off the charts, and mainly because of DeMar’s ability to pass the basketball. I said this before, you think that, OK, he’s a guy that’s going to ISO on that long post area, or he’s going to ISO right off the elbow. But, man, he can bring it in transition. He could play the pick and roll game. And now the DHO game is a different element to where he may not be easily blitzed if he has it going. And so, once he gets that ball, if you go under and Domas does the DHO low enough, it’s a wrap. If you chase him over and he gets to his sweet spot, it’s a wrap in terms of scoring,” Brown said Friday. “But his added ability of playmaking, whether it’s hitting Domas in the pocket or because of who he is, the gravity of him touching the paint and drawing somebody else, his ability to spray the basketball, it could be really good for us.”
DeRozan views it as “being a wrap” for defenses also.
“You can’t guard it. I mean, that’s what I like about it. To have a high-IQ big like that to be able to screen, pass the ball, make quick decisions. You’ve [defenders] got to make a decision: When I’m coming off or, if he’s going to keep it, if he’s going to score. There’s just so many options out of that and to be able to play out of that makes it tough for defensive players to kind of make a decision on either one of us,” he said.
This should be fun to watch.
Steve Kerr says, “Hold my beer”.
DDR is good at P&R. I know that Fox isn’t, but Brown should add some P&R plays as a new element of the offense.
I don’t really understand this “Fox isn’t good at the PnR” thing people are saying now. He’s not elite from there, but he is extremely capable. Last season he was at 0.97 PPP as PnR ball handler, the season prior he was at 1.02 PPP. Those are not bad numbers by any means — and if he’s just our 3rd best PnR ball handler, then defenses are in trouble.
I also recall a number of instances where he’s ended a quarter by scoring off a PnR that he called out. I don’t have the numbers for that but the eye test approves.
i think his main issue is passing to the roller. Do you have the stats for that?
Fox likes to get picks to go downhill, but he doesn’t play the classic p&r and hits the pocket pass to the roller often. Monk does.
Probably not for layman like us.
Although NBA.com has something that can approximately get you that stat. It’s called tracking drives.
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/drives?dir=D&sort=DRIVES&SeasonType=Regular+Season&TeamID=1610612758
There are information that are displayed there on the site but there are information that you have to calculate on your own.
For me, to see how effective of a passer one is, I calculate the ASSIST to PASS ratio. NBA.com does not have that. You have to do it on your own.
Fox is around 25% ASSIST to PASS ratio during his career. Between 20% to 30% is decent to good. Better than 30% is great. Monk is better than 30%.
So you are right, Monk is a great pocket passer. For comparison, Trae Young , Luka and healthy Ja Morant are all more than 30% ASSIST to PASS ratio.
However, Monk is still not as effective engine driver as Fox is. The points Monk scores + the points created by his assists (normalized by the number of drives) are still considerably less than Fox’s.
Monk has 2 problems. He can’t draw fouls well enough and his turnover rate is somewhat high.
Fox does not like to pass, that’s true. When he does though, he is pretty good.
Well done, thank you for all that.
Thanks for the maximus effort!
*laughs in 6.1 APG career average*
Every bit of the rest of your post is extremely solid, though.
That was with Huerter doing the DHO mainly. I think DeRozan could nullify how Kerr handled that in the playoffs. DeRozan is a more dynamic all around offensive player.
The way Kerr handled it was letting Looney overplay it to deny the handoff and daring Domas to make him pay.
So the onus would be more on Domas than on DDR. And where with Huerter teams would go over Domas to keep him from the perimeter, they would probably dare DDR to shoot from 3.
Less than a week (4 days!) until some viewable on the court Kings basketball.
Best time of the year – every team is ramping up the hype: everyone is in the best shape of their life, the Summer work on their weaknesses has really paid off, those workouts with their coach, trainer, teammates was so rewarding, but connecting with their inner self and the world around us has also helped them grow.
The new offensive schemes to take advantage of the new line ups is clicking and the defensive adjustments are working like a charm!
Have you seen the new merchandise!?
Who is this season’s hardest worker, who sleeps in the gym?
I’ve been saying it for a while now, but if Ellis can be that Doug Christie type of player, who is a reliable 5th option while on the court…look out league.
You don’t need him to score much, don’t need him to facilitate much, you just need him to be a lock down defender and hit the occasional open jumper.
It’s pretty wild to think that in a normal 9 man rotation of Fox, Ellis, DeRozan, Keegan, Monk, Huerter, Lyles, and Len, that Ellis may be your 7th or 8th option on offense. That’s good depth.
If Ellis can opera te like Caruso, the Kings defense will really sing. This will change the whole tenor of the team.
Including a toreador like former Bull, DeMar will make the team as hot as dancing a habanera.
Go Kings!
Enjoyable wordplay!
Imo the starting five with Ellis has only one subpar defender in DDR. Sabonis is around league average, maybe a little better. Fox is arguably the best two-way PG in the league. Keegan is one of the most versatile defenders in the NBA and the advance metrics love him. And Ellis is a legit All Defense candidate. I wouldn’t be surprised if this crew could finish Top 10 in defensive rating.
Great stuff! Sa-cra-men-to!
Does anybody know how tall Ellis is? I’ve seen on different websites where he’s listed at 6’5” or 6’3” or 6’6” ??
The team lists him at 6’3”, teams are required to measure and report their heights without shoes prior to every season. At the draft combine he was measured at 6’3.5” with a 6’8.5” wingspan
(side note, Sabonis height was also dropped to 6’10” this season, which is hilarious since he was listed at 7’1” just a couple years ago lol)
At this rate he’s going to be able to get child’s price tickets at the movies by the time he’s fifty.
Badge Legend