Why doesn't Ivan Johnson get more playing time?

[Admin]

I hope Drew doesn't repeat the mistakes of the past by not playing guys for fear they will foul out. If they aren't performing, that is one thing. But if you are afraid they will miss minutes after fouling out so your answer is playing them even fewer minutes on the front end so they won't be at risk of fouling out that doesn't make sense. Free Ivan over Tolliver at PF!

It's not just about them fouling out, although I do agree with what you're saying. It's more about the fouls that are given and thus putting the other team in the bonus earlier or giving them 3pt plays. Ivan is extremely foul prone and the other team gets free points because of his fouls.

[BrazilianHawk]

You're assuming that the rebounds lead to baskets for us. Those 2 extra rebounds could have been on the offensive end and we could have missed both shots. I know for a fact if he makes those 3 missed FTs that we'd have been 3 points closer and we wouldn't have intentionally fouled at the end so who knows what could have happened. Of course rebounds are important, but I don't think they were as much of a difference maker last night as the FT shooting.

I think you're missing my point. I used last night stats in order to account for all the possibilities, turnovers included. Of course they could waste the extra possessions, but that's what the FG% are for. I'm definitly not assuming the rebounds would lead to baskets. That's simple math and probabilities. A hard fact: we shot .304 3FG%. Had we shot 2 more 3-pointers we would have a 50% plus probability of hitting at least one of them. Two more rebounds could have the same or an even greater impact than the missed FT's. Edited November 15, 2012 by BrazilianHawk

[BrazilianHawk]

It's not just about them fouling out, although I do agree with what you're saying. It's more about the fouls that are given and thus putting the other team in the bonus earlier or giving them 3pt plays. Ivan is extremely foul prone and the other team gets free points because of his fouls.

Not sure how many second chance points they had, but not being able to properly rebound in the defensive end (GS had 10 offensive rebounds last night) seems to lead for us to give them a fair amount of free points as well.

[Gray Mule]

For all long time Hawks fans, we remember when Zaza was considereda "Bull in the china shop" type player. He fouled a lot per minutes played.Ivan the Terrible is the same way now. The reason, I believe, they bothknew that their playing time was limited and wanted to really make theirpresence known while on the floor. Neither is to be intimidated.Yet, we watch Zaza today and he doesn't usually foul a lot. Why? Becausehe knows he is in the game for major minutes and he can't afford to foul.Ivan would soon be the same way if he were expected to play major minutes.Right now, he's trying to do all he can, as fast as he can and don't anyoneget in his way while he's on the floor.+++++++++

Edited November 15, 2012 by Gray Mule

[Admin]

Not sure how many second chance points they had, but not being able to properly rebound in the defensive end (GS had 10 offensive rebounds last night) seems to lead for us to give them a fair amount of free points as well.

I understand what you're saying here and above. But the bottom line is that Ivan had 5 fouls and even if you try and give him all of Tolliver's minutes, which Ivan couldn't have done anyway since he can't play SF, he's likely going to foul out since he averaged a foul every 4 minutes, and therefore he's not going to do much with that extra time. Or if he doesn't foul out he's likely going to play more passively trying to avoid fouling out and thereby missing rebounds or being effective defensively.

[Admin]

For all long time Hawks fans, we remember when Zaza was considered a "Bull in the china shop" type player. He fouled a lot per minutes played. Ivan the Terrible is the same way now. The reason, I believe, they both knew that their playing time was limited and wanted to really make their presence known while on the floor. Neither is to be intimidated. Yet, we watch Zaza today and he doesn't usually foul a lot. Why? Because he knows he is in the game for major minutes and he can't afford to foul. Ivan would soon be the same way if he were expected to play major minutes. Right now, he's trying to do all he can, as fast as he can and don't anyone get in his way while he's on the floor. +++++++++

Zaza is actually tied with Korver for the team lead in fouls per 36 among the guys playing 25 minutes or more. That's at 3.7 per 36 minutes. Ivan is only playing 11 minutes and averaging 7.5 fouls per 36 minutes, although I don't think that's an accurate representation since he's playing so few minutes. The odd thing is that Ivan played 5 more minutes per game last year (due to no Al mostly) but he averaged only 4.5 fouls per 36 minutes so he's drastically increased the rate that he's fouling this year. Looking at Zaza, back in 2009-2010 he only played 14 minutes per game, his lowest total since his rookie year, and had his worst per 36 foul rate at 6.1. That's still better than what Ivan is doing this year, but it does go to show that you might have a point about guys fouling more in their limited minutes.

[DrReality]

Depends a Lot on matchups and who he has to guard. Like him against smaller lineups