Jeff Teague is having the worst season of his career

[Guest]

A lot of alarm has been caused by the Hawks’ slow start to the season. After 60 wins and an Eastern Conference Finals berth in the 2014-15 season, the Atlanta team is out to a mediocre 14-12 start to the 2015-16 campaign.

 

What is the difference? Could it be the departure of DeMarre Carroll, who was often seen as the “glue guy” for last year’s Hawks team? Could it simply be a regression from last year’s team that appeared to see every player peak in the same season? Is it rebounding? Coaching? What happened?

 

Jeff Teague happened. Or I guess he has failed to happen so far this year.

 

On the surface, it looks like Teague has had a normal year compared to his past starting seasons with Atlanta. He’s averaging over 15 points per game, he has six assists per game, and he’s averaging just under three turnovers per game. Over the past five seasons — which is when he became Atlanta’s starter — there are almost his exact numbers. While you would generally hope for improvement from a 27 year old, All-Star caliber player, there is really nothing completely wrong with those numbers. So what’s wrong?

 

Well, the current problem is that Teague cannot make a shot. After posting a career-high 56.6-percent true-shooting last season, Teague is in the dumps this year at 52.5-percent, which is well below the league average. The biggest culprits are his finishing and mid-range game, as his percentages have taken huge drops compared to last year. See here:

 

On the left is Teague’s shot chart this season. On the right, last season’s. See the difference? Besides 3-pointers, Teague is drastically down in every area, and if you have watched this season, who probably could have guessed that. Teague has been bad around the basket this year, and his floaters and mid-range game haven’t had the success that we are used to seeing.

 

The Hawks started a little slow at the beginning of last year, but they wound up at 42-9 at one point. One of the big reasons behind that was that Teague was playing the best basketball of his career, as the point guard was averaging nearly 17 points per game on almost 60-percent true-shooting.

 

It hasn’t helped Teague that backup Dennis Schröder has been bad, too, but get this: the Hawks have been better with Schröder on the floor than with Teague. According to Basketball-Reference, the Hawks are 2.4-points better with Schröder on the floor compared to when he is off it. For Teague? The team is 8.0-points WORSE with Teague on the floor compared to when his is off. The biggest reason? Defense, where the Hawks are nearly seven points better with Teague off of the floor. ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus backs this up, too, as Teague ranks 73 out of 82 qualified point guards in defensive Real Plus-Minus.

 

Rebounding may be a big issue for the Hawks right now, but head coach Mike Budenholzer has said multiple times throughout his tenure in Atlanta that Jeff Teague is the motor of this team, that the team feeds off of Teague’s energy. That makes Teague, in the middle of what could be the worst season of his career, the biggest problem for the Hawks’ awful start. Until Teague starts to play up to his regular level, the Hawks will continue to struggle on offense and defense.

http://hawkshoop.com/jeff-teague-is-having-the-worst-season-of-his-career/

[Peoriabird]

Can we do the same analysis for Korver, Schoeder, Thabo and Mike Scott?

[MaceCase]

2 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Can we do the same analysis for Korver, Schoeder, Thabo and Mike Scott?

[Lurker]

21 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Can we do the same analysis for Korver, Schoeder, Thabo and Mike Scott?

LOL, I'll actually do it instead of putting a GIF...

Korver - refer to what northcyde said on another page with added stuff from me. Remove him from the starting lineup and go to basic offensive formations. I think the stubbornness to removing him from the starting lineup is because a lot of the offensive sets are based around his movement.

Schröder - has regressed everywhere except for in analytics. This is actually the first season in which the analytics like him, they say the team is 10.4 points better on the court with him on it instead of Teague which I call bulls***. That does not pass the eye test for what happened vs Utah and Brooklyn, the team looked like one of the worst teams in the league just above Philly and the Lakers against them.

Thabo - his defense has regressed but he's part of the ONLY positive lineup for the team. Every lineup except for Teague/Korver/Sefolosha/Millsap/Horford is terrible this season.

Mike Scott - not even going to look at analytics, I'm going to say if he's not making shots he does not belong on an NBA court at all. His defense is completely laughable. It's only worth it to play him if he's having a good offensive day, otherwise he should not be playing outside garbage time.

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Can we do the same analysis for Korver, Schoeder, Thabo and Mike Scott?

Why? Teague is the 'engine' and in his prime and should be taking the next step. He hasn't.

 

[Guest]

The good thing is Teague know's he's been bad.....(that's why he get's the analysis)

 “I think I’ve been the worst of everyone,” Teague said

Now all he has to do is fix it.

[Peoriabird]

12 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

The good thing is Teague know's he's been bad.....(that's why he get's the analysis)

 “I think I’ve been the worst of everyone,” Teague said

Nope.. Scott, and Holiday have been much worse!

[Dnice]

The little engine that couldn't finish.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Peoriabird said:

Nope.. Scott, and Holiday have been much worse!

There is a heirachy to this team, Scott and Holiday are so far down that list.

Until the head is fixed the rest of the body is useless.

[Guest]

Teague has sooooo much talent and so little heart...if I was his motivator I'd take a ball gaze shot to his nuts(or at least the spot where he had them)....

 

GOOOOOOOTTTTEEEEEMMMMM!!!

[Lurker]

Which while we're on it, Teague's caught what Schröder had for about a month. Inability to finish at the rim disease.

[Watchman]

1 hour ago, Peoriabird said:

Can we do the same analysis for Korver, Schoeder, Thabo and Mike Scott?

Don't know where this guy is getting his +/- numbers, but they bear no resemblance to the numbers shown on NBA.com Hawks stat page.  There are some real surprises there.  Here are the numbers:

Schröder   +0.1;     Teague   -1.3;            Bazemore  -2.7;          Muscala   -0.8;             Holiday    -0.6;        Millsap    -0.5;       Sefalosha   -2.2;     Hardaway  -4.8

Horford    +0.0;        Korver   +3.3 ;            Patterson   +2.3;          Scott  +0.8;              Mack    +0.6;           Splitter    +2.3;        Tavares   -1.5;

 

Hmmm.  Have to wonder about the meaningfulness of this stat after reading these numbers.

4 minutes ago, Lurker said:

Which while we're on it, Teague's caught what Schröder had for about a month. Inability to finish at the rim disease.

I think most everyone on our team has this disease, even Millsap.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Watchman

[cam1218]

We can't afford to have "Teague time" only when we have a full moon. He has reallllly struggled some games and I think it makes his overall numbers look worse. I'm confident that he will start to become more consistent. 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Lurker said:

Which while we're on it, Teague's caught what Schröder had for about a month. Inability to finish at the rim disease.

It's called rimpotence and it effects males of all ages.  Just ask @Spud2Nique

[MaceCase]

3 minutes ago, Watchman said:

Don't know where this guy is getting his +/- numbers, but they bear no resemblance to the numbers shown on NBA.com Hawks stat page.  There are some real surprises there.  Here are the numbers:

Schröder   +0.1;     Teague   -1.3;            Bazemore  -2.7;          Muscala   -0.8;             Holiday    -0.6;        Millsap    -0.5;       Sefalosha   -2.2;     Hardaway  -4.8

Horford    +0.0;        Korver   +3.3 ;            Patterson   +2.3;          Scott  +0.8;              Mack    +0.6;           Splitter    +2.3;        Tavares   -1.5;

 

Hmmm.  Have to wonder about the meaningfulness of this stat after reading these numbers.

I think most everyone on our team has this disease, even Millsap.

According to Basketball-Reference

  Is what the guy said so that's exactly where he got his stats.  NBA.com has a problem where they are defining +/- as both on/off and +/- which is....well not the same.

[Mdizzle5]

2 minutes ago, kg01 said:

It's called rimpotence and it effects males of all ages.  Just ask @Spud2Nique

Man...that sexual tension between you two....  Just get a room already. Lol

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Watchman said:

Don't know where this guy is getting his +/- numbers, but they bear no resemblance to the numbers shown on NBA.com Hawks stat page.  There are some real surprises there.  Here are the numbers:

Schröder   +0.1;     Teague   -1.3;            Bazemore  -2.7;          Muscala   -0.8;             Holiday    -0.6;        Millsap    -0.5;       Sefalosha   -2.2;     Hardaway  -4.8

Horford    +0.0;        Korver   +3.3 ;            Patterson   +2.3;          Scott  +0.8;              Mack    +0.6;           Splitter    +2.3;        Tavares   -1.5;

 

Hmmm.  Have to wonder about the meaningfulness of this stat after reading these numbers.

I think most everyone on our team has this disease, even Millsap.

Think he said "per basketball-reference.com"

[Watchman]

2 minutes ago, hawksfanatic said:

Did you not catch this part?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/teaguje01.html#all_advanced

Scroll to play-by-play section and look under +/- Per 100 possessions.

It's helpful when you look at a site to also link to it instead of saying a general website though. But seeing as Bo didn't link and you didn't either, I'll take that as just me being grumpy.

Sorry, I'm ADD I think.  Maybe just old.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Watchman

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Mdizzle5 said:

Man...that sexual tension between you two....  Just get a room already. Lol

Hey, I'm just here to make y'all laugh.  Tell me that wasn't funny, Rondizzle.

[Guest]

@Mdizzle5

You have to ask nicely...

@kg01  @Spud2Nique