Kosta Koufos, NBA Starter
by NugzD on Feb 5, 2012 8:35 PM MST
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Every time Kosta plays I wonder what he would do with consistent playing time. Here is what I have dug up from his limited time and while projecting out 12.6 mpg is always a bit of a stretch that’s what hopeful arm chair GM’s do!
First off in his limited time Kosta has shown a PER of 14.67, just a shade off the league average of 15. The issue is that there are 27 centers in the league who are posting a better PER than Kosta. Now, out of those centers, only three are younger than Kosta’s 22 (four if you count Cousins) and one is the same age. Yes, that leaves Kosta in the top five centers of guys his age or younger. Centers simply take longer to develop and 22 is just young for a center.
Nene is pulling down a 16.34 PER for 22nd, and Moz a 12.4 PER for 37th among centers.
Kosta is 12th in the NBA in rebounds per minute of all players averaging more than 10 mpg. Nene is 62 and Moz is 60th. Out of all centers, only Cousins and Kanter are younger than Kouf and outrebounding him per minute. Hawes and Vucevic are close behind. For his age Kosta is the third best rebounder per minute out of all NBA centers.
Onto the intangible metric. Out of Moz, Bird, Nene and Kosta, Kosta is the most aggressive as I have observed and I just appreciate it. Kosta does foul at a rate of 5.4 fouls per48 but I’d rather have an aggressive Kouf in than a Nene who allows layups because he doesn’t want another foul.
For the record the one thing Kosta does not do well is block shots.
I like Nene and I like Moz. Moz is more mobile and after that foul on Griffin, maybe he is coming around. Nene has regressed from his stats last year and I hate seeing that in a guy who just got a new contract. Out of the three only Kosta has clearly proved he deserves more playing time and I think he should get it.
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Strongly agree
Koufos in my eyes has always been the most aggressive player out of our centres, and he just seems to try more. I really liked him against portland
Also agree
Koufos still has a ways to go in polishing his game however, after watching (in disgust) Nene’s lack of effort in the last couple of games, I don’t think he deserves to be a starter right now. Every player has an off night but Nene’s problems are more pronounced. He does not consistently try to fight for rebounds on either the offensive glass or on defense, hangs around the perimeter too much and all to often holds the ball in the paint, dribbles a couple of times and tries to put the ball in slow motion. Predictably, he either gets blocked or simply misses. I sometimes think hes just lazy. His occasional good games and stats tend to obscure his on the court issues. George needs to start using the guys on the bench who bring energy, performance, and are hungry to play, e.g.more Faried and yes Koufos.
I like KK
Of our two big men I actually like KK better than Moz but only just slightly. The benefit of having two big guys that are both young, fairly inexperienced and pretty equal is that if you play them consistently (not denver) then they will both get a good number of playing minutes and improve their game. Practice is practice but when you are out there in a real game there is no substitute for what you learn.
I really wish we had let Nene go to New Jersey or something and kept these two guys for the center position.
I like both of them also
The difference is that Moz is 25, three years older than KK, and KK has better numbers. Nene has value and if Nene could make some good decisions with the ball in the 15 foot range he could raise his PER to last years 20. At that point he becomes very valuable.
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