Gomes Watch Update

No shockers here.  Continued solid play, despite the expected reduction in minutes as healthy bodies return to the lineup.

 

After 23 games in the starting lineup, he's averaging:

    35.0 minutes, 8.3 rebounds, and 12.4 points

 

After 16 games, it was:

    36.6 minutes, 8.6 rebounds, and 13.7 points

 

After 8 games, it was:

    39.1 minutes,  9.1 rebounds, and 12.1 points 

 

If you assume that Gomes's production is mostly due to effort and activity (as B has asserted), the rebounding stats make perfect sense.  As his minutes have declined from 39 to 35 (or to put it another way, he's only playing 90% as much as he was after 8 games), his rebounds have declined exactly proportionally (8.3/9.1 = 91%).  But more impressively, his scoring is actually increasing.  As his minutes declined to 90%, his points have increased to 102% -- (12.4/12.1 = 102%).  A lot of that had to do with some monster games during the middle 8 games of this stretch where he scored 27 and 29 points on consecutive nights.  If you discount those two games, his points also mirror the exact same decline seen in rebounds (10.9/12.1 = 90%).  Interestingly, discounting the rebounds for those two games don't impact his rebounding numbers much (8.1/9.1 = 89%).

 

Foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, but it one helluvan asset in the NBA.