Ze Freak - C'est Chic!
by ClipperSteve
on Apr 4, 2008 8:33 PM PDT
in News
By the way, Don at With Malice has decreed April 5th (yesterday) to be Unsung Player Day. I submitted this piece on Fazekas for that project, because few players are less sung than Nick Fazekas. Don't tell Don - but I would have written about him anyway.
It's becoming obvious, that despite an almost comical appearance on the court, Nick Fazekas can play. I'm not sure if Mike and Ralph (aka Milph apparently) are stealing from me or I'm stealing from them, but, yes, he's effective despite appearances (Ralph) and, yes, he both rebounds and scores flat footed (Mike) an inordinate amount of the time.
But he certainly seems to be making good things happen. Furthermore, the team seems to play well when he's on the floor.
Still, we shouldn't have to depend entirely on what 'seems' to be nor (FSM forbid) on what Ralph and Mike tell us. Is there any empirical evidence that Fazekas is playing well?
As it happens, there is. A lot of it.
I mentioned his PER in the preview to the Seattle game. Not surprisingly, in the two games since, arguably his best games as a pro, it's only gotten better. His PER as a Clipper is up to 20.79 - better than Maggette now. He's still only second best on the team - because now he's competing with the Elton Brand guy, who's at 23.94 after two games. We've said before that PER is not the be all end all of metrics - and it's strength (that it measures a player's effectiveness relative to their opportunities taking into considerations playing time and a team's pace) is also one of it's flaws (when a player has logged as few minutes as Fazekas, the numbers tend to skew - Marcus Williams is also above 20). But Fazekas has now played enough that he's not a complete fluke - though he could simply be on a really good roll.
So PER seems to verify that he is being productive. What about my assertion that the Clippers have played better with him on the floor.
In games where Fazekas has played 'real' minutes (i.e. I'm excluding garbage only appearances of 5 minutes of fewer, which tend to be unhelpful at any rate), he has an astoundingly good +/- rating. In fact, in 11 non-garbage games this season, he is a net positive in 8 of them, a net negative in only 2, and a net zero in one. That's good. Considering that the Clippers LOST NINE of those games most by large margins, it's unbelievable.
| Opp | +/- | Min | Game Margin |
| MIA | +6 | 9 | +1 |
| ORL | -6 | 13 | -22 |
| ATL | +6 | 6 | -24 |
| WAS | -8 | 24 | -10 |
| MIN | +4 | 9 | -9 |
| POR | +12 | 18 | -5 |
| POR | 0 | 17 | -11 |
| DAL | +6 | 16 | -13 |
| DAL | +5 | 20 | -7 |
| SEA | +17 | 18 | +18 |
| SAC | +8 | 25 | -12 |
It's also significant to note that his last net negative performance was March 15. He's been consistently positive for the team for the last seven games he's played in.
He shoots a high percentage (59%). He rebounds (16.4 rebounds per 48 minutes, a tick behind Kaman per minute at this point). He is particularly good on the offensive board, where he gets almost 40% of his rebounds. Put it this way - Fazekas has 26 offensive rebounds in 196 minutes this season. Tim Thomas has 61 in 1866 minutes. He's also blocking shots - 2.2 per 48 minutes. And he scores without having plays run for him.
This last item is perhaps the most surprising to me. Often times, a college player from a smaller school can have a very difficult transition into the NBA. Going from being 'The Man' to being a role player or a bench warmer is not easy. When the Clippers signed him, based on his college career, I thought that we'd see a lot of pick-and-pop. He's a big guy who shot from the perimeter a lot in college while averaging 20 points per game (and earning second team All-American honors). Instead, he's taken precious few perimeter shots in LA. He gets all of his points hanging around the basket, putting back misses, catching passes, and just generally being in the right place at the right time.
If you've played enough pick-up basketball, you've come across a guy like this. While you're shooting for teams, he makes his free throw, and you miss intentionally because you don't want to get stuck with him. The first time he beats you, you just know that all those shots he made were pure luck; he can't possibly do that again. The second time he beats you, you start to realize that he can do some stuff, but you figure that as long as you stop taking him lightly, you can shut him down. Three hours later, he's still on the court, and you realize, 'Damn, he can play the game.'
Not only that, he's also got a great name for nicknames. I'm currently partial to Ze-Freak. But Fazek the Freak is good to, as is Faz the Spazz.
It's not much fun having an injury-riddled season. But one advantage is that it allows the opportunity for other players to step up. It could be a starter who turns into a star (Kaman). It could be a rookie who turns into a force (Thornton). Or it could be a D-Leaguer who shows he belongs in the NBA. Nick Fazekas belongs in the NBA.
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Big Z
Would love to see him start next to Brand the rest of the way and see how it goes. Powell's best role is as an off the bench guy anyway (his real role is to be the 12th or 13th guy on the roster, but he's shown that he can play). The idea is to plug Fazeke in as a Kaman surrogate.
My fear of course is that Tim Thomas sees what's happening and comes back and messes everything up. Dunleavy, in one of his periodic fits of insanity, decides to start Brand and Thomas together, or he starts Powell and Brand and brings Thomas off the bench. And all of a sudden Fazeke goes down to 10 minutes or less a game. Right now Fazeke is in the 2nd and 4th quarter slot, but it would be great if he could slide in as a starter at the same time that Brand goes into the starting lineup. The other lineup that Dunleavy wants to see--and here I think we agree with him--is Brand-Thornton-Maggette. This is another one that Thomas could really mess up. And oddly enough Mobley could come back and cost Fazekas minutes.
I like playing Thornton as much as possible, even when he's struggling a bit like he did against Sacramento. That's a priority. Let EB play as much as he wants, getting back into the swing of things. (I'm a bit miffed that no one--I'm not surprised about Milph (where did that name come from; did they give it to themselves and I missed it fast forwarding on tivo?) but that includes you CS--has addressed my comment that it sure looks like EB just might have been able to come back a smidge earlier.) Maggs minutes could actually be cut back a bit. It will be nice for the Clips to win some games now, and he should get the right minutes in the right rotation, but he doesn't need to be on the court to pad his salary drive stats and shoot 8 free throws in the last 4 minutes when the Clips are down by 15. Give those minutes to Williams. We need to see that guy, who might be fighting for the job of UFA QRoss, except we have no idea if he can play. Let's just say that in the current "talent evaluation period," having two high minute/low productivity/expensive-overpaid guys like Thomas and Mobley banged up is a very good thing. Feel free to sit until you're completely healthy and sharp and ready to make the most out of your minutes, fellas. I hate to pair Mobley with Thomas, but it needs to be done for the moment.
That gets us to the future roster. And I have to say that the hours of the week going by (I could go on Bruins Nation right now and see the pregame clock going in single digits!) and these two outstanding Zefreak games have cooled my overheated KLove draft compulsivity. And you'll all remember that I'm a Paul Davis guy, and his major injury was a very tough one for me to take in this catastrophic season. I'm sure that Davis would have outplayed and complemented Powell very nicely in the K2-less 2nd half, both of them getting tons of minutes, and we would be very happy with him. But of course the silver lining is that the Clips might have never seen Fazeke. The key to all this is the departure of... yes, here it is... Aaron Williams. And of course, perhaps to a greater extent, Reuben Patterson--let's not forget about him.
So I could see the Clipper big man roster looking like this next year:
Brand
Kaman
Thornton
Thomas
Fazekas
Powell
Davis
Davis becomes the 14th man on the roster, which was Powell's slot. And the Clips should feel free to trade Thomas to anyone who would take him, of course. At the beginning of the year it was:
Kaman
Thomas
Patterson
Davis
Williams
Thornton
(Brand inj.)
Some one can compare to other Clips rosters. I remember them being loaded at one point, something like this:
Brand
Kaman
Wilcox
Rebraca
--and who else did they have? Oh yeah, McCarty. Nice guy, good defender, but a disaster. And YK! Get that kid some minutes! Good times.
Off to yoga. If the Clips start Fazeke tomorrow, I'm guessing he'll get a prolonged standing ovation. You know, him and Elton Brand.
Go Clips! Go Z! And you'll excuse me if I say Go Bruins! Today we get to see if Kevin Love messes up this whole post because he's too good to pass up. I hope so. (On the college note, I'll mention that despite my dad being a season ticket holder at Pauley since it opened and seeing 11 NCAA championship teams there, I graduated from Cal and then spent 5 years not finishing a PhD at Berkeley. So I'm a bit confused by Cal hiring Mike Montgomery. Just a final aside.) Namaste.
by citizen zhiv on Apr 5, 2008 9:30 AM PDT 0 recs
yoga and alcohol
the clippers don't need love. they do need rose or the best sg available. i like fazekas game but can he guard quick small forwards or the real physical centers. he will be good next year in the 2nd unit catching tim thomas airballs and missed 3's. but imagine a 2nd unit with brevin or smush, williams, tim thomaas or al thornton (assuming corey stays) fazekas and davis. that's not horrible.
by cabezadeknuckle on Apr 5, 2008 4:35 PM PDT 0 recs
Ouch
Consoling myself by putting on black tie and mask and going to fabulous Hollywood black-and-white ball. Don't quite fit into the suit from daughter's Bat Mitzvah almost 5 years ago. Drinking will be involved.
by citizen zhiv on Apr 5, 2008 8:43 PM PDT 0 recs
Silver Lining
EB's first home game is tomorrow. It will be the loudest I cheer this season.
by supac on
Apr 5, 2008 9:13 PM PDT
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Fazekas Nickname
I think the Clips will need to get his sig on a contract before the nick naming begins. I wouldn't be surprised to see several teams make a move for him in the off season. Hope the Clips can keep/make him happy. He is a worrk horse for sure! Steve, I enjoy your blog, thanks for keeping it up to date and fun to read!!
by NewClipFan on Apr 6, 2008 7:03 PM PDT 0 recs
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