Hello again, friends! Your friendly Brew Hoop staff continues on with our season retrospective. For a recap of what we're actually doing, or any of the previous installments, check out the stream here. This time, we take on Milwaukee's pair of rim-protecting centers (John Henson and Miles Plumlee), with the youngest, shooter-iest, best-.gif-iest guard on the team, Rashad Vaughn.
No, I will never ever not take an opportunity to include this .gif every time Rashad Vaughn is mentioned.
Onward!
John Henson
Statistical Recap:
|
John Henson |
MP/G |
FG/G |
FGA/G |
FG% |
3P/G |
3PA/G |
3P% |
2P/G |
2PA/G |
2P% |
FT/G |
FTA/G |
FT% |
ORB/G |
DRB/G |
TRB/G |
AST/G |
STL/G |
BLK/G |
TOV/G |
PF/G |
PTS/G |
|
PER GAME |
16.8 |
2.9 |
5.1 |
0.564 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2.9 |
5.1 |
0.566 |
1.2 |
2.1 |
0.59 |
1.5 |
2.4 |
3.9 |
0.9 |
0.3 |
1.9 |
1.1 |
2.3 |
7 |
|
PER 36 |
MP |
FG / 36 |
FGA / 36 |
3P / 36 |
3PA / 36 |
2P / 36 |
2PA / 36 |
FT / 36 |
FTA / 36 |
ORB / 36 |
DRB / 36 |
TRB / 36 |
AST / 36 |
STL / 36 |
BLK / 36 |
TOV / 36 |
PF / 36 |
PTS / 36 |
||||
|
959 |
6.2 |
10.9 |
0 |
0 |
6.2 |
10.9 |
2.6 |
4.4 |
3.3 |
5 |
8.3 |
2 |
0.7 |
4.1 |
2.4 |
4.9 |
14.9 |
|||||
|
ADVANCED |
G |
PER |
eFG% |
TS% |
3PAr |
FTr |
ORB% |
DRB% |
TRB% |
AST% |
STL% |
BLK% |
TOV% |
OWS |
DWS |
WS |
WS/48 |
OBPM |
DBPM |
BPM |
VORP |
USG% |
|
57 |
18.6 |
0.564 |
0.58 |
0.003 |
0.402 |
10.5 |
15.8 |
13.2 |
9.1 |
1 |
9.7 |
15.7 |
1.2 |
1.1 |
2.3 |
0.117 |
-1.4 |
3.1 |
1.6 |
0.9 |
19.1 |
Synopsis:
The legend of John Henson continues to grow. After inking a Larry Sanders-esque extension last summer, many expected Henson to take a big step forward, even while sharing the front court with Greg Monroe. Steps forward were not taken, as Henson played the fewest minutes since his rookie year, scored about the same number of points as last year, and pulled down about the same number of rebounds too.
Beyond the stats, Henson was too-often out of position, despite his gaudy rim-protection numbers, and found himself playing less as a result. Later in the year, while coming back from a back injury that claimed a large chunk of his season, he found himself behind Miles Plumlee (more on him later) on the depth chart.
None of this is to say that John Henson is bad. His PER is well above-average, he took far fewer post isolation shots (despite his long-running love affair of his lefty hook), and his gaudy numbers (h/t to Nylon Calculus) protecting the rim tell the story of a player who is elite at preventing close-range shots. But I think it's fair to say that we all expected more from him, and are disappointed that we basically got more of the same.
Brew Hoop Staff Grades:
| Offense | Defense | Improvement | Fit Going Forward | Overall Season |
| 4.67 | 6.67 | 3.67 | 5.83 | 4.50 |
Frank says: I hope that by the end of this decade I'm able to determine if John Henson is good or not.
Brett says: It's not like he got worse, like his Improvement rating might suggest. But you'd think with his age and the limited improvement he's shown until this year, he'd have room to improve much more than he did, which in my mind was practically zilch.
Mitchell says: The back injury really tanked Henson's season: he met most of his career averages for basic box score numbers and was still rated highly by advanced metrics for rim protection, but he continues to not take any major steps forward. He's fine as a backup, albeit an expensive one, which makes judging his improvement a bit less difficult.
Bonus discussion!
Eric B asks: Is John Henson a valuable trade asset?
Mitchell says: Absolutely he is. With his elite-level advanced metrics, I guarantee that there’s a team out there that thinks John Henson can help close off the rim for their team, and has $11 million in assets to make it happen. Whether or not those teams have anything truly valuable, though, is another question. Using this data (mentioned above), the teams that have significant players who offer the least points saved/game are the Lakers and Nets, who don’t have a lot to offer. Henson can be had by somebody, but what is that somebody able to offer in return?
Frank says: I would guess he is to someone, and if I were the Bucks I’d try to figure out who that is this summer. Not that they have to move him, but Henson’s inability to carve out a major-minute niche has been the one constant across four different head coaches, and at some point that figures to degrade his trade value, right? I think I saw someone in the comment section recently suggest trading Henson to Phoenix for Tyson Chandler and one or two of Phoenix’s non-top-five draft picks (they project to have numbers 4, 13 and 28), which would be an interesting place to start.
Rashad Vaughn
Statistical Recap:
|
Rashad Vaughn |
MP/G |
FG/G |
FGA/G |
FG% |
3P/G |
3PA/G |
3P% |
2P/G |
2PA/G |
2P% |
FT/G |
FTA/G |
FT% |
ORB/G |
DRB/G |
TRB/G |
AST/G |
STL/G |
BLK/G |
TOV/G |
PF/G |
PTS/G |
|
PER GAME |
14.3 |
1.2 |
3.8 |
0.305 |
0.6 |
2.1 |
0.293 |
0.5 |
1.7 |
0.319 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.8 |
0.2 |
1.1 |
1.3 |
0.6 |
0.4 |
0.2 |
0.4 |
1 |
3.1 |
|
PER 36 |
MP |
FG / 36 |
FGA / 36 |
3P / 36 |
3PA / 36 |
2P / 36 |
2PA / 36 |
FT / 36 |
FTA / 36 |
ORB / 36 |
DRB / 36 |
TRB / 36 |
AST / 36 |
STL / 36 |
BLK / 36 |
TOV / 36 |
PF / 36 |
PTS / 36 |
||||
|
1001 |
2.9 |
9.6 |
1.5 |
5.3 |
1.4 |
4.3 |
0.4 |
0.5 |
0.4 |
2.8 |
3.2 |
1.4 |
1 |
0.6 |
1 |
2.6 |
7.8 |
|||||
|
ADVANCED |
G |
PER |
eFG% |
TS% |
3PAr |
FTr |
ORB% |
DRB% |
TRB% |
AST% |
STL% |
BLK% |
TOV% |
OWS |
DWS |
WS |
WS/48 |
OBPM |
DBPM |
BPM |
VORP |
USG% |
|
70 |
4.2 |
0.385 |
0.398 |
0.553 |
0.056 |
1.3 |
8.7 |
5 |
5.5 |
1.5 |
1.4 |
9.3 |
-1.2 |
0.4 |
-0.8 |
-0.036 |
-4.3 |
-1.9 |
-6.1 |
-1 |
13.5 |
Synopsis:
Rashad Vaughn is a shooter. Shooter's shoot. And Rashad Vaughn did shoot...except not very well. Like, at all. Over half his shots were threes (that's good!), but less than a third of his threes actually went in (that's bad.) He also showed some significant defensive improvement as the year progressed (that's good!), but his benchmark was as low as the limbo bar goes (that's bad.)
Vaughn had a bad rookie season by any measure, and attributed some of his struggles to the fabled "rookie wall". All of this is perfectly reasonable from the second-youngest player selected in the 2015 NBA Draft. If you want to scour for positives, you can look at the number of games and amount of minutes Rashad played, and how well that will figure into his professional development as he enters his first NBA offseason.
Brew Hoop Staff Grades:
| Offense | Defense | Improvement | Fit Going Forward | Overall Season |
| 2.17 | 4.50 | 4.33 | 6.00 | 3.17 |
Frank says: In theory, Vaughn is precisely the kind of rotation shooter/scorer a team like the Bucks can use, especially if he can prove adept at guarding both guard positions. But no team needs a guy who shoots 30% from the field, meaning there's a mountain to climb before theory matches practice.
Mitchell says: He's, what, 20 years old? He'll be fine.
Miles Plumlee
Statistical Recap:
|
Miles Plumlee |
MP/G |
FG/G |
FGA/G |
FG% |
3P/G |
3PA/G |
3P% |
2P/G |
2PA/G |
2P% |
FT/G |
FTA/G |
FT% |
ORB/G |
DRB/G |
TRB/G |
AST/G |
STL/G |
BLK/G |
TOV/G |
PF/G |
PTS/G |
|
PER GAME |
14.3 |
2.3 |
3.8 |
0.601 |
0 |
0 |
n/a |
2.3 |
3.8 |
0.601 |
0.6 |
1 |
0.576 |
1.5 |
2.3 |
3.8 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.8 |
0.7 |
1.2 |
5.1 |
|
PER 36 |
MP |
FG / 36 |
FGA / 36 |
3P / 36 |
3PA / 36 |
2P / 36 |
2PA / 36 |
FT / 36 |
FTA / 36 |
ORB / 36 |
DRB / 36 |
TRB / 36 |
AST / 36 |
STL / 36 |
BLK / 36 |
TOV / 36 |
PF / 36 |
PTS / 36 |
||||
|
870 |
5.8 |
9.6 |
0 |
0 |
5.8 |
9.6 |
1.4 |
2.4 |
3.9 |
5.7 |
9.6 |
0.7 |
0.9 |
2.1 |
1.7 |
3 |
13 |
|||||
|
ADVANCED |
G |
PER |
eFG% |
TS% |
3PAr |
FTr |
ORB% |
DRB% |
TRB% |
AST% |
STL% |
BLK% |
TOV% |
OWS |
DWS |
WS |
WS/48 |
OBPM |
DBPM |
BPM |
VORP |
USG% |
|
61 |
17.4 |
0.601 |
0.606 |
0 |
0.253 |
12.5 |
18 |
15.2 |
2.9 |
1.2 |
4.9 |
13.4 |
1.4 |
0.8 |
2.2 |
0.124 |
-1.4 |
-0.4 |
-1.8 |
0 |
15.5 |
Synopsis:
Plumlee was a somewhat pleasant surprise this season, moving well on the court while staying out of the way, and developing a nice chemistry with Giannis in the half-court offense. He isn't a particularly impressive player by the numbers, but his game is very utilitarian: Plumlee does the things that need to be done, and does them somewhat well.
Anything beyond that, though, and Plumlee is out of his depth. A one-time starter in Phoenix, Plumlee is a great leaper who leaps too much, or too early, or too late, all too often. He has no ball skills or shooting range to speak of, and while he doesn't grind the offense to a halt, he doesn't offer much more than a ball swing or a hard rim run.
He's good. He might be a late bloomer and turn out to be really good, and he already knows his role (which is sometimes half the battle!). But entering restricted free agency, how much are the Bucks willing to pony up to see where his career takes him?
Brew Hoop Staff Grades:
| Offense | Defense | Improvement | Fit Going Forward | Overall Season |
| 5.50 | 6.00 | 6.50 | 6.83 | 6.33 |
Mitchell says: Plumlee got better at doing two things this year: going up and getting the ball (rebounding and finishing lobs) and staying the hell out of the way on offense (low usage). Post-ASB Plumlee showed how well (in relative terms) the Bucks work with a mobile big who catches lobs on one side and protects the rim on the other. His super-low usage and well-defined role make him a great fit going forward...depending on how the Monroe situation shakes out.
Eric N says: Dude is the definition of "okay". 6's across the board for him.
This is a step up from our previous installments (in terms of excitement), but each player has a fair question facing them right now. Will Miles Plumlee get to stick around in Milwaukee? Will Rashad Vaughn shake off a rough rookie campaign and turn into our version of Gary Harris (h/t to Frank for the comparison)? Is John Henson sneaky-good, sneaky-bad, or sneaky at all? Hopefully, 2016-17 is telling for all three players.
Disagree with any of our takes? Do you see a grade that just doesn't make sense to you? Leave it in the comments!