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Some (more or less) consequential tidbits from B-ref & NBA.com/stats

Sample size for +/- is way too small at this point. At all star break I expect Niang to be back around 0 or slightly negative on net +/- where he was the last two years. This is the same player, he hasn't improved.
I agree with your first sentence. The rest remains TBD, I suppose. (btw, to even end up somewhere around 0 in +/- stats would be a big improvement for Niang individually and would greatly help the team, compared to past years. He's been pretty bad on these stats up till this point in his career.)

@KqWIN is right that Niang's traditional stats are bad this year, but somehow the lineups that he's in are great. The latter could indeed (and to be honest, is very likely to) be due in large part to random luck, but we don't have any statistical evidence that his teammates are "carrying" him. The (albeit) limited evidence points more the other direction, if anything. And I do agree that he's been looking pretty good on defense so far, particularly in comparison to expectations. And there's no sign (other than sub-par shooting percentages) that he's hindering the offense in any way.

Part of the point is that +/- stats are quite variable from year to year for many players (it's the true stars like Gobert that are always near the top). It just depends a lot on role, circumstance, fit, and so on. The Jazz were confident that Conley and Niang could be useful rotational players for the Jazz's system. It appears (so far) that they were right.
 
I agree with your first sentence. The rest remains TBD, I suppose. (btw, to even end up somewhere around 0 in +/- stats would be a big improvement for Niang individually and would greatly help the team, compared to past years. He's been pretty bad on these stats up till this point in his career.)

@KqWIN is right that Niang's traditional stats are bad this year, but somehow the lineups that he's in are great. The latter could indeed (and to be honest, is very likely to) be due in large part to random luck, but we don't have any statistical evidence that his teammates are "carrying" him. The (albeit) limited evidence points more the other direction, if anything. And I do agree that he's been looking pretty good on defense so far, particularly in comparison to expectations. And there's no sign (other than sub-par shooting percentages) that he's hindering the offense in any way.

Part of the point is that +/- stats are quite variable from year to year for many players (it's the true stars like Gobert that are always near the top). It just depends a lot on role, circumstance, fit, and so on. The Jazz were confident that Conley and Niang could be useful rotational players for the Jazz's system. It appears (so far) that they were right.

I think it's pretty clear that Niang's +/- is getting carried by his teammates. The defense is what's carrying these numbers, and it's fairly obvious who's carrying the defense when he's in the game. It's Gobert, not Niang. OTOH, the narrative that Niang is such a horrific defender that he's unplayable isn't holding much water right now. As much as Gobert is carrying the defense, Niang is still a part of these lineups and that success. If he can turn around his shooting and get back to where he was that'll make him a really solid role player and great fit into the bench lineup.
 
I think it's pretty clear that Niang's +/- is getting carried by his teammates. The defense is what's carrying these numbers, and it's fairly obvious who's carrying the defense when he's in the game. It's Gobert, not Niang. OTOH, the narrative that Niang is such a horrific defender that he's unplayable isn't holding much water right now. As much as Gobert is carrying the defense, Niang is still a part of these lineups and that success. If he can turn around his shooting and get back to where he was that'll make him a really solid role player and great fit into the bench lineup.
Yeah, I don't disagree. Just saying that the numbers themselves aren't showing that Niang is being "carried" by certain teammates. For example, Niang has better on-off numbers with Favors than with Gobert, as well as better numbers overall than with Gobert (though sample size problems are exacerbated of course).
 
Niang is still vitally important to spacing, even if he isn't shooting or he's having a bad patch. You still have to defend him at the three point line and account for him. Having that that threat certainly has made Conley's life easier.

His defense is night and day better this year too. The problem with guys like Niang too often is that they don't improve. Ir certainly feels like Niang is improving, even if he sacrificed a little of his shooting prep in the shortl offseason. I'm not worrying about his shooting.
 
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