Jeremy Tyler has had a busy ten days, jumping across the country to attend workouts with multiple NBA teams. After his  Utah workout, Tyler was in Indiana working out against Marcus Morris and Vernon Macklin. He has since been to Boston, New York, Chicago, and Washington. I also missed that before Utah he worked out for the Spurs. He is already scheduled for a workout in Minnesota on the 21st, but I am sure he will add a few more stops in before the draft. Frankly, I would be surprised if Houston, OKC, and Dallas do not bring him in. Dallas will not start working out prospects until the Finals are wrapped up, but I don’t know what OKC and Houston’s excuses are.

While there were a few comments about Tyler showing his immaturity in the Knicks workout, the reports about Tyler have been extremely positive. GMs have been raving about his interviews in particular. Below is a link to his best media interview so far in my opinion. He speaks openly about his time in Japan, and answers questions about Sullinger and Sidney. The only part I found funny was when he described his role in Tokyo as mainly “defensive” and spoke about bringing “fundamental defense” to any team he joined. One block and four fouls a game do not quite jump out to me as great defensive stats . . .

http://www.nba.com/knicks/video/2011/06/06/60611nykprospectsSCRUMMtylermp4-1727135

Jeremy Tyler had his first official team visit this past Saturday with the Utah Jazz. It was an interesting first stop for Tyler as there is no chance the Jazz will be drafting him with their current picks #3 and #12. So what were the Jazz up to brining in a bunch of players who are projected between 15-undrafted? A couple of ideas have been floating around.

First, the Jazz could be looking to acquire a pick in the late first or second round. This is entirely within the realm of possibility, but if this does happen it will not be for a couple of weeks here.

On the other hand, the Jazz could be scouting some potentially undrafted players who they could bring in as free agents.

But what I think the most plausible explanation was first suggested to me by Spencer at Salt City Hoops. “The workouts also involve a lot of agent quid pro quo. Sometimes you have to take two players to see one. WMG is big.” I realized I hadn’t looked up which other draft prospects had signed on with WMG this year. Luckily Draft Express has all that information.

Besides Jeremy Tyler, other WMG clients this draft include: Brandon Knight, Jan Vesely, Jordan Hamilton, Kenneth Faried, Trey Thompkins, Kyle Singler, and Rick Jackson. Knight, and Vesely to a lesser extent are options for the 3rd pick, while Hamilton and Faried could both be in play at the 12. Thompkins is projected as a second half of the 1st Round pick while Singler and Jackson are generally thought of as 2nd Round guys.

While the Jazz will bring Kanter in this week and then head off to Europe to see Vesely and some of the other Euro players, it is pretty much a guarantee that Knight will be coming in for a workout, and at this point is seen as the likely choice for the Jazz.

The JaJuan Johnson invite would also seem to fall under the same logic as BDA will be representing Chris Singleton and Klay Thompson, two players who are in play at the 12 spot.

So in one workout the Jazz get to see some interesting guys and make WMG and BDA happy by getting two of their lesser known/riser potential players on the radar early on in the process.

Here is Tyler’s interview with the media.Kevin O'Connor was in his typical "no comment" mood today, and gave very little insight into how the workout went and what the Jazz are planning to do in the upcoming draft and off-season.

Next up foris a workout with the Indiana Pacers today.

Unless you have been living under a rock or in the middle of a remote desert you know that Tyler's draft stock jumped after a strong showing at NBA Pre Draft Combine in Chicago. His first team workout is Sunday with the Utah Jazz.

Here are some videos from the combine:

From Draft Express we have the mature and thoughtful interview that has everyone talking:

And thanks to raptorstuff we have some clips of his workouts and testing:

I am working through all the games I did not put clips up for yet. The player in the clips from March is drastically different than the player from January. I know a lot of people are wanting to see game footage, so I will do this as quickly as possible.

The dunk at the 0:40 mark in this next clip shows the athleticism that you always hear people talking about.

Seven months ago, when I first decided to follow Jeremy Tyler’s Japan adventure, I knew it would be interesting, but did not expect a season as wacky and turbulent as this one. As everyone knows, the Tokyo Apache ended their season prematurely as a result of the massive earthquakes and tsunami that rocked Japan in March.  This catastrophe ended a season that was different from the start. For instance, the Apache did not have a home floor for the first two and a half months of the season, so only played half the number of games as other teams as they played only their away games. But even stranger, in a land where interest in basketball is iffy at best, there was an ex-NBA coach (Bob Hill) with a team consisting of a former lottery pick (Robert Swift), a D-League veteran (Kendall Dartez), two big-time college ball players (Byron Eaton and Michael Chappell), an assortment of Japanese players, and Jeremy Tyler: the wild card.

The New York Times article about Tyler a few weeks ago was well done and analyzed the human side of Jeremy Tyler’s season in Japan. What they did not do was geek out and analyze his stats over the course of the season.  That is what I am going to do here.

This first table contains Tyler’s basic stats from this season.

The above stats do not really tell us that much regarding how Tyler’s season actually played out. We see that generally he scored and rebounded well but fouled and turned the ball over way too much. This is absolutely true; Bob Hill said as much in the Times article. But if we break things down a little further, the story of Tyler’s season becomes somewhat more interesting. In the two tables below you can see his season divided into three parts. This first table merely breaks the boxscore stats by the three time periods.

The following table shows his averages per 40 minutes, a statistic that gives a better understanding of how he was playing.

The first eight games were the honeymoon period for Tyler. Four of the games were against the Saitama Broncos and the Akita Northern Happinets, two of the worst teams in the league, both with relatively weak frontlines. The next 13 games were the low point of his year as Tyler struggled offensively and, as a result, saw increasingly less playing time. While the Times article mentions the February series against Akita as the turning point in the season, I think it is hard to ignore the sudden improvement in Tyler’s play that occurred the week before when Kendall Dartez left the Apache. Dartez’s departure coincided with an increase in Tyler’s efficiency and, ultimately, his minutes played. Watching the games, it is clear that Tyler thrived as Hill played him more at the 4 spot alongside Robert Swift at the 5. Tyler showed his versatility away from the basket, including a drastically improved outside shot. Tyler’s turnovers also dropped during this part of the season as he spent less time in the post getting double-teamed.

While seeing those statistics should give one a better impression of Tyler’s season, the stats are still relatively useless as we have no context to place them in. Tyler’s performance is best analyzed when compared to similar players in the bj-league. I defined “similar player” as an import player taller than 6’7” who played primarily an inside game (players with less than 1/3 of their shots from behind the arc). I then removed any player who had not played in at least 20 games or 400 minutes during the season. In the end, 37 players matched these criteria. Most of these men were at one point fringe NBA prospects, but have since made a living overseas. While only the most hardcore basketball fans will know players like Julius Ashby (Colorado ’06), George Leach (Indiana ’04), Jeff Newton (Indiana ’03), Gary Hamilton (Miami ’06), or Abdullahi Kuso (Gonzaga ’08), these are all experienced professional basketball players.

I chose to use Dave Berri’s Win Score per 40 minutes (WS40) as my metric of comparison as it is:  a) straight forward; b) did not require me to crunch league-wide statistics; and c) actually took personal fouls into account. It is shocking to me that so many of the efficiency ratings out there do not use personal fouls in the calculation. Anyone who watched Tyler this season could see how big an impact his foul trouble had on his and his team’s efficiency. WS40 is calculated through the following formula: (Points + Rebounds + Steals + ½Assists + ½Blocked Shots – Field Goal Attempts – Turnovers – ½Free Throw Attempts – ½Personal Fouls)/Total Minutes Played x 40.

Tyler ended the season with a WS40 of 10.1. His Position-Adjusted WS40 (PAWS40), though, is a meager -1.73, meaning that Tyler’s performance was below average for import post players in the bj-league. Looking at only the last 12 games of the season though shows Tyler with a PAWS40 of 2.3. This figure would place him in the top 20% of import post players in the league. As I mentioned earlier, while the other import players in the league are not household names, almost all of them played DI ball and have since played professionally all over the world. While the overall level of competition in the league may not be high, that is largely attributable to the Japanese players in the league, not the imports. Tyler had to earn his stats playing against seasoned professional athletes, not other 18 year-olds.

Looking at the stats from various angles, it is obvious that Tyler learned a lot about basketball this year. As I mentioned before, he added an outside shot to his repertoire to go along with his spin moves in the post. It is clear that Tyler’s future is not as a back-to-the-basket post player, but more as an athletic 4 who can play out to 15-18 feet. He is most definitely a project, but at 6’10” and 245 pounds there are few prospects who can match his size and athleticism. His ceiling at this point is largely up to him. DeAndre Jordan, JaVale McGee, Amir Johnson, and Andrew Blatche have all become solid NBA players over the past few years. There is no reason to think that Tyler will not be able to at least progress to their level. Is a late 1st Round pick out of the question at this point? In a draft weak with big men I would not rule it out.   

I am slowly trying to catch up on the video editing, but in the meantime Ed Odeven at the Japan Times wrote a good piece on Tyler's recent progress. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sk20110311n1.html

He seems to have found an outside shot, which opens up his interior game. I agree with the Akita coach's remarks about Tyler's "happy feet." He seems to be two or three steps ahead of himself at times, and too often throws one extra step or spin into his moves. One question that I am trying to figure out is how much this increase of production is related to Dartez's absence from the team. It has been interesting to watch Tyler play more minutes alongside Robert Swift, and Tyler is able to play his natural 4 position.

Look for videos tonight (I hope).

A clip from a good showing on Feb. 15 against the cellar-dwelling Akita Happinets. The dunk at the 1:10 mark is impressive, and the jumper at 1:40ish is the first shot outside the key I have seen him hit all year. With Kendall Dartez out of the picture, Tyler's minutes and role have increased. He has responded pretty well so far.

And here is an even older clip that I never posted. Clips from the 1/19 game against Takamatsu.

Tyler only player 5 minutes in this game. The three fouls (two offensive) probably had something to do with the limited minutes.

After missing the previous night's game with a sore back Tyler only played 10 minutes in this game. He was really a non-factor in the game.

The following clip has some of his good and bad moments from the match.

The Tokyo Apache have entered the brutal part of their season, playing four games in four days. The Apache split both series, first with the Oita Heat Devils and next with the Shimane Susanoo Magic.

Tyler continued his poor play in the games against Oita, but bounced back somewhat against Shimane. Instead of writing 500 words on the games I thought I would include video. I know this is what everyone really wants to see. The title/intro should provide enough background info.

I must add, the picture quality is not my fault. For some reason Tokyo has decided that the best vantage point to record the game is in the rafters!

He is an athlete, there is no questioning that. He is quick, long, and can get up, but he is really raw. I have watched eight of his games now and have not seen him hit a shot farther than a free throw and have never seen him make a move with his left hand. I'll throw some more videos up in a few days.