Examining Darko Milicic’s Passing Ability
One of the most memorable things that happened in summer league didn’t take place on the court. It was actually David Kahn’s interview with NBATV. You know what I am talking about, the one where David Kahn praised Darko’s passing ability (comparing him to Vlade Divac) and then telling Chris Webber that Darko’s career path has mirrored his so far. Webber (and just about everyone) as you might imagine, didn’t really agree with Kahn’s comments. While it is a little late, I thought we could take a look at Darko’s passing ability and see if he really does excel at it.
First, let’s take a look at the numbers really quick. Darko averaged 1.8 assists and 1.4 turnovers in his 24 games with the Timberwolves, good for an Assist to Turnover ratio of 1.3. That number isn’t all that bad, considering the average among centers who played at least 15 minutes per game is 0.93 (Darko was ranked 14th). However, it doesn’t really tell the whole story, because turnovers can happen at any time (instead of purely passing turnovers), and as everyone knows, assists are a really tough statistic to keep track of. So that means we have to look at the video tape to really get a feel of Darko’s passing ability.
In the flow of an offense where he doesn’t have to make a decision (and he can just throw a pass), Darko is actually a good (but not great passer). Now, he is no Vlade Divac, but in my opinion he is slightly above average. The Timberwolves actually do a lot of cutting off of Darko when he has the basketball to take advantage of this. In fact, this is almost exclusively how he got his assists with the Wolves. If you go to Synergy and look up his assists, you see just about all his assists plays described as Cuts (and very little as spot up – more on this later).
In all three clips above, the Timberwolves have a player cut baseline or backdoor, and Darko sees them and hits them with the nice bounce pass. Are these good passes? Yes. However, he isn’t really making something out of nothing here since his teammates were wide open (Granted, there are plenty big men in this league who can’t make this type of pass).
It isn’t just in the flow of the offense either, in any situation where Darko doesn’t have to make a decision, he is a pretty good passer. Take these two possessions in transition.
Nothing to it really. On both plays, Corey Brewer is open and Darko hits him with a pass right in stride. A good pass, Darko wasn’t really forced to make a decision here. He sees the open man and makes the pass. Here is another example:
Here, the ball winds up in Darko’s hands and Al Jefferson is wide open. Darko then proceeds to dump it in to Jefferson for the dunk.
However, as most NBA fans know, offenses eventually break down, cuts are going to be covered and players aren’t always going to be wide open. This is where Darko really seems to struggle. In my opinion, he doesn’t have the Basketball IQ to adjust, adapt, or make the correct decisions. It shows in his passing:
This is a transition situation, but unlike the two clips above (where he makes good passes), nobody is wide open. Darko is forced to make a decision and it ends up being the wrong one.
And here, there is a cut made, but it is well defended. The Brewer breaks off his cut and tries to return to the three point line, however Darko misreads everything and throws the pass as if Brewer was cutting. It bounces harmlessly out of bounds.
At first glance, the above pass seems to be a good one and the turnover shouldn’t be Darko’s fault, but rewatch it and you notice a few things. The Timberwolves have an offensive set where after the ball is entered into the post, Brewer comes down and sets a cross screen for the opposite post. That is what Brewer is doing when the ball is thrown to him, so he isn’t expecting the pass. Even if he does catch it, things are so crowed in the paint (because the offense requires the post player to cut through the paint coming off the cross screen) he can’t do anything with it. This is Darko not knowing the offense, and not understanding the situation. That is the reason for the turnover.
In addition to when the offense breaks down, Darko is a miserable passer out of the post. Especially when it comes to handling double teams.
When Darko is faced with a double team, he panics and wants to get rid of the ball as soon as possible. He basically just looks for the first blue (or white) jersey he sees and flings it over there without considering the situation. That is exactly what happens in the above clip.
In addition to that, Dark also seems before the double team comes, Darko spots someone who was open and then throws it a few seconds later, not really taking into consideration defensive rotations:
The above three passes wouldn’t even be thrown if Darko would just take a second to survey the situation. However, he locks in on one man and ignores everything else that takes place. It’s not just when facing double teams either, Darko just isn’t comfortable making passes with his back to the basket.
Here, Darko makes a spin move and Kevin Love cuts wide open in the middle of the paint. However, Darko’s post move throws him off and he ends up whipping the ball too hard to Love and it’s another turnover.
And the above clip is just a lack of fundamentals. Darko is posting up and doesn’t have anything there. He wants to kick it out and repost. However he throws a lazy one handed bounce pass that gets stolen.
And finally here, Darko catches it in the post and hits his teammate with a bounce pass. He gets the assist, but this in my opinion shows more lack of fundamentals. Why? Well, bounce passes handcuff shooters, meaning that it causes shooters to break their motion. They have their hands at their chest in shooting position and then they have to bring them down to catch a pass at the hips and bring it back up to shoot the ball. That is a lot tougher than just catching a chest pass and going up with it.
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In conclusion my opinion is that Darko is a decent passer, but not great (or even good for that matter), and personally, I think Kevin Love is a better passer. He is above average in the high post during the flow of an offense. He can hit a cutter going backdoor with a nice bounce pass and when a man is open, he can get it to him in a position to finish. However, when the offense breaks down or when he goes from the high post to the low post he turns into an absolutely terrible passer. In my opinion, Kahn’s interview with NBATV is just an example of taking one guys best skill (which is just average at best) and just going overboard when describing it.
