Before I start, I want to point you toward an article at The Athletic about Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s 2016-17 season. Last year Vlasic had, by almost any measure, a bad season. Tyler Dellow describes his theory that DeBoer’s constant pursuit of matchups led to the big dip in Vlasic’s shot-based numbers last season. I don’t want to spoil the article. Check it out.
Bizarre, matchup-based deployment might explain most of Vlasic’s numbers. Some of the change in his numbers might even be due to him beginning to decline. However, I would hazard a guess that Braun, Vlasic’s regular defense partner since about the 2013-14 season, also shoulders some blame.