Today I'll take a look at the top twenty scorers on a per game basis. This list includes some of the best known scorers - and some surprises. To make this list a player had to play in over twenty games, which unfortunately disqualified Brook Lopez, who until his injury was playing at a very high level. Anyways, enjoy:
LeBron James is one of the best players ever - no ones debating that. He currently second in both PER and win shares this year, trailing only Kevin Durant. My model has him at forth - a dramatic drop off for one of the league's best players. Let's see how his game breaks down.
Just a little analysis:
* To back up the West's dominance so far this season, 19 of the top 25 are from the West. In addition, the top five point guards, the top five shooting guards, the top five power forwards, and four of the top five centers are from the West. * Going by rankings, small forwards have been the best so far this season, as the top five small forwards have an average rank of 10.8. Then come power forwards with 11.2, then point guards with 11.4, then centers with 13.4, and in last shooting guards with18.8. * Going by PAA, small forwards have been the best so far this season, as the top five average 162.8 PAA. Then come point guards with 155.1, then power forwards with 139.6, then centers with 129.6, and in last shooting guards with 118.1 * Going by these rankings, the starting lineups for the East and the West for the All-Star game (assuming two guards and three forwards/centers) should be, as of now: East: Kyle Korver, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Paul George, and Andre Drummond. West: Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Love. * The All-NBA teams (going by two guards, two forwards, and one center) would look like this: First Team: Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Andre Drummond Second Team: Ty Lawson, James Harden, Paul George, Dirk Nowitzki, Robin Lopez Third Team: Isaiah Thomas, Wes Matthews, Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Dwight Howard * The top five rookies are: Victor Oladipo (52 PAA), Stephen Adams (46 PAA), Michael Carter-Williams (36 PAA), Giannis Antetokounmpo (35 PAA), Miroslav Radujica (32 PAA). * Now... who have been the worst players this season? Remember - this doesn't mean they are the worst skilled players, just that they've cost their team the most points. John Lucas III (-47 PAA), Jeff Taylor(-44 PAA), Jarryd Bayless (-43 PAA), Marquis Teague (-34 PAA), and Corey Brewer (-34 PAA). Quick update in my methodology.
I have now made an effort to include steals in my model. Because SportVu does not track the amount of time a player spends guarding a ball handler, I first made the general assumption that a player guards the ball handler roughly the same amount of the time as he himself has the ball. Obviously this is not the case for defensive specialists, or for offensive specialists, so to counterbalance that I added on to that one forth of a players minutes, which represents one half of the time a player spends on defense. This also counterbalances the fact that players can almost randomly get a steal with a bad pass or double team - indeed, before this, big men actually dominated the top ten with respect to steals. Using this time frame, I could then calculate the average number of steals per minute and see who was above and below average. I am still fiddling around with this one - if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know. Kevin Love on the Minnesota Timberwolves has been one of the stars of the league this season. He's near the top of most MVP lists despite the Timberwolves tepid record, and his PER (28.42) and WS (6.5) both rank third overall. My model calculating PAA has him ranked a close fifth overall, but previous to this past week he was ranked as low as thirty. PAA seems to have a lower view of his impact, and it is for this reason I decided to do the first Individual Player Report (IPR) on him.
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AuthorA struggling Celtic's fan Archives
April 2015
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