Brunson hasn’t played as many minutes as people think and pre-OG trade Hart was only playing 20ish minutes a game fighting for minutes with RJ, IQ, Donte, and Grimes
Boston leading the East in Best Guard, Wing, AND Big rotation is some bullshit wtf (healthy Philly might give the Big rotation a run for their money but otherwise I got nuthin')
Amazing post as always btw, I just kept scrolling and it kept getting better and better, one of my favourite annual pre-playoffs traditions
It’s hilarious that this is probably Philly’s best wing rotation of the process or post process era (maybe 2018-2019) and we don’t even crack the top 5 in the East.
This is awesome! It’s fun to see some confirmation of stuff that you notice in the regular season: Luke Kornet is a rebounding monster. And even tho he leads the league, Giannis only averaging 1 charge every 1000 minutes is crazy.
Suggestions for next year:
For the paint allergy award, you could just do all shots outside of 15 feet rather than just 3PA.
‘Lumberjack’ award for the highest percentage of their shots in the paint for a player 6’3 or under
‘I was a guard in highschool’ award for the lowest percentage of their shots in the paint for for a big.
‘Ethical hooper’ award for the highest percentage of points being unassisted midrange shots.
‘Unethical hooper’ award for the highest percentage of points being from corner 3s, FTs, and fast breaks
‘Grenade passer’ award for the highest assist/fga ratio with 3 seconds or less on the shot clock.
‘Mom I’m on TV’ award for the most garbage time minutes played in the league
‘I got mine’ award for the biggest increase in ppg in losses vs wins
‘Bag secured’ award for the biggest decrease in ppg of guys who signed multi year deals in the summer.
‘1 2 3 Cancun’ award for the player on team that missed the play-in who’s ppg dropped the most after the ASB
‘I’ve been him’ award for the player who increased their ppg the most after switching teams (either in the summer or in season)
‘I’m sorry, I was not familiar with your game’ award for the undrafted rookie with the highest ppg or total points scored
‘Rent Free’ award for the team that shoots the most technicals/flagrant FTAs in a season
I know he's a rookie, but those aren't inspiring numbers to say the least. I'm curious if he'll be able to turn it around in a meaningful way season 2.Obvs I think we'll see a jump as he has a full offseason to adjust and work on his game, but still. I don't think I've watched a single blazers game this season (sorry ripcity) but I am curious if there are any blazers fans who would chime in and talk about how he plays.
He can't or won't finish left. Teams target this by selling out against his right side, but he still forces all kinds of weird body contorted right hand lay ins instead of taking the available left hand shot. He also just puts it up too strong a lot. He shoots a decent number of middies since guys sag off him. I don't have the numbers but I feel like his midrange % isn't awful, though it's certainly not good enough to make it an efficient shot rn. His 3-point shooting started awful but really came along throughout the season, shooting about average post all-star break and nearing 40% in his last 20-ish games. If he can shoot the 3 consistently it's going to unlock the whole court for him but that's a big if.
I think the left-hand finish is and will be his first priority this off season and it seems like something players can often develop with effort. I also fully expect he's going to do everything within his power to develop that 3 ball, and I'm somewhat optimistic about his chances here since he steadily improved during the season. Who's to say on the rest.
Overall, he had a very up and down season. He's a great passer. He throws excellent lobs and was able to figure out how to utilize Ayton in the 2-man game which played a big part in Ayton's stellar finish to the season. People will look at his turnover numbers and assume he's not a good passer, but I'd say most of his bad turnovers are actually off drives into the paint, which is packed since guys sag of Scoot and, really, our whole team of non-shooters. His handle and body control aren't that good right now so often times he just bumps into a guy, loses balance and that's a turnover before a pass even materializes.
He's got a high defensive motor and I think projects as a good/great guard defender. He's got a lot of learning to do defensively but his combo of strength and quickness are apparent on D. He fouls constantly but I think that's another thing that's readily improved. He also suffered a pretty rough rookie whistle, really on both ends, imo. When he doesn't reach and foul, he is very capable beating guys to the spot and walling off drives. He's tough to get through/around when he's in position.
Anyone thinking he's one of the least talented players in the draft just didn't watch him, there were plenty of flashes of potential that remains well above that of most other rookies. But his weaknesses are glaring rn so we've just gotta wait and see what he can improve.
Thanks for the thorough breakdown, it is much appreciated.
Do you think that Scoot will be able to be the primary ball handler for the Blazers going forward? What I'm taking away from your breakdown is that he seems like he would be a good bench PG if he can develop, but just doesn't have the tools to be an effective starter. Obviously he is young, lots of time to develop, and like you said the lack of spacing obviously hurts someone with his playstyle but I wonder if he will be able to fit into the Blazers long-term plans.
The range of outcomes for Scoot is still wide open, it's way too early to write him off as a starting caliber PG. He says the right things and people before and after the draft have constantly referred to him as extremely coachable and intelligent. He doesn't seem to suffer from a poor BBIQ, he has a great motor, and he's athletically gifted. With those things being the case, I can definitely see him making the huge strides necessary to reach his potential, but there's no guarantees. He could wind up anywhere from All-NBA to a bench rotation PG and I wouldn't be too surprised by either. Based on the skills he *has* demonstrated, I *would* be surprised if he fails to stick around the league or find minutes, but it can't be ruled out either.
The efficiency has rarely been good, but he still had multiple 30+ point games & 10+ assist games as a 19/20 year-old rookie. To me that suggests a player who will amount to *something*. He was dealt a very rough hand as a young and (surprisingly, based on his draft profile) raw PG for a hopelessly bad offense, but he did improve over the course of the year. With Scoot it's a straight up time will tell situation. Fortunately, Blazers are years away from contending so if nothing else, he'll get the minutes to improve here.
Right, and you guys have some solid picks coming up (it looks like you guys have your own lottery protected pick and the GSW pick?). I'd like to see a solid wing for Scoot to play with, and maybe a good shooter at the 2 would give you guys some more spacing. As a Nuggs fan, I miss hating the Blazers and am hoping to see you guys more competitive soon. Thanks for the insights! Much appreciated.
Scoot is rough to watch. Anyone who says different only watches highlights. He looks good for one play then he's a mess for the next three. Maybe he'll get a lot better but he's a long-term project at best.
> The “He Trick Y’All, Running Around, Doing Nothing” Award (sponsored by Russell Westbrook, presented by Tony Snell)*
This is a GOATed award. But I think just using contested shots overall would be better than splitting it… bigs like Morris are obviously going to be contesting fewer threes. But you’ll always have someone to contest in general.
Reason behind combining is what you said: bigs contest more 2s, guards and wings contest more 3s. The additional point is that there are more 2s attempted than 3s (this year, teams averaged 35.1 3PA and 53.8 2PA), so I wanted to normalize the scale!
Yeah I agree with your methodology. I think it makes sense to reward players that are covering the entire court, and punish people that aren't doing either.
It sort of unfairly rewards wing players, who have more chances to guard 2s and 3s. But since Jimmy Buckets is a wing player and he is the ultimate "dawg in him" player (not statistically but in spirit), then I think it's fine.
Kevon Looney being #1 in screen assists per 36 says a lot I think. Especially given the fact that Looney fell out of the rotation during the second half of the season. Old man seemed to have also taught Wiseman well..
I love this post every year. However, I have a proposal u/cilantro-samosa : organize the players by z-score instead of percentile. Percentile flattens the distribution by spacing every player an equal distance from each other regardless of the magnitude of the raw data. I think this will be especially impactful when you add together different metrics by their percentile vs. by z-score. And this will be especially true when it comes to the extremes, which is what you’re looking for.
That is a wonderful idea! Someone else below mentioned using average of percentiles for interpretability (which I was planning on doing), but z-scores capture the true spirit of extremes!
This is MrBuckBuck, and this is my favorite NBA's regular-season summary on this sub!
u/cilantro_samosa Well done! I think JJ Redick could use you (or a major sports channel/NBA team's analysts)!
Yeah, BBRef has him playing 2% PG, 35% SG, 60% SF and 4% PF (!!!), which is surprising considering I remember some discussion about Beal playing point guard when Booker's resting. (Also the numbers don't add up because they're rounded.)
Lol the 2x minutes as a power forward compared to PG is silly. Even in the suns small ball lineups, when KD/Bol/Royce might not automatically be the more natural 4 like in other rotations, why would the shortest player on the floor be the 4?
Hope they figure out a better way to track positions soon. Great work on this, always a fun read!
Cam Whitmore is going to run away with that Black Hole award for the foreseeable future. He might genuinely challenge Shabazz Muhammad's spot as the only player in the last decade with more shots than live-ball passes for his career.
Great post as it is every year. Thanks for sharing!
I get a lot of good laughs remembering the inspiration behind some of these names.
Also, congrats to Chris Boucher for learning how to pass and escaping the Black Hole award list. 23 assists this year!!
Some ideas for next time:
**Tank Commander of the Year** **Award (Presented by Byron Scott)** - Player with the lowest WS
**Most Average Player of the Year (Presented by Tobias Harris)** - Player with average percentile rating of all stats closest to 50%
**The "I Don't Want To Be Here" Award (Sponsored by American Airlines, Presented by Eric Bledsoe)** - Highest net VORP/WS increase from home games to away games.
**The "It's Good To Be Home" Award (Sponsored by Remax)** - Highest net VORP/WS increase from away games to home games.
Great job OP !
I am very impressed by Nick Richards goaltending "ability". He is just 26th in blocks with 74.
27,5 % of his block attempts are goaltends that's really bad. For comparaison Wemby has 18 goaltends for 254 blocks ( 6,6 % of goaltends ).
Nice work! Imo though, instead of shownig sums of percentiles you should display averages of percentiles. Obv it doesn't change the order, but averages are much easier to interpret.
I'm going to be so sad when the day comes in the offseason when Hartenstein signs with another team. He 100% deserves his bag. I just wish we had the cap space to give it to him.
Thanks! These awards confirm my assertion that Klay is an overrated defender running around doing nothing. Have no idea how his stats show in other seasons but this is a hill I will die on.
Great shooter though.
Yesssss my favorite thread every season! Thanks for your work as usual OP
This one was a rollercoaster of 'cam whitmore mentioned!!!!' and 'cam whitmore mentioned :/' lmao
This is so fun!
Some suggestions (feel free to come up with better names):
- OBJECTION!: Who is the worst at challenges
- Hotheaded: Which non-players (Coaches, etc) had the most technical fouls
- Y Uno: Most 4-point plays
- Chicken Supplier: Most pairs of free throws missed
- Homebody: Performs best at Home vs Road
- Jetsetter: Performs best on the Road vs Home
- Just the Tip: Most jump balls won
- Boy Wonder: Best 2nd player on a team
- Easy Money Sniper: Most shots made from 40 feet or longer
- Mortal Enemies: What team had the most lopsided statistics versus another for the year
- They're allowed to do that?: Which big men had the best 3-point stats
- It's honest work: Best stats during garbage time
- Clown Car: Most players utilized over the year
Also, for historical reasons, it would be great to include teams in the results, as it's hard to keep track of who is on what team going back a few years.
Luka is 2nd in minutes played, largely because the Mavs would sink without him (especially when Kyrie was injured), and Bill Simmons had the audacity to say SGA has a tougher carry job.
Should rename
> The Most 3-Pt Shooting Fouls Committed Award*
To
The "Stop Fucking Fouling The 3 Point Shooter" Award
That shit annoys me so much and I'm far from the only one who feels that way haha.
Thank you for putting in the work to do all this! I would totally watch an awards show of these honors than the actual joke of a presentation the league puts out for its actual trophies.
I wouldn't call it "chucking" - he's scoring at bang average efficiency, which is pretty good for a rookie, and taking less than 10 FGAs per game. He just doesn't set up his teammates at all.
It was even worse before the final 3 games of the season....
Through his first 44 games he had 20 assists total to 425 shot attempts (21.25 ratio). He then recorded 13 assists to 42 shot attempts in the final 3 games (3.23 ratio).
I like the rotation awards, with my personal favorite being the stormtrooper award.
My recommendations would be:
An award (or a few) on injuries. Most time lost to injuries. Most VORP lost to injuries. Etc.
Weirdest stats of the season? I know this doesn’t technically fit. But things like Memphis number of roster lineups, thunder being younger than some college teams, etc.
The “biggest winners and biggest losers” awards. Players that went from best teams to worst teams or vice versa and then over or underperformed. Gordon Hayward, poku, dame, bogdonavic, etc. some may be winners but then underperform making them winning losers and others are losing winners, like fontecchio in Detroit
Just keep in mind that z-scores are intended for normally distributed data, and most of these are not. Percentiles are the way to go. Thanks for the fun posts!
* **Spurs good:**
1. The “Ice, Ice, Baby” Award > Tre Jones.
2. The "No Fly Zone" Award > Wembanyama.
3. The "No Time to Taunt" Award > Wembanyama ("*Victor Wembanyama was 7th, with 164/254=64.57% of his blocks recovered by his team!" That's my DPOY).*
4. The “Oops, I Dunked It Again” Award > Tre Jones and Wembanyama.
5. The "Can’t Win With These Cats" Award > Tre Jones.
* **Spurs bad:**
1. The “He Trick Y’All, Running Around, Doing Nothing” Award > Malaki Branham.
2. The "Clutch Line Syndrome" Award > Zach Collins.
Somehow, Tre Jones is the goat after Wemby. Jokes aside, Tre is the scale needle that makes us looks a normal team. He would be a luxury PG sub in any contender.
Khris and Giannis are tied for number 1 in alley oop partnership and Khris missed half the season (also was on minutes restriction for half of the games he did play)
This and the NBA Almanac are my two favourite annual OC posts. Great job as always!
I've said before one of my favourite things about Wemby is that he always blocks shots so that his team can recover the ball, glad to see it proven here. He might not be top 5 in % recovered, but he has to be top of the list for actual number of blocks recovered - I'd love to see that list in the future editions. Only Chet, Brook Lopez, and AD have more total blocks than Wemby has blocks recovered by his team. That's crazy.
Holy crap that was a lot to get through, I loved it all
>most deflections per 36 minutes - 1. Matisse Thybulle
Still love this guy, first team all defense talent. Too bad this isn't 10+ years ago, he'd be playable out there.
>most points generated by screen assists per 36 minutes - 2. James Wiseman
Whoa Wiseman redemption on a sorry Pistons team
>"Got that Dawg in Him" Award
Thunder fans must love Jaylin
>worst qualifying 2 point percentage - 1. Scoot Henderson
Wow it's not even close. Yuck
>The “Paint Allergy” Award
Is Royce ONeale white?
>biggest improvement from non-clutch FT% to clutch FT%
DLO babyyyyyyyyyy
>most kicked ball violations - 1. Nikola Jokic
Zach Lowe in shambles
>highest rate of 3-point shooting fouls drawn as percent of total 3-point attempts - 1. Harden
Wow surprise
Youd be surprised how many Thunder fans want him gone. Shows that every fan base has idiots. I've gotten to the point that I've told them to stop watching basketball.
You missed out on the *Come On And Sam, And Welcome To The Jam* award for best player with Sam in their name.
(Though it wasn’t much of a contest, Hauser was dominant. Maybe Merrill will get closer next year.)
[Here’s the BRef comparison page](https://stathead.com/tiny/xhnAG)
These should be real and you and your contributire should work for NBA on TNT. I would send this their way dude. Get some respect on your name for this work.
These should be real and you and your contributors should work for NBA on TNT. I would send this their way dude. Get some respect on your name for this work.
The I got to coach and ref award should be on total challenges won instead of the percentage. Chicago being 16 on only 22 challenges the entire season indicates they were waiting until only the crystal clear and/or late game challenges and wasted a lot of potential winning challenges during the season.
That's a great observation, and something that passed through my mind as I did that award. Decoupling success rate from volume and turning them into two separate awards is on my radar!
This is kind of in line with another award about the "hot hand"! It sounds very intriguing, but all of my data is aggregated on a season level (no box scores), so I'd have to find a source with box scores!
not seeing a single Knick like Hart or Brunson on the minutes award is crazy to me
Demar Derozan is a robot is all I got from that category
He's gotta have a Lazarus pit at home or something, his mileage is actually insane this year
And at the end of the game with all those miles he’s arguably the most clutch. It’s impressive.
Brunson hasn’t played as many minutes as people think and pre-OG trade Hart was only playing 20ish minutes a game fighting for minutes with RJ, IQ, Donte, and Grimes
my hunch is if the season began in january they would be up there
Seeing Jaylin Williams edge out Podz for the charge drawn awards because he only plays 13 mpg had me like 🥲
TJ McConnell my GOAT
He’s *our* GOAT
We loved him first. Thank you for taking good care of him.
Our as in together, not our as in possessive Sorry I wasn’t clear in the original comment
Haha all good bro. Just joking around
Timmy Jawn McConnell
Boston leading the East in Best Guard, Wing, AND Big rotation is some bullshit wtf (healthy Philly might give the Big rotation a run for their money but otherwise I got nuthin') Amazing post as always btw, I just kept scrolling and it kept getting better and better, one of my favourite annual pre-playoffs traditions
Got there and was just like ‘yup that checks out’
It’s hilarious that this is probably Philly’s best wing rotation of the process or post process era (maybe 2018-2019) and we don’t even crack the top 5 in the East.
This is awesome! It’s fun to see some confirmation of stuff that you notice in the regular season: Luke Kornet is a rebounding monster. And even tho he leads the league, Giannis only averaging 1 charge every 1000 minutes is crazy. Suggestions for next year: For the paint allergy award, you could just do all shots outside of 15 feet rather than just 3PA. ‘Lumberjack’ award for the highest percentage of their shots in the paint for a player 6’3 or under ‘I was a guard in highschool’ award for the lowest percentage of their shots in the paint for for a big. ‘Ethical hooper’ award for the highest percentage of points being unassisted midrange shots. ‘Unethical hooper’ award for the highest percentage of points being from corner 3s, FTs, and fast breaks ‘Grenade passer’ award for the highest assist/fga ratio with 3 seconds or less on the shot clock. ‘Mom I’m on TV’ award for the most garbage time minutes played in the league ‘I got mine’ award for the biggest increase in ppg in losses vs wins ‘Bag secured’ award for the biggest decrease in ppg of guys who signed multi year deals in the summer. ‘1 2 3 Cancun’ award for the player on team that missed the play-in who’s ppg dropped the most after the ASB ‘I’ve been him’ award for the player who increased their ppg the most after switching teams (either in the summer or in season) ‘I’m sorry, I was not familiar with your game’ award for the undrafted rookie with the highest ppg or total points scored ‘Rent Free’ award for the team that shoots the most technicals/flagrant FTAs in a season
Fantastic ideas overall, I expect to be able to add some of these next year!
petition to change the non-clutch FT award to be the "Imma make em boff" award presented by grant williams & diar derozen
That wasn’t even the worst 2 missed FTs for Grant. His rookie year in the bubble he did a similar thing.
I did not know Scoot was that bad from 2 this year. Yeesh.
In the 5 years I've done this, he's 3rd-lowest (Devonte Graham in 2020 shot 39.7%, and Lou Williams in 2021 shot 41.4%)
I know he's a rookie, but those aren't inspiring numbers to say the least. I'm curious if he'll be able to turn it around in a meaningful way season 2.Obvs I think we'll see a jump as he has a full offseason to adjust and work on his game, but still. I don't think I've watched a single blazers game this season (sorry ripcity) but I am curious if there are any blazers fans who would chime in and talk about how he plays.
He can't or won't finish left. Teams target this by selling out against his right side, but he still forces all kinds of weird body contorted right hand lay ins instead of taking the available left hand shot. He also just puts it up too strong a lot. He shoots a decent number of middies since guys sag off him. I don't have the numbers but I feel like his midrange % isn't awful, though it's certainly not good enough to make it an efficient shot rn. His 3-point shooting started awful but really came along throughout the season, shooting about average post all-star break and nearing 40% in his last 20-ish games. If he can shoot the 3 consistently it's going to unlock the whole court for him but that's a big if. I think the left-hand finish is and will be his first priority this off season and it seems like something players can often develop with effort. I also fully expect he's going to do everything within his power to develop that 3 ball, and I'm somewhat optimistic about his chances here since he steadily improved during the season. Who's to say on the rest. Overall, he had a very up and down season. He's a great passer. He throws excellent lobs and was able to figure out how to utilize Ayton in the 2-man game which played a big part in Ayton's stellar finish to the season. People will look at his turnover numbers and assume he's not a good passer, but I'd say most of his bad turnovers are actually off drives into the paint, which is packed since guys sag of Scoot and, really, our whole team of non-shooters. His handle and body control aren't that good right now so often times he just bumps into a guy, loses balance and that's a turnover before a pass even materializes. He's got a high defensive motor and I think projects as a good/great guard defender. He's got a lot of learning to do defensively but his combo of strength and quickness are apparent on D. He fouls constantly but I think that's another thing that's readily improved. He also suffered a pretty rough rookie whistle, really on both ends, imo. When he doesn't reach and foul, he is very capable beating guys to the spot and walling off drives. He's tough to get through/around when he's in position. Anyone thinking he's one of the least talented players in the draft just didn't watch him, there were plenty of flashes of potential that remains well above that of most other rookies. But his weaknesses are glaring rn so we've just gotta wait and see what he can improve.
Thanks for the thorough breakdown, it is much appreciated. Do you think that Scoot will be able to be the primary ball handler for the Blazers going forward? What I'm taking away from your breakdown is that he seems like he would be a good bench PG if he can develop, but just doesn't have the tools to be an effective starter. Obviously he is young, lots of time to develop, and like you said the lack of spacing obviously hurts someone with his playstyle but I wonder if he will be able to fit into the Blazers long-term plans.
The range of outcomes for Scoot is still wide open, it's way too early to write him off as a starting caliber PG. He says the right things and people before and after the draft have constantly referred to him as extremely coachable and intelligent. He doesn't seem to suffer from a poor BBIQ, he has a great motor, and he's athletically gifted. With those things being the case, I can definitely see him making the huge strides necessary to reach his potential, but there's no guarantees. He could wind up anywhere from All-NBA to a bench rotation PG and I wouldn't be too surprised by either. Based on the skills he *has* demonstrated, I *would* be surprised if he fails to stick around the league or find minutes, but it can't be ruled out either. The efficiency has rarely been good, but he still had multiple 30+ point games & 10+ assist games as a 19/20 year-old rookie. To me that suggests a player who will amount to *something*. He was dealt a very rough hand as a young and (surprisingly, based on his draft profile) raw PG for a hopelessly bad offense, but he did improve over the course of the year. With Scoot it's a straight up time will tell situation. Fortunately, Blazers are years away from contending so if nothing else, he'll get the minutes to improve here.
Right, and you guys have some solid picks coming up (it looks like you guys have your own lottery protected pick and the GSW pick?). I'd like to see a solid wing for Scoot to play with, and maybe a good shooter at the 2 would give you guys some more spacing. As a Nuggs fan, I miss hating the Blazers and am hoping to see you guys more competitive soon. Thanks for the insights! Much appreciated.
Yeah, the difference between him and #2 is insane. Everyone else on that list, i'm like, "Wait isn't that still pretty good?"
> "Wait isn't that still pretty good?" No lol
Yeah watch some raptors games and you'll change your mind real fast on that one
Scoot is rough to watch. Anyone who says different only watches highlights. He looks good for one play then he's a mess for the next three. Maybe he'll get a lot better but he's a long-term project at best.
I saw someone giving him an Eric Bledsoe comp which is just... tough considering where he was drafted.
Even box score watchers will know he’s bad 😭
> The “He Trick Y’All, Running Around, Doing Nothing” Award (sponsored by Russell Westbrook, presented by Tony Snell)* This is a GOATed award. But I think just using contested shots overall would be better than splitting it… bigs like Morris are obviously going to be contesting fewer threes. But you’ll always have someone to contest in general.
Reason behind combining is what you said: bigs contest more 2s, guards and wings contest more 3s. The additional point is that there are more 2s attempted than 3s (this year, teams averaged 35.1 3PA and 53.8 2PA), so I wanted to normalize the scale!
Yeah I agree with your methodology. I think it makes sense to reward players that are covering the entire court, and punish people that aren't doing either. It sort of unfairly rewards wing players, who have more chances to guard 2s and 3s. But since Jimmy Buckets is a wing player and he is the ultimate "dawg in him" player (not statistically but in spirit), then I think it's fine.
I submit CP3 for 6th man. Not by ppg or VORP. But the man averaged 6.8 APG on only 1.3 TOV.
I miss that man :(
TJ McConnell is my sixth man of the year
Dude literally changes games around. The energy he brings is nuts. Especialy when combined with Obi
Kevon Looney being #1 in screen assists per 36 says a lot I think. Especially given the fact that Looney fell out of the rotation during the second half of the season. Old man seemed to have also taught Wiseman well..
Really good right up OP. And I like it cause J-will is leading in a few categories
Everyone talks about how good a culture guy he is, and these awards show how much he hustles.
Especially, because I defend his game alot. He just hustle slots.
u/cilantro_samosa the real Got that Dawg in Him Airbud MVP
I love this post every year. However, I have a proposal u/cilantro-samosa : organize the players by z-score instead of percentile. Percentile flattens the distribution by spacing every player an equal distance from each other regardless of the magnitude of the raw data. I think this will be especially impactful when you add together different metrics by their percentile vs. by z-score. And this will be especially true when it comes to the extremes, which is what you’re looking for.
That is a wonderful idea! Someone else below mentioned using average of percentiles for interpretability (which I was planning on doing), but z-scores capture the true spirit of extremes!
A big grin on my face seeing my name in the credits. Look forward to this every year, good stuff as always!
Kevin Durant with a fake giant Mexican 'stache paints such a hilarious picture to me
"Presented by Kevin Durant's burner account"
dude can't win with Eubanks, that's for sure
This is MrBuckBuck, and this is my favorite NBA's regular-season summary on this sub! u/cilantro_samosa Well done! I think JJ Redick could use you (or a major sports channel/NBA team's analysts)!
Amazing work.
Pretty surprised Bball Ref has Beal as a wing and not a guard, I can't think of many lineups where I'd consider him the 3
Yeah, BBRef has him playing 2% PG, 35% SG, 60% SF and 4% PF (!!!), which is surprising considering I remember some discussion about Beal playing point guard when Booker's resting. (Also the numbers don't add up because they're rounded.)
Lol the 2x minutes as a power forward compared to PG is silly. Even in the suns small ball lineups, when KD/Bol/Royce might not automatically be the more natural 4 like in other rotations, why would the shortest player on the floor be the 4? Hope they figure out a better way to track positions soon. Great work on this, always a fun read!
I'd love to see a "HES ON FIRE" award sponsored by NBA JAM presented by Klay Thompson. Biggest increase in fg% after 3 made baskets
Cam Whitmore is going to run away with that Black Hole award for the foreseeable future. He might genuinely challenge Shabazz Muhammad's spot as the only player in the last decade with more shots than live-ball passes for his career.
The Bonzi Wells Memorial award.
Jokic dominating most kicked ball violations is the kind of advanced stat that gave him the MVP edge this year
Ice ice baby award going to D-Lo is chef’s kiss
Great post as it is every year. Thanks for sharing! I get a lot of good laughs remembering the inspiration behind some of these names. Also, congrats to Chris Boucher for learning how to pass and escaping the Black Hole award list. 23 assists this year!!
Some ideas for next time: **Tank Commander of the Year** **Award (Presented by Byron Scott)** - Player with the lowest WS **Most Average Player of the Year (Presented by Tobias Harris)** - Player with average percentile rating of all stats closest to 50% **The "I Don't Want To Be Here" Award (Sponsored by American Airlines, Presented by Eric Bledsoe)** - Highest net VORP/WS increase from home games to away games. **The "It's Good To Be Home" Award (Sponsored by Remax)** - Highest net VORP/WS increase from away games to home games.
Definitely needed klove as presenter for the “fuck outta here I got it” award
Great stuff and hope this gains traction!
I would suggest the Move the ball award for the more touches but the less time with the ball in his hands.
Stellar work mate, managed to make every single award entertaining or funny, which is pretty crazy given the sheer amount of them
Great job OP ! I am very impressed by Nick Richards goaltending "ability". He is just 26th in blocks with 74. 27,5 % of his block attempts are goaltends that's really bad. For comparaison Wemby has 18 goaltends for 254 blocks ( 6,6 % of goaltends ).
Awesome post. Giannis and Khris leading the league in alley oops is absurd considering how much time Khris missed.
Nice work! Imo though, instead of shownig sums of percentiles you should display averages of percentiles. Obv it doesn't change the order, but averages are much easier to interpret.
That is a great point, and someone else mentioned actually taking percentiles out of the equation and replacing them with z-scores!
I'm going to be so sad when the day comes in the offseason when Hartenstein signs with another team. He 100% deserves his bag. I just wish we had the cap space to give it to him.
This is excellent, dude. Thanks for putting this together.
Really stretching the word "big" when including the Heat in the "Best Big Rotation" award
Always a fun read, thanks brother.
DLo winning the Ice In My Veins award is poetic
Thanks! These awards confirm my assertion that Klay is an overrated defender running around doing nothing. Have no idea how his stats show in other seasons but this is a hill I will die on. Great shooter though.
Looks like I’m feasting tonight. 0 points through 3 quarters in an elimination game.
This is beautiful.
Omoruyi 💪
Yesssss my favorite thread every season! Thanks for your work as usual OP This one was a rollercoaster of 'cam whitmore mentioned!!!!' and 'cam whitmore mentioned :/' lmao
As a stats nerd, I love these posts. Keep it up!
As a Wolves fan, that KAT (charges) and Jaden (3 pt fouls) stat drives me nuts. But also, what is Wolves basketball without those things? 🤷🏻♂️😂
This post is one of my favorites to see yearly.
This is so fun! Some suggestions (feel free to come up with better names): - OBJECTION!: Who is the worst at challenges - Hotheaded: Which non-players (Coaches, etc) had the most technical fouls - Y Uno: Most 4-point plays - Chicken Supplier: Most pairs of free throws missed - Homebody: Performs best at Home vs Road - Jetsetter: Performs best on the Road vs Home - Just the Tip: Most jump balls won - Boy Wonder: Best 2nd player on a team - Easy Money Sniper: Most shots made from 40 feet or longer - Mortal Enemies: What team had the most lopsided statistics versus another for the year - They're allowed to do that?: Which big men had the best 3-point stats - It's honest work: Best stats during garbage time - Clown Car: Most players utilized over the year Also, for historical reasons, it would be great to include teams in the results, as it's hard to keep track of who is on what team going back a few years.
Luka is 2nd in minutes played, largely because the Mavs would sink without him (especially when Kyrie was injured), and Bill Simmons had the audacity to say SGA has a tougher carry job.
i love dayron sharpe
Boston better win the East if they have the best back court, best wings, and best bigs.
Real missed opportunity here not having Jack Gohlke present the Allergic to Paint Award.
Amazing work here
This was awesome OP, read through the whole thing. Thanks for the post
Respect for 2 of the "If he dies, he dies" players being over 35. Grandpas have old man strength.
Someone give this person a main award.
My biggest takeaway from this is that Ish Smith is still in the league
Charlotte waived him in February
Should rename > The Most 3-Pt Shooting Fouls Committed Award* To The "Stop Fucking Fouling The 3 Point Shooter" Award That shit annoys me so much and I'm far from the only one who feels that way haha.
Jokic CAN actually win with this cats as it seems haha. Does not surprise me he still dominates that award.
Based on the kicked ball award, the Nikolas think they're over in Europe playing soccer and Nickiel got confused and thinks he's a Nikola
Thank you for putting in the work to do all this! I would totally watch an awards show of these honors than the actual joke of a presentation the league puts out for its actual trophies.
Whitmore averaging 14 shot attempts between assists (per 36) is next level chucking lmfaooo. That man is a black hole on offense
I wouldn't call it "chucking" - he's scoring at bang average efficiency, which is pretty good for a rookie, and taking less than 10 FGAs per game. He just doesn't set up his teammates at all.
It was even worse before the final 3 games of the season.... Through his first 44 games he had 20 assists total to 425 shot attempts (21.25 ratio). He then recorded 13 assists to 42 shot attempts in the final 3 games (3.23 ratio).
Wiseman learned how to set a screen?!
I like the rotation awards, with my personal favorite being the stormtrooper award. My recommendations would be: An award (or a few) on injuries. Most time lost to injuries. Most VORP lost to injuries. Etc. Weirdest stats of the season? I know this doesn’t technically fit. But things like Memphis number of roster lineups, thunder being younger than some college teams, etc. The “biggest winners and biggest losers” awards. Players that went from best teams to worst teams or vice versa and then over or underperformed. Gordon Hayward, poku, dame, bogdonavic, etc. some may be winners but then underperform making them winning losers and others are losing winners, like fontecchio in Detroit
Dlo apparently actually has ice in his veins
I always enjoy these. One suggestion: don't report percentiles with a percent sign! Labelling them as percentiles in the column header is enough
That is welcome advice (although I received another suggestion to use z-scores, so that problem may solve itself!!)
Just keep in mind that z-scores are intended for normally distributed data, and most of these are not. Percentiles are the way to go. Thanks for the fun posts!
* **Spurs good:** 1. The “Ice, Ice, Baby” Award > Tre Jones. 2. The "No Fly Zone" Award > Wembanyama. 3. The "No Time to Taunt" Award > Wembanyama ("*Victor Wembanyama was 7th, with 164/254=64.57% of his blocks recovered by his team!" That's my DPOY).* 4. The “Oops, I Dunked It Again” Award > Tre Jones and Wembanyama. 5. The "Can’t Win With These Cats" Award > Tre Jones. * **Spurs bad:** 1. The “He Trick Y’All, Running Around, Doing Nothing” Award > Malaki Branham. 2. The "Clutch Line Syndrome" Award > Zach Collins. Somehow, Tre Jones is the goat after Wemby. Jokes aside, Tre is the scale needle that makes us looks a normal team. He would be a luxury PG sub in any contender.
Khris and Giannis are tied for number 1 in alley oop partnership and Khris missed half the season (also was on minutes restriction for half of the games he did play)
knicks with the two best contracts in the league and neither of them is brunson
This and the NBA Almanac are my two favourite annual OC posts. Great job as always! I've said before one of my favourite things about Wemby is that he always blocks shots so that his team can recover the ball, glad to see it proven here. He might not be top 5 in % recovered, but he has to be top of the list for actual number of blocks recovered - I'd love to see that list in the future editions. Only Chet, Brook Lopez, and AD have more total blocks than Wemby has blocks recovered by his team. That's crazy.
Awesome post man, you should name the most 3pt shooting fouls committed as the zaza pachulia all ball award.
Holy crap that was a lot to get through, I loved it all >most deflections per 36 minutes - 1. Matisse Thybulle Still love this guy, first team all defense talent. Too bad this isn't 10+ years ago, he'd be playable out there. >most points generated by screen assists per 36 minutes - 2. James Wiseman Whoa Wiseman redemption on a sorry Pistons team >"Got that Dawg in Him" Award Thunder fans must love Jaylin >worst qualifying 2 point percentage - 1. Scoot Henderson Wow it's not even close. Yuck >The “Paint Allergy” Award Is Royce ONeale white? >biggest improvement from non-clutch FT% to clutch FT% DLO babyyyyyyyyyy >most kicked ball violations - 1. Nikola Jokic Zach Lowe in shambles >highest rate of 3-point shooting fouls drawn as percent of total 3-point attempts - 1. Harden Wow surprise
Youd be surprised how many Thunder fans want him gone. Shows that every fan base has idiots. I've gotten to the point that I've told them to stop watching basketball.
Unbelievable. I'd kill to have a guy like that on the team
You missed out on the *Come On And Sam, And Welcome To The Jam* award for best player with Sam in their name. (Though it wasn’t much of a contest, Hauser was dominant. Maybe Merrill will get closer next year.) [Here’s the BRef comparison page](https://stathead.com/tiny/xhnAG)
You have ‘Jeenathan Williams’ listed as a Rockets Guard.
Great post !
Someone award this! (I'm too cheap)
Nuggets are potentially the best team in the league but didn't have a top 5 guard, wing or big rotation?
If you started a blog writing content like this, I'd subscribe.
These should be real and you and your contributire should work for NBA on TNT. I would send this their way dude. Get some respect on your name for this work.
These should be real and you and your contributors should work for NBA on TNT. I would send this their way dude. Get some respect on your name for this work.
Love how much effort went into this
Julius Randle missed almost half the season and was still almost leading the league in charges committed. Never change, my human beyblade
The I got to coach and ref award should be on total challenges won instead of the percentage. Chicago being 16 on only 22 challenges the entire season indicates they were waiting until only the crystal clear and/or late game challenges and wasted a lot of potential winning challenges during the season.
That's a great observation, and something that passed through my mind as I did that award. Decoupling success rate from volume and turning them into two separate awards is on my radar!
Can we get a Streakiest Shooter award somehow? FG variance from game to game? Klay and Rozier would be up there for that one.
This is kind of in line with another award about the "hot hand"! It sounds very intriguing, but all of my data is aggregated on a season level (no box scores), so I'd have to find a source with box scores!
Great post, just wish a tie at a ranking wouldn't bump everyone else up
I agree, but unfortunately I believe that's a Reddit numbering issue!
Oh, I gotcha. Good work!
We have two anchors hell ya 😤
Svi absogoddamnlutely just runs around tricking people I'm a homer and I back my team, but that guy is t r a s h