Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
So The Warriors announcers and their nonsense inspired me to go make use of some of the new niftiness buried deep under walls of useless information and poor site design over at nba.com. Specifically this question started out: where are Boogie's shots coming from? Now I watch every play of every game, and have for 4 years now with Boogie. I have a pretty good innate feel that certain numbnuts who cover other teams do not. But its still useful to see the underlying shotchart stats. And then its even more useful to be able to, with only 3 or 4 wasted clicks per player, be able to go off and compare Boogie's shotchart to that of the other top centers. It was an interesting enough little research project to warrant a thread here I decided. Lots of pretty colors to entertain.
In lots of 5, pretty much the Top 15 true centers, or close to it, with only a couple of fuzzy selections in Nene and Duncan. I omitted the PFs pretending to be centers out East and stuck with the true big men.
First 5:
Demarcus Cousins
[57% Assisted] The man of the hour who inspired this thread, with some interesting and distinct results. First, his inside finishing results are ok now. not great, he's not a dunker. But not the low 50s he was at when he entered the league. Secondly, as anybody who has watched him knows, he's a left block player. Most post palyers have a favorite side, and that's his side of the floor. But now slide out and look at the jumpers in question. As you will see from the rest of these charts, Cousins faceup jumper from the top of the key to the elbows, is actually the single BEST faceup jumper in the league amongst the top big men. He shoots those shots at a 50% clip, which is well above the league average for any player, let alone a big. But what you will also see is that that same range of shot when taken down on either angler/wing plummets in efficiency. This is where actually watching the games explains what stats alone cannot -- baseline/angle 18 footers are not a normal part of Cousins' or the offenses' game. What those stats actually represent are those giveup shots. When he catches the ball, turns to face, and can't get anything going against his opponent, and so just settles for a long jumper, often against the clock. But of course being of the same general distance, all those shots get lumped together with the 50% work from the top of the key, and then you get outside announcers saying stupid things.
Nikola Pekovic
[65% Assisted] So now let's take a look at the human earth mover in Minny, Nikola Pekovic. As Adelman has noted, he's limited, but he knows what he can and cannot do. In this case, what he cannot do is hit a shot, even a midrange postup, further than 8 feet from the hoop, where he like Cousins is a bit groundbound and finishes at a similar percentage.
Joakim Noah
[57% Assisted] This is Joakim Noah, often touted as a good fit to stick next to Cousins. First of all, he's off to a really poor start this year. Secondly, he's one of several of the top centers who actually is really struggling to finish at the rim. And thirdly, for a guy with a rep as a faceup jumpshooter, he hasn't taken many at all, and the ones he has taken and hit, are form the left side of the floor, namely Cousins' side. Which actually throws into some question just how ideal a fit he would be next to Cousins. JT for instance actually shoots his jumpers from the right side of the floor.
Tim Duncan
[58% Assisted] Here's the gory remains of poor old Tim Duncan, who finally had himself a game yesterday, but who has really struggled with efficiency thus far this year. funny thing is he's been better form the right side of the floor than the left, but taken more of his shots from the left anyway -- clearly a low bball IQ player.
Andre Drummond
[68% Assisted] Also titled 154 dunks and layup attempts, and 1 oops from each other part of the floor. Grrr. I'm still not over it. In fact far from getting over it I think I just get madder every day as Drummond's numbers keep growing.
In lots of 5, pretty much the Top 15 true centers, or close to it, with only a couple of fuzzy selections in Nene and Duncan. I omitted the PFs pretending to be centers out East and stuck with the true big men.
First 5:
Demarcus Cousins
[57% Assisted] The man of the hour who inspired this thread, with some interesting and distinct results. First, his inside finishing results are ok now. not great, he's not a dunker. But not the low 50s he was at when he entered the league. Secondly, as anybody who has watched him knows, he's a left block player. Most post palyers have a favorite side, and that's his side of the floor. But now slide out and look at the jumpers in question. As you will see from the rest of these charts, Cousins faceup jumper from the top of the key to the elbows, is actually the single BEST faceup jumper in the league amongst the top big men. He shoots those shots at a 50% clip, which is well above the league average for any player, let alone a big. But what you will also see is that that same range of shot when taken down on either angler/wing plummets in efficiency. This is where actually watching the games explains what stats alone cannot -- baseline/angle 18 footers are not a normal part of Cousins' or the offenses' game. What those stats actually represent are those giveup shots. When he catches the ball, turns to face, and can't get anything going against his opponent, and so just settles for a long jumper, often against the clock. But of course being of the same general distance, all those shots get lumped together with the 50% work from the top of the key, and then you get outside announcers saying stupid things.
Nikola Pekovic
[65% Assisted] So now let's take a look at the human earth mover in Minny, Nikola Pekovic. As Adelman has noted, he's limited, but he knows what he can and cannot do. In this case, what he cannot do is hit a shot, even a midrange postup, further than 8 feet from the hoop, where he like Cousins is a bit groundbound and finishes at a similar percentage.
Joakim Noah
[57% Assisted] This is Joakim Noah, often touted as a good fit to stick next to Cousins. First of all, he's off to a really poor start this year. Secondly, he's one of several of the top centers who actually is really struggling to finish at the rim. And thirdly, for a guy with a rep as a faceup jumpshooter, he hasn't taken many at all, and the ones he has taken and hit, are form the left side of the floor, namely Cousins' side. Which actually throws into some question just how ideal a fit he would be next to Cousins. JT for instance actually shoots his jumpers from the right side of the floor.
Tim Duncan
[58% Assisted] Here's the gory remains of poor old Tim Duncan, who finally had himself a game yesterday, but who has really struggled with efficiency thus far this year. funny thing is he's been better form the right side of the floor than the left, but taken more of his shots from the left anyway -- clearly a low bball IQ player.
Andre Drummond
[68% Assisted] Also titled 154 dunks and layup attempts, and 1 oops from each other part of the floor. Grrr. I'm still not over it. In fact far from getting over it I think I just get madder every day as Drummond's numbers keep growing.
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