Strangest Stats from the Young 2014-15 NBA Season
Let's get weird...with NBA numbers.
Small samples beget statistical oddities, and the 2014-15 campaign, not yet at the quarter pole, is rife with surprising and downright unusual digits. This isn't just an exercise in the peculiar, though; just as important as the bizarre figures themselves are the tales they tell.
For example, through some seriously strange stats, we learn that Tony Parker has become an unfair matchup. We can also see that DeMarcus Cousins forces defenders to resort to unsavory tactics to stop him.
In addition, the numbers will show that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is a better shooter than James Harden, that LaMarcus Aldridge typically beats his five-year Lipper averages and that Marvin Williams may have once been a mercenary in feudal Japan.
I'm not making any of this up. Just check the numbers.
Tony Parker Bombing Away
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Among players who've attempted at least 20 triples this season, Tony Parker's 63.6 percent accuracy rate is the best in the league, per NBA.com. Yes, that Tony Parker—the one whose lone offensive weakness for the entirety of what will probably be a Hall of Fame career has been the long ball.
The San Antonio Spurs point guard has never shot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc in a season, and his career accuracy rate from Treysville is just 32.1 percent.
This is the kind of stat that screams "outlier." Nobody's going to shoot over 60 percent from distance this season, but there's reason to believe some of Parker's long-range prowess is here to stay. First of all, he's showing confidence in his perimeter game that we haven't seen in a decade.
Over 13 percent of his shots have come from behind the three-point line this season, the highest proportion we've seen since a younger, wilder Parker fired away with far less discretion in the 2004-05 season. Perhaps Parker figured something out over the summer, showed Gregg Popovich and got a greener light than he's had in a while.
Also notable: Parker is maximizing efficiency by taking a huge number of his threes from the corner: 68.2 percent of them, to be exact. And every single one of those corner threes has been of the catch-and-shoot variety, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
Catch-and-shoot triples from the corner? Sounds like a recipe for made threes to me.
Houston Rockets' Elite Defensive Rating
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The Houston Rockets, renowned for running, gunning and not really caring so much about getting stops, have the No. 2 defensive rating in the league, per NBA.com.
Dwight Howard (who certainly seemed healthier and bouncier than he had in more than two years) was the main reason for that remarkable figure. Credit also goes to Patrick Beverley, Trevor Ariza and the much more engaged James Harden—all of whom now face the prospect of operating without a safety net behind them.
With Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com reporting that Dwight Howard received a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection designed to speed up healing and relieve pain in his troublesome right knee, the Rockets defense may soon see its improbable early-season strength diminishing.
D12 is out indefinitely, and the Rockets will turn to some combination of small ball and undrafted rookie Tarik Black to anchor what's been, to this point, a stunningly stout defense.
Howard has had in-season PRP before, but the practice is generally one we hear of more often in the offseason.
We'll see how the Rockets cope in a hurry; four of their next eight games come against teams with top-10 offenses. The Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors are all on the slate over the next couple of weeks.
DeMarcus Cousins: Foul Magnet
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We're stretching the parameters a bit here, as DeMarcus Cousins being fouled a lot isn't particularly strange. But the fact that he's been hacked an average of 8.2 times per game this season, according to NBA.com—the highest figure in the league—simply has to be mentioned.
Cousins plays 31.5 minutes per night, fewer than the rest of the players who rank in the top 10 in fouls drawn. That means, per minute, DMC is drawing illegal contact at an even higher rate than his per-game number indicates.
Boogie has cranked the physicality up a notch this season, bullying his way into traffic and flat-out overpowering the competition like he never has before. The result, it seems, is that defenses simply haven't figured out a way to stop him that fits within the rules.
"DeMarcus is better,” said Bulls center Joakim Noah, according to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. "I feel sometimes he gets frustrated and that works in our favor. I feel this year, he’s the one getting guys frustrated, and it’s worked for them.”
Opponents are fouling him like crazy, probably hoping the consistent contact also has the effect of pushing him toward a distracting outburst. The playbook on Cousins these days is the closest thing we've seen to the one frustrated opponents used to employ against Shaquille O'Neal.
Good news for the Sacramento Kings: Cousins is hitting a very un-Shaq-like 79 percent of his foul shots.
Brandan Wright Can't Miss
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The fact that Brandan Wright leads the NBA in field-goal percentage (80.0 percent) isn't all that strange; his offensive game has always been built on taking a disproportionate number of high-yield shots.
This year, though, Wright is taking things to the absolute extreme.
Of his 85 attempts, 66 have come within five feet, and a whopping 72.1 percent of his makes have been assisted. Wright is also 13-of-13 on alley-oops and 10-of-10 on putbacks, according to NBA.com. He is 56-of-63 in the restricted area.
Perhaps most incredibly, just one of Wright's shots this season has come from outside the paint...and he made it.
The Dallas Mavericks' offense is humming this season, ranking first in the league by a considerable margin and getting Wright all the quality looks he can handle. Normally, you'd expect defenses to adjust and Wright's numbers to come down.
But what, exactly, is the defensive game plan for stopping a guy who routinely gets the ball within a few feet of the basket and has the length to simply elevate over everyone nearby?
The Spurs and 76ers Are the Same
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Here's a stat that'll indisputably prove activity and effort don't always equate to success: The San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers share the distinction as the league's two fastest teams.
Not in terms of pace—as measured by actual speed.
According to NBA.com's player tracking data, the Spurs and Sixers are tied atop the league with an average overall player velocity of 4.3 miles per hour. Thanks to that speed, these two teams sit in first and second place in the league rankings for average miles traveled per game.
We've all seen the Spurs' whirring cyclone of cuts, curls and drives, and we know constant motion (preferably executed with an uptempo flair) has been a key part of their offensive success over the years. San Antonio's speed includes an element of economy; the Spurs run around with a purpose.
The same can't be said of Philly, which checks in dead last in offensive efficiency this year, per NBA.com. Brett Brown is a Popovich disciple who would someday like to install a Spursian system in Philly—probably after he gets a few more actual NBA players to run it.
Until then, the Sixers will just keep running in circles.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Out-Gunning James Harden
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Consider this your misleading, small-sample, cherry-picking portion of the program.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has converted on shots outside the paint at a rate more than twice as accurate as James Harden has—67 percent to 30 percent, according to John Schuhmann of NBA.com. This is notable because if you know one thing about MKG's young career it's that the form on his jumper was once grotesquely broken.
Prior to this season, MKG had never shot above 16 percent from 10-16 feet. He's hitting 60 percent in 2014-15, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Offseason work has ironed out many of the contorted kinks in his mechanics, and although Kidd-Gilchrist has been very selective in his attempts, the results have been pretty darn good.
Harden has attempted more than 10 times as many shots outside the lane as MKG has, and I'm guessing that if the volume were anywhere close to equal, Kidd-Gilchrist wouldn't have an accuracy edge on the Rockets guard.
Still, the numbers are what they are right now, and it's fun to say Kidd-Gilchrist's jumper has been more reliable than Harden's—even if we know we're ignoring context.
Serge Ibaka Sniping
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Losing Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook meant the Oklahoma City Thunder were going to need primary offense from players who'd previously been secondary contributors.
As such, Serge Ibaka has expanded his game—particularly from the perimeter.
He leads OKC in both volume and efficiency from long range with 62 attempts and a 37.1 percent conversion rate.
For now, Ibaka's growth hasn't meant much. The Thunder have started out the season with the West's worst record, and Ibaka's triples haven't been nearly enough to change the fortunes of a team with absolutely rotten luck so far.
But when KD and Westbrook return, they'll find a version of Ibaka that is vastly improved.
Think about it: Ibaka has been among the league's most fearsome interior defenders for the last few seasons, and his mid-range jumper has created a decent amount of space for his superstar teammates to operate on offense. Now, he's a credible, high-volume threat all the way out to the three-point line.
Basically, he's the only power forward in the league who can anchor a defense and nail loads of threes at a high rate.
Ibaka's not much of a No. 1 option, but he'll make one hell of a third wheel when his buddies get back.
In LaMarcus We Trust
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LaMarcus Aldridge is the low-risk, high-yield mutual fund of the NBA. Invest the basketball in him, and you can be sure of a good return with virtually no chance of things going bad.
Through 13 games this season, Aldridge's usage rate is over 27 percent, and his turnover rate is under five percent, per Basketball-Reference.com. He's the only player in the league who can boast such a major offensive role with so few mistakes.
The high-usage, low-turnover combo puts him in historically elite company. No player has ever finished a season with rates like those, and there's only a short list of guys who've even come close.
It's worth noting that Anthony Davis, Al Jefferson and Dirk Nowitzki are all within range of Aldridge's statistical marks in usage and turnovers, which means one of two things: We're either living in the golden age of "you're in good hands" power forwards, or the slog of the season will eventually normalize these numbers.
Either way, enjoy it.
Elfrid the Reluctant
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OK, here's something: Elfrid Payton isn't a huge fan of three-point shots.
Like, at all.
Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver hit on Payton's triple-shy behavior when he'd attempted just two threes in 297 minutes, writing: "Although Oladipo’s return throws Payton’s role into question, the rookie could be headed toward a season like John Wall’s 2011-12, when the Wizards' guard went just 3-of-42 from beyond the arc despite playing more than 2,300 minutes."
Since Golliver provided that stat on Nov. 19, the Orlando Magic rookie went absolutely three crazy...by attempting two more trifectas in his next 65 minutes.
How strange is this stat?
Consider this: There are only three guards in the league who've attempted four or fewer triples while playing at least 100 minutes, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Not only do Payton's gun-shy ways put him alone at the 300-plus-minute club; he's also the only guard to have played even 200 minutes with so few three-point attempts.
Payton is a savvy, promising floor general with a real sense for the game. But if he can't at least pretend to pose a threat from the perimeter, the ceiling on his career is going to be awfully low.
Marvin Williams: There and Not There
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Marvin Williams is a tendril of smoke on a chill, moonless night. He is a shadow, a ghost who vanishes as quickly as he appears.
He is a ninja.
How else do you explain the fact that he played 353 minutes this season without attempting a single free throw, per Basketball-Reference.com?
Nobody can get close enough to foul him!
Well, there's one possible explanation that doesn't involve Williams mastering a mysterious martial arts discipline over a single summer: He's taking this stretch 4 thing very, very seriously.
More than half of his shots have come from long range this season, and under 12 percent have come from inside three feet, per Basketball-Reference.com—both career firsts.
Williams, to his credit, is shooting about 40 percent from long range. So he's giving the Charlotte Hornets what they want.
Luke Walton played 364 minutes in the 2010-11 season without visiting the charity stripe. That's the NBA record. Williams came close to breaking it during Monday's game against the Clippers, but he was able—finally—to draw some contact.
All stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com and are accurate through games played Nov. 24.
