So I wanted to check advanced stats to find who might be hidden players with more value than they will probably get paid. I thought about what stats matter most to me at the positions of C, PF, and SF in some instances because these are the areas we are weakest, at least depth wise.
I settled on contested rebound %, effectivefg%, and oppfg% at the rim.
This is my reasoning, rebounds other people on your team get shouldn't count against you, just as rebounds that happen to land near you. KO seems to pick up his rebounds when nobody is around. I want the guys who can go get the ball in a crowd.
efg% adjusts for threes counting more than 2pt shots which for sf and pf and the occasional 5 is important. I wanted players who score efficiently.
oppfg%at the rim, is also the defensive metric I chose. I could have used other things, but we are looking for rim protectors. I don't care how many shots a player blocks, I want to know how many shots he keeps from going in the basket.
After this post, I'll copy and paste the stats I pulled out to get these players. It probably won't format right and look horrible but at least the names will be in order. I also didn't list every player, but just the ones I was interested in, the Boston ones for reference, and some prominent names so people could see how those players ranked in these stats.
It took a lot of time so if you have unconstructive criticism... well you know.
Let's start with everyone's favorite position to complain about the 5. Sure people on the board want Kevin Love, DeAndre Jordan, and LaMarcus Aldridge but to get those guys you are going to have to pay big bucks. Meanwhile, coming in very under the radar, like a Malaysian Airliner, Jeff Withey.
Jeff Withey grabbed 61.5% of his contested rebounds. Could he do it as a starter, probably not but he was far ahead of most others. If you adjust games played to 30 to weed out the low volume stat anomalies his 61.5% ranks first ahead of second best Brook Lopez at 53.7%.
Withey's efg% is at the respectable 50%. So we aren't gaining anything on offense from him. He does however rank higher than Avery Bradley, Thomas Robinson and Al-Farouq Aminu. Basically you'd like a player to be 50% or higher, and he is.
Finally, oppfgattherim, another gold spot for Withey. He is at 43.7%. That is higher than this boards favorite player Nerlens Noel. Rudy Gobert let the league with a 40.4% with Serge Ibaka second at 40.8. So Withey is right up there with the top defenders at the rim.
So Withey played 7 minutes a game for 37 games. Not a huge sample size, but enough to draw the conclusion he might be a buy low sell high player. Like my next C, Alexis Ajinca.
Ajinca was solid on contested rebounds at 47.2%. Not great for a 5 but serviceable. For a reference Tyler Zeller was a 42.8. He was a very good 55% on eFG and is an outstanding free throw shooter to boot. His oppfg%attherim was a rather pedestrian 52.3%. Right in the ball park with Tyler Zeller and Kevin Love, neither known as defensive stalwarts. Ajinca should come cheap though.
Robin Lopez and Tyson Chandler would round out my bargain 5s list. On to the 4s.
At the 4 and swing 3 we have a couple options that surprised me. Al-Farouq Aminu, Marreesse Speights, and Thomas Robinson are all options. Speights has a 3.5mil option that can be picked up by Golden State which they may or may not do considering they have to pay some people big bucks.
Aminu is strong defensively and on the boards but doesn't shoot well. Speights actually rebounded and defended at the rim better than I thought and wasn't as efficient as I thought he would be. Meanwhile, kudos to whoever brought up Thomas Robinson on the board. He wasn't an efficient scorer but he really rebounded and protected the rim better than I ever would have imagined. And he did it for two teams. His efficiency would have actually been good if just Portland was used but he was terrible in Philly.
Another notable guy who shocked me but I honestly can't say what position he plays is Amir Johnson in Toronto. He was great at getting contested rebounds, super efficient, and good as a rim protector.
The small forwards/big 2s were harder to judge because you really just want efficient scoring from your wing or defense. I can see why Danny was interested in Demarre Carroll. Datome was efficient in a small sample size. Tobias Harris was solid but not overwhelming. Jae Crowder was worse than I remember. I don't think Harris is worth the money it would cost to get him.
I also forgot to mention Koufos as a 5. Decent rim protection and eFG. Poor contested rebounding.
Anyway, those were the advanced stats I thought were most important.
Topic: Advanced Stats for free agent gems. (Read 548 times)