On Court: Off court
There are lots of stats out there to measure basketball players. ALL of them (and I do mean all) have flaws and limitations, but many can nevertheless tell us specific useful things. Here I want to look at what on-court off court stats can tell us about the Raptors.
On/off court stats are not very good at telling us how good a player is overall. Actually, they’re terrible at it. What they tell you (and they can tell you a fair amount about it) is how good at things a player is compared to his teammates at the same position. They also tell you a bit about how good a player is compared to the sort of opponents he typically plays against (which is less useful, because it’s hard to find out who that is). You have to consider who is likely to be on the floor when a player is off, which can tell you the different ways your players impact the game.
Here’s what floor time stats tell us:
The raptor offense is a lot better, and the defence a little better, when Calderon is on the floor. In particular, 9% more of the teams field goals are assisted when he plays, and the team’s field goal percentage improves by 1%. By comparison, the team offense and (surprisingly) defence is substantially worse when Bayless is on the floor: the team shooting is 1.5% lower and %of baskets assisted is 5% lower. Barbosa, not too surprisingly, seems to help the offense despite hurting the assist%, and seems to be a wash on defence.
How about our bigs? Well, Andrea seems to have a positive effect on offense that is counter- balanced by his negative effect on defence. The team shoots 2% better when he is on the floor (a difference that is bigger than Calderon) but so does the opponent. The offense scores 3.6 points per 100 possessions more: but the defence gives up 6.1 more points. Rebounding-wise, our defensive rebounding is actually a little better with him on the floor, but our offensive rebounding is 5% worse. That’s pretty interesting, isn’t it, A-Dub? Don’t you think? That the Raptor’s defensive rebounding is better with Bargnani on the floor?
Amir has a huge positive effect by the on-court off-court numbers, both offense and defence. The team is 7.2 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor. The team shoots 1.6% better when he is on the floor. Interestingly, the rebounding is actually a little worse when he is on the floor than off it, both offensively and defensively. We can explain the offensive rebounds partly because he’s being compares mostly with Reggie and Ed, and Andrea. Andrea is way worse at offensive rebounding, but Ed and (especially) Reggie are such good offensive rebounders that Amir looks bad by comparison.
Reggie, as you might imagine, has a pretty big positive effect on rebounding (about as big as Andrea’s negative effect), but it’s a smaller effect than you might think given the huge totals he puts up. It’s probably mostly that he steals a lot of boards from his teammates. When’s he’s on the floor, however, the team’s efg% is 4.3% worse. His shooting range of 0 feet would appear to be a liability. Overall the team gets outscored by quite a lot when he’s on the floor.
Ed, meanwhile, seems to be a good offensive rebounder and a bad defensive rebounder. The most noteworthy impact he has is that the team’s offense becomes much less efficient when he’s on the floor.
Some other things: the team played better with Kleiza on the floor in almost every category. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s that great, though, so much as that the other 3’s are bad (hi Sonny!).
Julian Wright looks really, really good by on-court/off court numbers. The team’s defence and rebounding have been much better with him on the floor. Part of that could be explained by him playing against opponent’s second units, but again part of it suggests he’s better than Sonny Weems (and DeMar). The team has played worse in every category when Sonny is on the floor (except slightly better defensive rebounding).
There are lots of stats out there to measure basketball players. ALL of them (and I do mean all) have flaws and limitations, but many can nevertheless tell us specific useful things. Here I want to look at what on-court off court stats can tell us about the Raptors.
On/off court stats are not very good at telling us how good a player is overall. Actually, they’re terrible at it. What they tell you (and they can tell you a fair amount about it) is how good at things a player is compared to his teammates at the same position. They also tell you a bit about how good a player is compared to the sort of opponents he typically plays against (which is less useful, because it’s hard to find out who that is). You have to consider who is likely to be on the floor when a player is off, which can tell you the different ways your players impact the game.
Here’s what floor time stats tell us:
The raptor offense is a lot better, and the defence a little better, when Calderon is on the floor. In particular, 9% more of the teams field goals are assisted when he plays, and the team’s field goal percentage improves by 1%. By comparison, the team offense and (surprisingly) defence is substantially worse when Bayless is on the floor: the team shooting is 1.5% lower and %of baskets assisted is 5% lower. Barbosa, not too surprisingly, seems to help the offense despite hurting the assist%, and seems to be a wash on defence.
How about our bigs? Well, Andrea seems to have a positive effect on offense that is counter- balanced by his negative effect on defence. The team shoots 2% better when he is on the floor (a difference that is bigger than Calderon) but so does the opponent. The offense scores 3.6 points per 100 possessions more: but the defence gives up 6.1 more points. Rebounding-wise, our defensive rebounding is actually a little better with him on the floor, but our offensive rebounding is 5% worse. That’s pretty interesting, isn’t it, A-Dub? Don’t you think? That the Raptor’s defensive rebounding is better with Bargnani on the floor?
Amir has a huge positive effect by the on-court off-court numbers, both offense and defence. The team is 7.2 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor. The team shoots 1.6% better when he is on the floor. Interestingly, the rebounding is actually a little worse when he is on the floor than off it, both offensively and defensively. We can explain the offensive rebounds partly because he’s being compares mostly with Reggie and Ed, and Andrea. Andrea is way worse at offensive rebounding, but Ed and (especially) Reggie are such good offensive rebounders that Amir looks bad by comparison.
Reggie, as you might imagine, has a pretty big positive effect on rebounding (about as big as Andrea’s negative effect), but it’s a smaller effect than you might think given the huge totals he puts up. It’s probably mostly that he steals a lot of boards from his teammates. When’s he’s on the floor, however, the team’s efg% is 4.3% worse. His shooting range of 0 feet would appear to be a liability. Overall the team gets outscored by quite a lot when he’s on the floor.
Ed, meanwhile, seems to be a good offensive rebounder and a bad defensive rebounder. The most noteworthy impact he has is that the team’s offense becomes much less efficient when he’s on the floor.
Some other things: the team played better with Kleiza on the floor in almost every category. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s that great, though, so much as that the other 3’s are bad (hi Sonny!).
Julian Wright looks really, really good by on-court/off court numbers. The team’s defence and rebounding have been much better with him on the floor. Part of that could be explained by him playing against opponent’s second units, but again part of it suggests he’s better than Sonny Weems (and DeMar). The team has played worse in every category when Sonny is on the floor (except slightly better defensive rebounding).
Comment