Hey guys. Sorry, this edition is a few days late and a little short. Why? Maybe I got stuck in a funk, watching Rosanne reruns nonstop and eating ice cream straight from the tub. Maybe I got abducted by aliens and had a probe stuck somewhere uncomfortable. Maybe not. Still asking why? That’s none of your damn business, and I’ll thank you to stay out of my personal affairs.

I did manage to grab Rookie data two weeks after I last grabbed the data, so we’re still working on steady two week intervals with that. In case you care. You might not.

Enough dilly dallying. On with the show, guys.

2012 Draft Class Watch

Draft Class 2012 numbers before games on 2/5/2013; category leaders highlighted in yellow.

If there was one thing I wanted to do with IGCN this season, it’s to keep up with the rookies at a steady interval. So here I am, doing that. Unfortunately, this draft class data is all that’s in this week’s IGCN.

The data, as mentioned above, was taken Tuesday night — two weeks after last installment’s data …and that was two weeks after the installment before that’s data was taken, etc etc…. I plan on doing something more in depth tracking those numbers from week to week at the All Star break, so keep an eye out for that if it tickles your pickle. Anyways, stats time..

Anthony Davis

I just accidently typed “Anthongy Davis” but luckily caught myself shortly thereafter. Heh. Oops.

Davis shot almost 60% on field goals in January (.591), so that’s cool, but he also had his minutes drop down to 24.8. His per 36 minute numbers through 2/8/2013 show that he is averaging 6.3 PPG, 9.4 RPG, and 2.3 BPG if we consider his numbers staying consistent through playing 36 minutes per game on average. Oh, and only 3.0 PF per 36 to boot. Nice little rookie campaign he’s throwing together. But you’d expect that from the number one overall pick.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

Luckily, MKG’s nasty looking head injury was “just” a concussion and nothing more serious (I know, concussions are serious, but with him dropping out cold after impact it’s kind of a best case scenario). As far as stats go, he’s not had a real stellar go of it lately. He has not scored in double digits since January 14th (though he hasn’t taken double digit shot attempts in a game since then either to be fair) and has seen his minutes dwindle a bit — down to 25.1 in January from 28 in December and 27.3 in November. He also only shot .392 FG% in January.

Bradley Beal

Beal took sometime off to help his wrist injury heal, so there’s not a large amount of stat data for him the last couple weeks. He returned on the 8th (stats not included in the chart above) to go 1 of five for the field for three points in a blow out win (!!) against the Nets.

Dion Waiters

Dion is shooting .477 so far in February. His shot selection continues to improve and he’s up to 48% around the rim for the season (he was below 40% for a bit of time earlier this season and, kinda rightfully, caused a bit of bitching in the Cavsfanosphere ). Waiters also shot for over .400 for the first month this season, shooting .412 for the month of January (no, October’s one game doesn’t count as a month). He has also seen a loss of about four or five minutes of playing time in January and February (32.1 in Nov, 31.5 in Dec, 27.5 in Jan, 26.2 so far in February before games on 2/9). If a little less playing time means a more efficient Dion Waiters, Cavs fans aren’t gonna hate on that….or at least the rational ones won’t.

Thomas Robinson

Robinson had a nice stretch at the end of January, going for two double doubles in a three game span (12 and 14, 10 and 10). In those two games, he played 26 minutes and 23 minutes. When he’s been given the minutes (basically 20+), he’s done well for the Kings. In games where he’s played 20-29 minutes, of which there have been fourteen, he has shot .465 (vs. .443 for the season) and averaged 8.3 pts/6.7 rpg. Problem is, he’s not really getting consistent minutes. He has 32 games this season where he’s played under 20 minutes, and just one game where he’s gotten 30+.

Damian Lillard

This draft class’ rookie of the year continues to be pretty much nothing short of awesome. He is averaging 21.4 points in February on .471 shooting in five games, and .393 on threes, .933 on free throws (these stats were taken after games on 8th, which are not included in the chart above). Lillard gives a big fat middle finger to the rookie wall…to this point at least.

Harrison Barnes

Barnes had a stellar game in a blowout win over the Suns on the 2nd, going 9 of 11 from the field for 21 points to go along with 8 rebounds in 32 minutes of play. He had another nice scoring game in another blowout, this time on the losing end of things against the Thunder, going for 19 points on 9 shots (with no assists or rebounds and one steal) in 29 minutes. Overall, he’s continued to be a solid contributor on an exciting Warriors team. I’ve grown to be a big fan of Barnes on this GSW team, especially alongside the other young’n Klay Thompson.

Terrence Ross

Terrence to the dunk contest! Yay!

Mr. Ross continues to be an interesting prospect for Toronto, he just doesn’t get consistent playing time [yet]. His shooting percentage is pretty low still, but I won’t fault him for that due to said playing time sitch. I’m pretty sure the Rudy Gay trade has not helped him out much in that regard. Since Gay’s arrival, Ross has averaged 13 minutes per game in four games. On the season, he’s averaging 17.5 MPG. Not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless.

Andre Drummond

He’s got a stress fracture in his back and will be out for at least a month. I don’t want to talk about it. *wipes away a tear*

Drummond takes injury absence having a very, very shiny PER of 22.5 and per 36 minutes numbers of 13.3 points, 13.7 rebounds, 3.1 blocks, and just 1.5 turnovers.

Austin Rivers

Austin ended up shooting a FG% of .284 for the month of January — .158 on threes and .391 on free throws. Send this kid down to the DLeague already, get him some burn where he can try and figure something out. On the positive side, he’s shooting better at .421 in four games in February, so that’s nice….I’m trying not to be an asshole when it comes to talking about this guy but he’s making it hard, dammit.

That’s all for now, folks. Keep on keepin’ on.

It’s really cold in Cleveland right now, you guys. Still, I’ve managed to lovingly write you up this statsy blog post even though I can’t quite feel my digits…..Time some stats upside ya head…

 Tim Duncan Block Party

Tim Duncan is averaging a very spry 2.7 blocks per game. That’s just .2 under his career high of 2.9 ten years ago in the 02-03 season. In the last three years, he has averaged 1.5, 1.9, and 1.5 blocks per game. He is also shooting .826 from the line as a .691 career free thrower. Dude’s gonna be 37 this year. Maybe some things do get better with age…or at least stay pretty consistent. Long live Timmy.

Let me Vasquez you a question…

Who might this year’s most improved player be? I’ve waffled on this quite a bit so far this year, but Greivis Vasquez of the Hornets is making a nice case for himself. He’s third in the league in assists with 9.2 (also fifth in turnovers, but whatevs…Both Jrue Holiday and Rajon Rondo are top five in assists and turnovers as well — solid company). He’s up to 14.3 PPG (up from 8.9 last year) on .441 shooting for the year as well, and is shooting a very solid .383 from three (career .336).  He is also managing to pull down 4.6 rebounds per game. Quite a nice stat line for a guy at his position.

Durant Status

There’s been a bit of talk about Kevin Durant becoming a part of the prestigious 50-40-90 club (ending the season shooting 50%+ overall FG%, 40%+ 3P%, and 90%+ FT% would allow him a membership). This would put him with the likes of Bird, Price, Miller, Nash, and Nowitzki. If Durant keeps up his numbers, it’s quite possible that he does this while also leading the league in scoring. Talk about efficiency.

2012 Draft Class Watch

2012 Draft Class Stats before games on 1/22/2013. Leaders in each category are highlighted.

I’ve really enjoyed doing this on a bi-weekly basis for this past year’s top ten draft picks. It has been interesting to see how these stats fluctuate as the season goes on. If you’re lucky and I’m feeling like putting in effort, I might just have a super graphical summary come all star break to see how these guys have improved as the season has progressed using these bi-weekly “snapshots”. But I digress. Here’s the meat and potatoes for this week.

Anthony Davis

Davis’ continues to put up nice numbers even though he’s down to 24.6 minutes per game in January (29.1 for the season). This after he averaged almost 34 MPG in
December. He’s managed to score in double digits the last five games, going for a double double in two of those. In the most recent of those five games, he unfortunately
injured his ankle (again) and looks like he might miss some more games. Before injury, he managed an impressive 11 and 6 line in 15 minutes, with three blocks to boot.

Michael Kidd-GilChrist

Welp, it looks like MKG is losing a little bit of playing time. Kidd-Gilchrist is down to 25.4 minutes in the month of January, where he averaged 27+ in previous months (he currently stands at 27 MPG for the season). In the past three games, he has played 24 minutes (5 PF, so that helps explain that one a little bit), 18
minutes, and 23 minutes.

Bradley Beal

Beal was on one hell of a nice streak til he played Portland and went 1-7 from the field for 2 points. Before that he has games where he went for 13 points on 11 shots, 23
points on 13 shots, 26 points on 14 shots, and 17 points on 10 shots. Quite nice for a guy who just finally got his FG% above 38 recently.

Dion Waiters

Waiters exploded for 33 points against Sacramento earlier this month on 18 shots, then proceeded to go 1-9 for 5 points the very next game against Portland. That’s Waiters’
season in a nutshell. Oh, and he scored 23 points on 14 shots in a loss to Utah after the Portland game (shooting 12 FTs!). Dion finally has his shooting percentage above 38%
as well, so that’s nice.

Thomas Robinson

Robinson had a pretty nice game against the Cavaliers on the 14th, going for 12 and 7. He also had a double double (10/10) in a blowout loss to Miami and an impressive rebound display in thirteen minutes of action against Dallas on 1/10, grabbing 10 rebounds (9 of those defensive, so it’s not like he was volleying missed tip attempts to himself in that timespan). Those tidbits aside, nothing fantastic coming from Robinson these last two weeks.

Damian Lillard
Lillard continues to be one hell of a pick up for the Blazers — and a pretty consistent one at that. In November, December, and thus far in January, he’s averaged 18.1, 18.2, and 18.1 points respectively. His shooting is also up to .429 in the month of January, up from .408 in December. Still nothing to write home about with those percentages, but the Blazers aren’t complaining. Oh, and this happened….

Harrison Barnes

Harrison has turned out to be a nice role player for a surprisingly winny GSW team. He’ll have his great games, like his 21 point effort where he went five of six from downtown. He’ll also have his not-so-hot nights, such as his 3/12 shooting display in a loss to Miami (still, he had three assists on six rebounds to his credit). Rarely does Harrison have such a terrible game that you might actually think he played a large role in losing the contest (see: 15 point loss to Charlotte where he connected on zero field goals on seven attempts). He has brought his 3P% up to .381, up from .338 two weeks ago.

Terrence Ross
There was a tiny buzz about Ross after his nice little stream of games at the end of December and into January, where he scored 26 points against Portland on the 2nd. Since
then, he’s scored 3, 0, 7, 0, 4, 0, 18 (Yay!) and 4 points. To be fair, he’s only played over 20 minutes in three games this month, and played just three minutes in one of
those games where he scored 0 points.

Andre Drummond

Drummond continues to put together an awesome rookie campaign. In limited minutes (21.4), he is averaging 8.4 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, and 9.6 points per game on .690 shooting. It is possible he takes Lillard’s rookie of the year at the end of the season, but he’s likely gonna need more minutes (and for Lillard to hit a legit rookie wall). Still, he is giving the Pistons more than they could have hoped for this early in his career.

Austin Rivers

Austin beat his daddy’s Celtics! Quite handily, too. Still, same old bleh, nothing exciting or new to really report.

Welcome to the first 2013 edition if I GO CHART NOW. It’ll be just as terrible as all the others (just kidding, it’s gonna be great! And the others weren’t so bad either). I’ve been pretty swamped with the holidays and other non-bloggy things, so this will be kinda short on the random stuff, but as always, I’ve managed to make time to check up on the 2012 draft class. On with the show….

A Few Random Stat Things

Nikola Vucevic is better than Dwight and Shaq

….Haha, just kidding. Nikola Vucevic had 29 rebounds in an OT almost-win against the Heat, breaking the single game rebounding record for the Orlando Magic. You know, the team that had Shaq and Dwight Howard for quite a few years. Well played, Nikola, well played.

Nash 10K

Steve Nash has hit 10,000 assists in his career. Antawn Jamison was the one to convert the shot and push Nash into five-digit assist realm. Of all Lakers. Anyways, this makes Nash just the fifth player to reach 10K assist in their career. The others? Stockton (15,806), Kidd (11,969 and counting), Mark Jackson (10,334), and Magic (10,141). Currently, Nash stands at 10,005 assists. Grats, you crazy-haired Canadian.

 Rudy Gay, Trade Candidate

Apparently Memphis is fed up with Rudy Gay. As a result, there have been a few trade rumors swirling and lame pubescent douchebag “gay” puns being thrown around. Since I don’t watch many Grizzlies games and don’t really understand the frustration (I mean, he’s pretty good, right?) I got to wondering why. Obviously, his contract is big. But, statistically, how different is he compared to previous seasons? A couple things that jump out is that his FGA are a career high (16.4) and he’s shooting much lower than his career average this season. In an attempt to look at some more stats from season to season on a reasonably leveled field, let’s look at some of Rudy’s per 36 numbers….

His field goal percentage is crap, hanging at .408. 3P% wise, he’s not doing so hot at .323 (was worse last year at .312)….He is, however, attempting 3.2 three pointers per game so far this season, his highest since 4.6 his sophomore season — and between then and this season, he averaged 3.0 3PA per game (per 36 of course) or less each season.Gay’s eFG (the stat that compensates a 3 pointer being worth more than a 2 pointer in calculating FG%) stands at a career low at .439%. That’s pretty bad.

As for some positive statistical things, Gay’s free throw shooting actually ties a career best currently, .805. He’s also hitting the freethrow line at about the same pace, 3.9 attempts per game per 36 minutes (career average of 4.0, 3.9 and 4.0 in the two seasons prior).

Stats like assists and rebounds really haven’t changed much from previous years. Here’s some numbers to chomp on.

So, basically, the only thing Rudy is doing drastically (if you want to even use that word) worse than in previous seasons is his field goal percentage. A guy earning max money should never shoot almost .400 from the floor unless they’re the world’s greatest defender…and even then, blah.

Draft Class 2012 Checkup

Well, well, well, it looks like Beal’s starting to put it all together, Lillard is continuing to be awesome, and Rivers is continuing to suck. Here’s a tally of the top ten picks in 2012 draft class’ numbers so far this season:

Draft Class of 2012 Stats after 1/7/2013 Games

Anthony Davis has kind of hit a little bit of a lull in the last week or so, going — points and rebounds — 9 and 13, 8 and 7, 4 and 1, and 17 and 9 in the past four games. Now those numbers aren’t terrible (except for the 4 and 1 which he got in 12 minutes), and he’s playing only 25.2 minutes on average. Not very good numbers from the number one overall pick, but no reason to pull an Al Roker.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist continues to be very solid for a very confusing Bobcats team. For a kid who just turned 19 not too long ago, he has a pretty good understanding of his strengths and weaknesses on offense, as demonstrated by his high FG% as a SF. He’s even shooting a higher percentage right now than Davis.

Bradley Beal has really played well for the Wizards lately.  In the last five games, he has averaged 18.2 points, 4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game on 0.420 shooting. The shooting percentage, while not stellar, is a nice improvement over his average so far this season. And to top all this off, he had the game winner against the Thunder. Finally, Bradley is forcing us to Beal With It.

Dion Waiters, as you may already know, got “demoted” to the bench starting January 2nd against Sacramento. Since then, he’s averaged 15 points on .429 shooting (0.889 FT%) to go along with 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists. While his assist numbers are lower than his good-for-second-in-the-top-ten season average 3.2 APG, his average shooting numbers are looking up. As previously with Waiters, shot selection seems to be a concern, but he has looked better driving to the rim and has only attempted 2.5 three pointers per game in the last four games.

Thomas Robinson still hasn’t really had a fair chance to show us anything, but he did have a nice 12 rebound in 21 minute effort against Memphis in a blowout loss Monday.

Damian Lillard continues to be nothing short of awesome as a rookie for the Blazers. He has only had single digit scoring in one game this season, when he had nine points against Toronto on December 10 on 2-14 shooting. Even then, nine points. One short of ten. Might as well just give it to him. I am going to be really, really surprised if this guy doesn’t win rookie of the year. Barring major regression or major injury, he will.

Harrison Barnes is showing he can be a nice contributor for what has turned out to be a very good Golden State Warriors team. While you’d like to see his FG% be a little bit higher, he has helped improve the Warriors to a playoff-worthy team in the West, and that’s a decent feat on its own.

Terrence Ross had that really awesome windmill dunk before Christmas and has since had a game where he scored 16 points on 10 shots and another with 26 points on 14 shots (6 of 9 on threes!). Unfortunately, he’s also had a game of 1 for 8 shooting and 4 points and another of 1 of 7 shooting for 3 points, so there’s that.

Andre Drummond is going to be one hell of a pickup for the Pistons. In two years, every team that picked four through eight is probably going to have their fans asking “why the [favorite expletive here] didn’t you draft Drummond?” Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and all that. Drummond shot over .600 for the entire month of December (.609 in 16 games at 22.1 MPG). One issue? His free throw shooting has Ben Wallace looking like a free throw pro. Plus, how is he going to look in more than ~20 minutes per game? Fouls aren’t an issue, in that time span he only averages around 2 (I’ll do the math for you, that’s 4 per 40 minutes pace).

Austin Rivers, having Doc as your father doesn’t mean shit anymore. No one cares. Man up and play like a lottery pick.

–

That’s all for now….If you have anything you want to see on IGCN in the future, feel free to drop me a line on Twitter (username ChartyMcGraph…figure out the URL, gotta keep the bots at bay).

I hope you all are enjoying your holidays. I know I am.. or at least I’m doing a good job of getting fat. And lazy, too, as I ran out of time to give you a normal, bi-weekly dose of IGCN. But fear not. I have at least bothered to grab the stats of the  top 10 picks in the 2012 draft and quickly review some things. And in another week, I’ll have some more statistical goodness to share with you all to make up for it. Cool? Cool.

When the majority of  you were lamenting your newly acquired socks and pajama bottoms on Christmas morning, here’s where the top ten 2012 draft class member’s stats stood:

2012 draft class statistics as of 12/25/2012

Now for a quick rundown….

Anthony Davis

There’s only been one game this season where Davis hasn’t had at least one block (11/17 vs MIL, where he had a double-double with 28 points and 11 rebounds, getting those points on 13 shots (!!!!)). But what really stands out to me about Davis, however, is his free throw shooting. Here’s a guy who’s 6’10″, in his first year in the league, and he’s shooting almost 85% from the line. Maybe it has to do with all that time he spent at PG before having that growth spurt.. you know, a position that is generally expected to make it’s free throws. It seems like big men homegrown in the US don’t care much about free throw shooting, so it’s nice to see such a young PF/C shoot such a high percentage.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

MKG had a very nice game against PHX, going for 25 points on just 14 shots with no three pointers attempted.  He also had a double double that game with 12 rebounds. Overall, there not much new to report with Kidd-Gilchrist — he continues to be very solid at his position and a bright point in a Bobcats roster that has currently lost  fifteen in a row.

Bradley Beal

I feel like this kid would be doing a heck of a lot better if he wasn’t in the cancerous situation in Washington that was supposed to go away when they got rid of Gil. Then when they got rid of Blatche and McGee. But apparently it’s still there.

Things are looking up for Beal, though. Beal has scored 10+ points in all but one game in December, and his FG% is up to 0.389 from 0.341 in November (.220 3P% in December, however). This kid’s got talent, and it looks like he’s putting it together. I’m not sure his team’s situation is helping that along in the best way possible, but it looks like Beal is starting to get more comfortable in the league.

Dion Waiters

Dion continues to shoot a low percentage more often than not. But, he did dish out seven assists against Indy on 12/21. Dion also had a nice showing the next night, going 18/5/2 (pts/reb/ast). The issue with Dion tends to be (and continues to be) his shot selection. That should be something he corrects in time and with experience. We’ll see. [Related: Dion hasn't hit a three pointer since returning from injury on December 18, going 0-12 in four games.]

Thomas Robinson

Kinda waiting for Thomas to really have a game that jumps out. Considering his lack of consistent minutes, this isn’t really surprising. Still, gotta think SAC expected more out of him, even this early in the season.

Damian Lillard

His FG% isn’t that hot, but that’s about it. Only once in December has Lillard not scored over ten points, and has had 6+ assists in all but one game when he had four against New Orleans on the 16th. Random stat: he’s only not had a rebound in one game so far this season (@PHX on 11/21/2012).

Harrison Barnes

I was hoping we’d see more out of him when Rush went down, but alas…Barnes has only scored more than ten points twice so far in December (10 and 19 points) and scored six or less points eight times in that same time span. Still, the Warriors have a better record than anyone probably expected at this point (18-10), so who’s complaining?

Terrence Ross

Still nothing too fancy in the numbers. That said, he had a nice game against the Magic, going for 13 points on 8 shots and, perhaps most importantly, this dunk:

Andre Drummond

Drummond continues to be a diamond in the rough — a very, very shiny diamond. His per 36 minutes numbers are quite nice at 12.6 pts/13.1 reb / 2.9 blk with only 1.5 TO and 3.6 fouls. You know what else is awesome? He has a PER of 21, good for 27th in the league. That’s higher than Dwight Howard and Serge Ibaka.Not bad for a “project pick”.

Austin Rivers

Remember that time Austin scored 27 points against Minnesota, going 5-6 from three? Yeah, that was pretty cool.

The carolers keep on coming. Traffic keeps you from getting anywhere in any sort of reasonable time thanks to rabid shoppers with gift lust in their eyes. The holiday spirit is upon is. Like, breathing down our necks. Seriously, Christmas is less than a week away already, guys. I hope you’re done with your shopping.

Here at IGHN, we try to make your holiday a little bit more enjoyable. Angelo started you off right Monday, and Spacefunmars put the tinsel on your Tuesday. Now, it’s my turn to spread some cheer and present to you all some NBA teams’ wishes.

LA Clippers: For the Lakers to leave town so they get more love. Ten in a row (18-6, good for second in the Western Conference) and atop the Pacific division? Who cares! The Lakers have won three in a row against DC, Philly, and Charlotte!

LA Lakers: A fountain of youth sure would be nice. With perhaps the “ideal” starting lineup of Nash, Gasol, Bryant, Howard, and MWP, the players average 32.6 years old. With Duhon (30) and Ebanks (23 and playing under five minutes) pushing down that average and starting as they did last night, the average age is 29.

Memphis Grizzlies: Nothing! John Hollinger! Yay!!!! (Can’t wait for those paid subscription Grizzlies Insider columns!)

Miami Heat: For James, Wade, and Bosh to finally, after all this time, combine into some sort of Cerberus-looking thing. An actual center would be cool too, but NBD.

Milwaukee Bucks: Less Christmas-y uniforms.

Minnesota Timberwolves: What does the organization want? For Kevin Love to shut his pie hole. What do the majority of other people want [that care one iota about the Wolves]? For Kahn to find his way outta Minny.

It’s 12/12/12. Whooooooaaaa! Three consecutive identical numbers in the datte — Even if you’re  not from the states and enter the date all weird. And some people think the world is gonna end soon. If it does, I’ll see YOU in your doomsday bunkers, you whacky characters.

Anyways, as far as the NBA goes, in the last couple weeks we’ve see Joakim Noah put up a monster 30 point, 23 rebound game to beat his only personal best in both categories. We’ve seen Rondo’s consecutive assist streak get broken cuz he got pissy with Kris Humphries. We’ve seen the Knicks take 44 (!!!!) three pointers in a rout of the Miami Heat.

There’s also some other NBA-related things to report this time of the season.. and here they are.

Trouble in Lala Land?

Kobe Bryant is averaging the most points (28.6) since the Lakers’ dismal 06-07 campaign when he averaged 31.6 PPG and carried a crappy team to 42-40 — impressive considering the roster, in which it was a big deal that Vlad Rad lied about his shoulder injury and got a major fine as a result.

One would have hoped that adding Nash and Howard while keeping Gasol might help him with the burden, but alas, that’s not been the case. Nash has only played in two games before busting his leg (friendly reminder: Nash will be 39 in February). A 38 year old getting injured can’t be too surprising, especially when you take him away from the Suns’ training and medical staff. In other Laker injury woe news, apparently Pau Gasol’s knees have filled up with tears and given him tendonitis, forcing him to weep from the bench in a suit. And as if that was bad enough, Dwight’s bitching about his teammates again, the Lakers are 9-12, and they can’t blame Mike Brown.

PPG to FGA comparison

Some might poo poo the PPG (Points Per Game) to FGA (Field Goal Attempted) stat, complaining that it doesn’t account for free throws made (calculation: PPG divided by FGA, or PPG/FGA…the higher the number the better). I think it’s a fun stat to use to evaluate scoring because, well, what scorer that’s worth a damn doesn’t get to the free throw line? And how do the majority of free throws get “earned”? By getting fouled in the act of shooting or get fouled with the ball in your hand when over the limit.. both things that are pretty good indicators that the player is a scorer.

(PTS – FTM)/FGM is a fine stat, but it ignores a scorer’s points earned at the free throw line, and is really just a way to see how many points a player scores on field goals alone, thus totally ignoring their ability to get to the free throw line and hit said free throws. All that rambling out of the way, that’s why I like the Points Per Field Goal Attempted stat better. Let’s take a look at how this year’s PPG to FGA comparison looks (taken from the top 40 FGA players):

Kevin Durant is on a tear. He’s way better than the next best PPG/FGA number held by Kobe Bryant. He’s also a little better than last year’s season PPG/FGA leader, Dwight Howard. Check out last regular season’s PPG to FGA stats looked like below. Another top player that’s somewhat surprising for his place on this list is OJ Mayo (shooting .487 this season helps, career .437 shooter).

What’s interesting to note (though not sure what the hell it actually means), is that the player with the highest PPG:FGA number is quite far ahead of the next closest player. Anyways, this year’s Durant has a better PPG/FGA stat than last year’s Dwight Howard…which is pretty impressive considering last year’s D12 shot over 10 FT/Game and he gets most all of his points point blank at the rim. It also helps that Durant is shooting over 5o% from the field, almost 90% from the Free Throw line, and taking almost 10 free throw attempts per game. Long story short… Kevin Durant is having a very nice, efficient year.

2012 Draft Class Update

Time to quickly recap how the top 10 draft picks of the 2012 draft are doing: Kinda meh except for MKG and Lilliard.

Going from first pick to tenth pick, a sentence for each..

• Anthony Davis was still injured up until last night (12/11/2012) when he scored 13 points, snagged 8 rebounds and had three blocks and steals apiece for a nice return from injury — minus the loss to the Wizards.
• MKG is continuing to be steady for the Bobcats, continuing to put up nice numbers on a consistent basis — especially considering his age.
• Beal still hasn’t been able to consistently shoot worth a damn, though he’s been better in the last four games in which he’s scored in double digits.
• Waiters hasn’t been able to consistently shoot worth a damn after starting off hot and hasn’t shot over 50% since his nice game against PHO on and is now injured after spraining his ankle on his 21st birthday (run on sentence!).
• Thomas Robinson hasn’t been given the minutes I’m guessing a lot of Kings fans were hoping for when he was drafted; as aD result his numbers are pretty unimpressive.
• Damian Lillard is awesome and will win ROY.
• Harrison Barnes has only scored in double digits twice in ten games after his nice stretch of games scoring 19, 18, 12, and 20 in November.
• Terrence Ross still hasn’t done anything too spectacular and has only attempted five free throws, making two, in 317 minutes of play, although he had a nice 19 points game against HOU.
• Drummond is showing some nice signs of what he can become with, but is still quite “raw” as they say in the potential game.
• Austin Rivers is, overall, playing like butt — and the numbers above illustrate that.

That’s all I got for now. I hope to see you all in two weeks, assuming the world hasn’t ended by then.

Welcome once again to I GO CHART NOW, the biweekly installment of some stats and tidbits that I think are neat/interesting enough to want to share with my millions of readers around the internet. Onto some statistical stuff!

So Long, Reggie Miller’s Record

Paul George broke the Pacers’ three pointers made in a game record by hitting nine on 11/21/2012. Of course, the previous record holder was Reggie Miller with eight. As a Reggie Miller fan (mostly in my youth), I’m slightly sad. But records were made to be broken, or some such nonsense.

CP25

Chandler Parsons scored 26 points on 11/13 shooting in the first half of the Rockets v Knicks game on 11/23. Chandler. Parsons. Nice year this fellow is having. Possible Most Improved Player of the year candidate if he can keep this up, methinks. Stats currently stand at 15.5 PPG / 0.471 FG% (0.413 3P%) / 7 RPG/3.5 APG in 37.8 minutes. For comparison, his stats last year were 9.5 PPG / 0.452 FG% / 0.337 3P% ) / 4.8 RPG / 2.1 APG.

 Quick Rajon’s Streak Update

Rajon Rondo’s assist streak is still alive at 37 games. Yeah, there was that one game where perhaps the 10th assist was forced, but nonetheless, the streak stands.

I will use this photo whenever I talk about Anderson Varejao.

Varejaowning

Before I throw a couple of the following stats out there, I feel I need to put out a disclaimer… I love Anderson Varejao. Platonically. Like, as a basketball player. He’s great, and has been underrated for a few years now. This season, not only is he scoring 14.1 points while getting even more rebounds than that (14.7) per game, but he is averaging 3.2 assists per game after being a career 1.0 APG kinda guy. Sure, a lot of that has to do with Byron Scott’s running many plays through Anderson, but still, the fact that the Cavs are getting those APG numbers (not stellar, but for a PF/C, quite nice) from a guy who’s also currently leading the league in rebounding is pretty great. PS — Andy’s 14.7 RPG is followed by Zach Randolph’s 13.2 and Asik’s 11.9…In other words, he’s out-rebounding the second highest rebounder by 1.5 RPG and the third highest by 2.8.

ROOKIE WATCH

(data taken before games Tuesday, November 27)

* Anthony Davis has been sidelined (and will likely be sidelined a bit longer) with an ankle injury. GWS, big guy.

* As I write this, the Charlotte Bobcats have a winning record. And I have a feeling a bit of it has to do with Kidd-Gilchrist. He continues to put up very solid numbers and, if I heard the word on the street correctly, he’s a pretty good teammate. Not bad #2, not bad.

* Drummond had his first double double (13pts/13reb) of the season in just 24 minutes for the Pistons. With 8 offensive rebounds! And 1-6 FT shooting! As usual, the P word is strong with this one. (….Potential, in case you’re a perv or too dense to figure it out)

* Damian Lillard is still the obvious choice for ROY so far this season. He continues to lead rookies quite handily in points per game, assists, and steals. His 3P% is solid and his overall PPG continues to be decent for a point guard.

* Harrison Barnes has strung together some nice games lately.. And he’s likely to put forward a nice rookie campaign with Brandon Rush out for the year. He had a nice four game stint earlier this month, with stats as follows (pts/reb): 19/13, 18/9, 12/1, and 20/12 from 11/14/2012 through 11/19/2012.

* It’s kind of funny how Beal and Waiters continue to have the same type of season at the SG position.. nice games scattered with several stinkers. I mean, that’s expected of rookies, but their stats are fairly similar. Neither are shooting a good percentage (Waiters hasn’t shot well after a pretty hot start), and I — as a Cavs fan — fear Waiters might fall into “shoot threes all of the time” mode. And while Waiters is hitting his threes at a decent clip, it’d be much nicer to see him drive to the hoop than take 11 threes a game like he did this past week. As for Beal, I haven’t seen much of any Wizard games, but playing on a winless team without their best player hasn’t helped his game along much this season.

* As for the remaining three Rs (Robinson, Ross, and Rivers)? YAAAAAWN.

That wraps it up for this week, y’all. See you in two!

Welcome to this week’s installment of I GO CHART NOW here at IGHN! I hope you’re enjoying the start to this splendid season. We are just a couple weeks in and we’ve already had wonderful moments like Boogie getting suspended two games for hurting a broadcaster’s feelings and Mike Brown’s glasses collection getting shipped out of town a mere five games into the season. We’ve also had a few interesting statistical goodies that merit digesting, and that’s what this here column is all about. So, go forth and gnosh on some numbers, friends.

Millsap for Three?

Through eight games, Millsap is averaging 1.5 three point attempts per game — his previous 3PA high was 0.5 per game last season. Okay, he’s taking them. Great. Remember that game where the Jazz beat the Heat off of Millsap’s threes a couple years ago? Yeah, that was cool…but a fluke, right? Well, Paul’s making 1.0 of those 1.5 attempts per game. Looks like someone has a green light to shoot the three, and should continue to going [power] forward.

Rajon’s Still Streakin’

Spanning last season til now, Rajon Rondo has had 10 or more assists in 31 consecutive games. This is the second longest streak, behind John Stockton’s 37 game streak. Only two other players have had 20 or more consecutive games with 10+ assists since 1986: Magic, Stockton, and Rondo. You can say what you want about Rondo, the player so many seem to love to hate — but that’s some niiiiice company.

What About The Class of 2012?

Here’s the mother load of stats for this edition of IGCN…Everyone loves tracking their team’s high draft pick. Are they doing better than those drafted before them? Are they looking like a bust? What can we find to bitch about with them? We will obviously know everything there is to know about a player in such a small sample size, so let’s dig in!

As of Tuesday night (before the games because I go to bed early, dammit), here’s how the top ten picks stand statistically (thanks Basketball Reference for the raw numbers). Leaders are highlighted, and 3P% doesn’t highlight a leader because MKG and Drummond’s 3P% are nonsense and won’t hold:

Now that you’ve taken a bite of that statistical goodness, here’s a few points:

• As everyone expected, the stats tell us that Kidd-Gilchrist is the defensive juggernaut of this class, averagine 1.6 steals, 2.2 blocks, and 7.6 rebounds at the small forward position. His offense isn’t looking to shabby either; he poured in 25 points on 8-12 shooting (9-10 FTs) against Dallas on November 10th.
• Bradley Beal and Dion Waiters are a lot closer in production than a lot of people insisted on draft night. Beal is really coming on as of late, and Dion has shown from the get go that he is, in fact, a baller. It is kind of amusing that sharp shooter Beal is shooting under .400 so far, while Waiters, whose shot was not considered a strength, has had some dagger threes and is shooting them at a 0.531 clip in his first seven games. Regardless of which one is on (or not on) your beloved team, one thing is fairly certain–These guys will be fun to watch going forward.
• Thomas Robinson hasn’t shown us much lately. Except that he can throw a mean elbow to a Swede’s throat.
• Damian Lillard is special and this class’ Rookie of the Year recipient if the season ended tonight. His shooting percentages aren’t really there, mostly thanks to his 2-13 shooting night against Dallas on November 5th. He’s also been given quite a load on the Blazers, playing 37.9 MPG for Rip City. I’m excited to see this kid going forward.
• I haven’t had a chance to see Andre Drummond play so far, but from what I understand he’s been about as frustrating as everyone expected. The good news for Pistons fans is that in 15.6 minutes per game, he’s shooting a very nice 0.714 for 6.5 PPG while also rebounding at a 5.1 RPG pace. As far as stats go, his numbers look overall solid. Time will tell if he “puts it all together”, as they say.
• Anthony Davis is showing to be as advertised so far. He’s got the stat you want from your number one draft pick — he’s the leading scorer of the 2012 draft class. His rebound and block numbers are what you’d expect. In summary, he’s doing great, but we all figured that’s how it was gonna be.
• Barnes, Rivers, and Ross haven’t shown much. Rivers’ shooting percentages are attrocious and Ross hasn’t gotten many minutes. Barnes is posting decent stats with the Warriors, but nothing that stands out. In other words: yawn.

That’s it for now, folks. Keep on chartin’ in the free world, and I’ll see you in a couple weeks for the next installment of IGCN.

Well, the NBA season is back and as such it’s back to bringing you I GO CHART NOW on a regular basis. This 2012-2013 kickoff installment will be void of charts because it’s about the preseason and, like the players, I’m not going hard quite yet. Gotta pace myself, it’s a long season.

Model of Efficiency?

JR Smith was the preseason leader in efficiency (25). The next closest were Kobe (20.4) and Kyle Lowry (19.8). Yeah, JR only played one game this preseason, thusly that’s all this is based off of….But JR Smith and efficiency rarely get mentioned in the same sentence or even story line, so let’s let him have his glory here.

Good Luck Keeping This Up….

Two unlikely guards cracked the top 20 in FG% this preseason: Kevin Martin (.547) and JJ Redick (.544). These guys’ career numbers? Martin: .413 and Redick .400 … What’s most impressive about this to me is that Redick shot this percentage without a guy like Howard around to give him more space on the perimeter. Not even the great “I’m-gonna-bowl-over-this-fan-in-celebration”  Glen Davis can make up for what Dwight did for the Magic in the middle.  Did that fan ever get his apology from Glen, by the way?

(honorable mention: Corey Brewer at 28th with .516)

Jamison Being Jamison
Let me get this out of the way first…I think Antawn Jamison is a swell guy. I have nothing against him personally. Watching him on the Cavs over the last couple years, however, made me become a bit of a hater to his game.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way…Jamison’s preseason numbers are completely unsurprising: .289 FG%, .200 3P%, .545 FT%. 4.4 PPG in 23.1 MPG

Lakers faithful, I’m sorry, but Jamison is what he is at this point….An inefficient scorer who will take shots that make you want to scream. Oh, and a piss poor defender–this is important but will be less apparent if he’s on the floor at the same time as Howard. The good news is he’s on a vet min contract, so whatever contribution he gives LAL is likely to be worth their money. Still, try not to get your hopes up to high, friends.

AST/TO

Chris Paul posted a 7.33 Assist-to-Turnover ratio, and Beno (Beano!) Udrih posted a 7.25 of the same stat. Both of these numbers are pretty ridiculous (Paul had 8.8 APG compared to 1.2 TOPG, Beno 3.6 APG to 0.5 TOPG). Calderon was the next closest assist-to-turnover ratio at 5.43 (not unexpected, Calderon has pretty much always been known to have a very solid Assist:TO stat).

The Great White [Ball] Sharks
Omer Asik, Enes Kanter, Kosta Koufos, Nikola Vucevic. These, my friends, are your Rebounds per 48 leaders with 21.8, 21.1, and 20.5, and 20.4 REB/48, respectively. Those are pretty solid numbers, more than 10 rebounds per 24 minutes if you want to look at it that way (i.e. closer to their actual likely playing time). Asik isn’t really a surprise here, but Kanter, Koufos, and Vucevic kind of are. Look for those three to have much larger roles on their teams this year than previous years.

Nasty Double-Double
Byron Mullens actually had 19 rebounds in a game. In 36 minutes. That’s awes….Wait, he also shot 8-25 for 16 points? Gross.

Free Throw Woes
Perry Jones III shot .143 on free throws. No wonder he fell into OKCs lap at 28. (He also had 9.8 PPG on .571 shooting. As if THAT matters.)

120 degrees

The angle of hair separation at Steve Nash’s part in his profile picture for the Los Angeles Lakers…This might not be necessarily preseason related, but it’s important enough for me to bring it up anyways. This is quite the departure from the locks he sported with the Suns that sometimes made him look like he belonged midfield on the USWNT instead of running the point. This hairstyle choice is a change I can’t believe in.

Two

The amount of games that the Cleveland Cavaliers aired locally. Look, I get it, these games cost money to broadcast. You gotta take a broadcast team down to wherever these games are being played (And a few usually aren’t in very large arenas). But this season, Cavalier fans are starting to get excited once again after what Kyrie Irving showed us. They’re interested to see how Thompson has improved and what new draft picks Zeller and Waiters have to prove. And you decide to air only two games? Wat????

Now that you’ve got all of those sweet preseason stat highlights (and rants) running through your dome and whetting your appetite for the regular season, it’s time for some REAL basketball. So excited for an 82 game season, you guys!!!!

Drajon Rondo: Myth....or no?

There’s a myth of sorts going around these parts. It goes a little something like this….

There once was a being, half man, half dragon. He went by the name Drajon Rondo and was born of a goddess whose identity is unknown, as it is said the birth of Drajon caused her passing, and a dragon king who goes by the name of Kar’nthon. He was a dick though, and never really was a part of Drajon’s life. As such, Drajon was orphaned and left to grow up amongst humans, who taught him their ways.

Drajon grew up to be an odd looking fellow, with the lower body and hands of a dragon, the arms and torso of a human, and the face of a hornless minotaur. He was often teased for his looks at a young age, but was able to disarm his haters with an icy stare by the time he was eleven years old. For fear of their lives, when Drajon shot them his dagger filled  glance, the malicious detractors pissed their pants and fled.

Even with a lot of assholes in the realm of humans, Drajon managed to fit in by playing sports as a teenager. One of his favorite things to do was play roundball. The sport allowed him to showcase his speed and strength (dragon powers, obvs), while also allowing him to feel more of a kinship with the humans he grew up and lived with. It made him feel like one of them, one of the humans, which he never felt much before. Even if it was just for the length of a roundball match, he felt like he belonged.

So, what’s become of Drajon, you ask?

There are legends that Drajon had cosmetic surgery done to look more like a human — removing his dragon parts and replacing them with human-like prosthetic legs and hands. Those who believe this legend say he was last seen in his Drajon form near a hospital outside of Lexington, Kentucky in summer of 2003. Others say he ran off into the night one day, his deep yearning to touch his dragon roots again finally overwhelming him and causing him to flee and never be seen again.

Whatever the case, no one is really sure whatever happened to Drajon. Or did he ever even exist?

Does the legend live among us? Or is he gone forever?