Some Numbers analysis

by pookeyguru on Nov 13, 2008 8:27 AM PST

From the jump I'm going to show you the numbers I crunched (that ESPN won't do for me, but essentially here are the 2 things you need to look at. Last season, and this season. I'm going to focus on 2 area's. Percentage of Rebounding, and Turnovers (given up/created). The turnovers you can do on ESPN's stat page that I linked to (getting the season is very easy--all you do is go to the sort options part of the page, and click which season you want, and then go to it--one suggestion is you bring up 2 pages so you can look at them together, as opposed to trying to remember all the stats--none of us are Rainman), and all that. The actual rebounding percentage will be available down below.

2007-08 Rebounding Percentage

Cleveland 524% (1)

Houston 523% (2)

Boston 519% (T-3)

Utah 519% (T-3)

Philadelphia 516% (T-5)

Dallas 516% (T-5)

Detroit 514% (7)

La Lakers 507% (T-8)

Atlanta 507% (T-8)

New Orleans 506% (T-10)

Milwaukee 506% (T-10)

San Antonio 505% (12)

Chicago 502% (T-13)

Seattle 502% (T-13)

Washington 502% (T-13)

New Jersey 501% (T-16)

Orlando 501% (T-16)

New York 499% (18)

Minnesota 498% (19)

Portland 493% (20)

Denver 492 % (21)

Toronto 490% (22)

Sacramento 488% (23)

Indiana 486% (T-24)

Phoenix 486% (T-24)

Memphis 483% (26)

Charlotte 481% (27)

La Clippers 479% (28)

Golden State 478% (29)

Miami 466% (30)

As you can see there is nothing complicated about this. The Kings are 23rd in Rebounding percentage, and are in the bottom 3rd of the league. Let's look at the difference in the rankings so far this season.

Rebounding Percentage (%) for 2008-09 Season

Philly 545% (1)

La LAkers 542 % (2)

Detroit 522 % (3)

Milwaukee 521 % (T-4)

Utah 521 % (T-4)

Boston 518% (6)

Cleveland 515 % (T-7)

Chicago 515% (T-7)

Orlando 512 % (T-9)

Phoenix 512% (T-9)

Sacto 509% (11)

Portland 503 % (12)

Indy 500 % (13)

Dallas 499% (T-14)

New Jersey 499% (T-14)

New Orleans 499% (T-14)

Memphis 498% (17)

OKC 497% (T-18)

Atlanta 497% (T-18)

Charlotte 492 % (T-20)

Denver 492 % (T-20)

Golden State 489% (T-22)

Washington 489% (T-22)

San Antonio .486% (24)

Houston 485 % (25)

Minnesota 479% (26)

Miami 472 % (27)

Toronto 463 % (28)

New York 455 % (29)

LA Clippers 454% (30)

Bottom line is that if you look at this team's rebounding percentage you can see they're amongst the top half/third of the teams in rebounding in the NBA. It's not like the Kings personnel drastically changed, with the exception of Thompson/Hawes playing more mins/getting mins as rookie's/young players. This is not a new point, TZ made this a week/week & half ago. The point is though, after 9 games, it's no less obvious that with the 2 young fellas, and Miller doing his usual rebounding (he's about 9.8 right now, and finished at 9.5 last year or something like that), this team is far better on the boards. Why is this important?

If you look at opponents forced TO's (far right side of the ESPN stats page), the Kings were 8th a year ago. It's not easy to imagine why. Artest had a huge part in that. His hands, and his abilities to disrupt. Garcia also was an influential part of that. But the point being, is that Garcia hasn't played a game, Artest is no longer around, and for 9 games at least, and without Franky G to see how this statistic would be affected, it's very clear this team DOESN'T force turnover's. Is it a big deal? Not really overall. This team isn't turning the ball at an extremely high rate (it's high turnover's are a bit misleading after the awful road trip), but it isn't creating turnover's. On the other hand, this team is also clearing the glass at a much higher rate. Right now the Kings are the 8th highest scoring team in the L. They are currently the 3rd highest team scored upon. (Which again, is a bit misleading.) Last season, the Kings ended up 8th in scoring. Last year they were the 7th highest scored upon team. This may be a big deal to some, but given the injury situation, and more importantly, the newness of the rotations and players, this isn't a terrible development. In fact one can start arguing how effective Reggie Theus is as a basketball coach, and not the other way around.

(This is a FanPost from a member of the Sactown Royalty community. The views expressed come from the member, and not Sactown Royalty staff.)

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Comments

Good points

I wonder where our rebounding % would be if our 6’3" point guard wasn’t picking up the slack for our 7’ dreadlocked power forward slash center? Mikkie played 20+ minutes last night and ONE REBOUND?

Regardless, it’s awfully refreshing to watch a Kings team hold the opposition to one possession so often.

Kevin Pritchard has Chuck Norris tied up in the trunk of his car.

by otis29 on Nov 13, 2008 8:47 AM PST reply actions

hater

Cisco? Cisco? CISCO!!!! #*$!%! !

by lietothegirls on Nov 13, 2008 3:17 PM PST up reply actions

No doubt Otis

I would have loved to have a graph that would have separated these columns into thirds (making it shorter A—and realizing the jump from one column to the next is not so simple B).

Regardless, it’s awfully refreshing to watch a Kings team hold the opposition to one possession so often.

This is a team that stays on course is going to make everyone eat their words. Also, the point on Mikki can’t be ignored either. The reason I went through a team by team basis to say whom I thought Mikki was reasonable to end up on, was rather simple. The guy doesn’t rebound, but he does play hard. If you put him next to, oh say, Dwight Howard, that isn’t as much of a problem. If you put him on a MIke D’Antoni team where emphasis isn’t necessarily boardwork, but rather energy and getting up & down, he fits in well.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. It's simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get tangled, you tango on

by pookeyguru on Nov 13, 2008 8:52 AM PST reply actions

If you put him on a MIke D’Antoni team where emphasis isn’t necessarily boardwork, but rather energy and getting up & down, he fits in well.

As long as he’s not required to touch the ball while getting up and down.

Lobsters have a much harder time grabbing things while moving in a D’Antoni fast break.

au contra ire

by JediLeroy on Nov 13, 2008 9:35 PM PST up reply actions

Tru Tru

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. It's simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get tangled, you tango on

by pookeyguru on Nov 14, 2008 2:59 AM PST up reply actions

Reggie said at the beginning

of the season that this was one of the teams biggest weaknesses and it appears that it is being successfully addressed. Thanks for showing where and how you got the stats and yes it does show reggies’s effectivness as a coach with stats that don’t show up in the box score.

"We are in the business of kicking butt and business is very, very good." - Charles Barkley

by Bluejohn on Nov 13, 2008 1:16 PM PST reply actions