Taking a Look at Advanced Statistics from Preseason

And yes, Landry’s rebounding numbers look horrible. I think if he goes into an offensive slump this season, it’s going to be VERY bad for him, although a 6th man role may fit him quite well when all’s said and done.

Should I assume that Donté’s turnover rate was less than 7.4% since he showed up in other stats? That encouraging.

never mind my comment about Head vs Jeter in the other thread, I see what you based the opinion on but – small sample size . . .

DeMarcus uses up a lot of possessions, and that’s a bit troubling right now, because he’s pretty inefficient. He tends to keep trying to score even when he’s having an off night, and he needs to learn to utilize his excellent passing skills more often, to move the ball around.

And people wonder why I wanted Derrick Favors. This is exactly the problem I had with DMC in college, and so far it’s holding true in the pro’s. Whether it changes or not we shall see. It might in 2 years, and maybe not. Only time will tell on this one.

…is he came to camp ‘improved’ and in great shape after a ‘great’ summer. And these are the results? Yikes.

At least Carl was admittedly ‘rusty’ and is self-critical despite playing pretty good. DMC has a lot of work to do on his conditioning and experience to gain. What excuse does JT have? He has gotten minutes, knows the league, and yet he wallows in underachieving.

I have been accused of having irrational hatred and emotional bias against JT by many on StR. Hopefully these silly accusations will end as others are able to look at JT with the same objective criticism as I do. I scoffed at the presumption he is an ideal third big on a contending team, unless you are contending for another high lotto pick.

The idea that JT is a beast on the boards can be dismissed too. When he gets tough rebounds in traffic, and rebounds balls outside his own area more often, then we can talk about his beastly status. A player cannot be a beast on the boards if he has bad hands and below average hand-eye coordination.

The further idea that JT needs to be on the floor for rebounding and defense is negated by alarming TO rate and inability to score with any efficiency. What good is gaining a possession (rebound) if you can’t do anything with it (TO or miss)?

JT had the 31st out of 37th worst PER of all Western conference ’4’s and ’5’s players last year. This preseason is not an anomaly. Just a continuation of the player he has shown to be, fundamentally lacking with an unstable emotional temperament.

With Sammy D and Upside rehabbing, with DMC learning the ways of the NBA, we really could use stability down low and a reliable second big to Carl to make a lot of smart and basic plays. JT could be a significant anchor and winning influence if he could raise his level of play to one of consistent contribution. Unfortunately he doesn’t appear capable.

Further, Carl and Omri need to have higher usage rates than JT. A double whammy to team success is a player who is not very good, but thinks he is: a relatively low PER and high usage rate is a recipe for defeat.

Sorry for all the negativity before the season even starts, lol, but Akis advanced stats set me off, it is his fault. :) I don’t like to be negative, which I know is probably hard to believe, lol, so I will end with a positive. Upside had 3 blocks in 14 minutes, only the stat man screwed him out of one in the second quarter. On a prorated 36 minutes basis, Upside will average almost 8 blocks a game and shatter the NBA record!!

From what I’ve been told about True Shooting Percentage, I can only assume we’ll be benching Tyreke in favor of Head. Right?

Great job, Aykis.

It wasn’t just the small number of games, but the uneven amount of minutes and the unusual rotations. It’s really unrealistic to believe you can get any true analysis from these type of numbers.

Jeter played 145 minutes while Head only played 110, and Tyreke played 188. Jeter and Tyreke played with the starter more than Head, so how can their numbers be evaluated fairly.

As far as Donte, if you adjust the PT for 30 mpg, Casspi scores 10.9ppg, JT scores 10.4ppg and Donte scores 9.7ppg. Taking it one step further, adjusted for 30mpg, JT & Donte tied for 2nd in blocks per game at 1.10 and only are behind Hassan who would average 4.3. In Steals per 30 mpg, Donte is 2nd with .88spg to Carl’s .95 while Casspi is last among the front court players at .61.

I’m not trying to rank anyone with these numbers, only pointing out that the disparity in minutes played makes the small sample size even more unreliable. I believe that this is a time when you need to go by what you saw rather then by any set of numbers.

What I saw was our offense looked one dimentional. Omri looked only slightly better offensively than JT & Donte who seem to put up the occasional wild shot or pass. Both JT & Donte seem like better shot blockers than Cuz who’s having a hard time with bigtime NBA centers, and offers little weakside help defensively.

As the season starts, I’m much more concerned with our offense, then our defense or rebounding. So until Dalembert returns, I think the starting lineup needs to be determined by matchups, rather then any one skill set. And, the matchup that poses the biggest challenge in the Minny game is Love. I don’t believe either Carl or JT can match Love’s offense right now. So, it comes down to defense, so I’d go with Carl, Cuz & Donte. With the understanding that Cousins is only going to get 6 minutes per stretch and Hassan isn’t in game shape so he’ll have shorter stretchs than DeMarcus. That means JT sees most of his minutes coming at center.

As far as the SF position goes, Omri offers more scoring and rebounding but Donte offers more shotblocking and steals, which is the kind of help we need with DMC & Carl starting. But, if JT rotates in for Cuz, I could see PW rotating Omri in for Donte at the same time. At this point in the season, I don’t see any real advantage Offensively & Defensively which ever way we go because no one on the entire team has really stepped up.

And general offensive efficiency, or even competance, as HT mentions above.

I think the D will really come around quite a bit.

Now do me proud and make a bigger deal out of these than is humanly possible

I knew you wouldn’t let me down.

Kings fans are at each others throats over preseason statistics, i.e. see the above threads.

Good God, I am glad the season is about to start and StR banter helps gear me up every time.

Well presented data Aykis… Enjoyed and processed..

The words “Advanced Statistics” usually send me running in the other direction. I actually aced Statistics a few years back (literally got 105 outta 100 on three straight tests) but for whatever reason the advanced stuff often makes my eyes glaze over.

This post is the exception. Very interesting stuff and organized to be super easy to read.

This is semi-off topic, but I just feel the need to say that the editors/contributors (whatever the title is…) of StR are beyond amazing. Seriously, I just spent some time looking at a certain NFL blog of a team that shall not be named, and their writers/editors/contributors/mods/whatever they’re callled were so unbelievably biased and utterly unprofessional. I know that games are emotional, but I never see the writers/editors/etc of StR engaging in shit like that. You guys are always fair, always even-handed and are the first to admit when the Kings make mistakes. I really appreciate and admire the way you are able to put aside emotions and be really objective despite the fact that you’re obviously Kings fans. So in summary, StR is the best sports site on the Internet. The end.