No, I’m not crazy. The numbers are telling it.
Stephen Curry and the Warriors are playing one memorable season so far and something great may be in front of us in the next months. Curry leads the league with 33,4 points per night, has the highest PIE (Player Impact Estimate) after eleven games according to NBA.com/Stats and has delivered a few highlights in the past weeks. The Warriors remain unbeaten this season and need five more wins to set a best start record since Washington Capitols (1948-1949) and Houston Rockets (1993/1994). Both of them had 15-0. So what’s my point?
Stephen Curry has being doing one thing extremely well and other ones are just average (for a top-level player). I decided to compare him to the other four top five PIE players till now (15th November 2015). They are: Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers), Russel Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder), Chris Bosh (Miami Heat) and LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers).
NBA.com/Stats shows nowadays the traditional and the advanced statistics. The traditional statistics present averages and help to understand the performance of a single player. The advanced statistics (or floor statistics, according to Dean Oliver in Basketball on Paper) show the impact a player has on his/her team’s performance and for this reason represent the starting point for more advanced analysis.
When looking to the averages, Curry has the best 3-point and free-throw percentages, steals and points and +/- averages among the top five (please refer to the glossary in the end of the post). Related to field goals percentage and rebounds, it’s ok to have slightly lower values than other players more used to play closer to the rim. The number of assists is influenced by the great number of shots he takes himself.
Now to the point: Curry and Westbrook present both the best Net Rating, though Curry presents slightly better Defensive Rating. Westbrook has a problem with the most turnovers among the five players at the moment, and that’s why the turnover ratio of Westbrook is the highest among them. To compensate it, Westbrook presents an Assist to Turnover ratio of 2,18, only behind Blake Griffin.
However, the most important numbers are represented by the Assist Percentage and by the Assist Ratio. These indicators show that Westbrook is from far the best one on getting his teammates involved in the game. Furthermore, he has also great impact on the rebounds his team catches on both ends and is for sure the most consistent player this season in different aspects of the game, as he has already 8 double doubles and two triple doubles in this season, competing only with Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons), who has 10 double doubles.
Those are irreplaceble players, but losing Westbrook would seem to have greater impact on Thunder performance than any other of the cited players would have on their teams.
What do you think about it?
@TacticalNumbers
eduardo.rostaiser@gmail.com
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Glossary:
Defensive Rating (DefRtg): Measures a team’s points allowed per 100 possessions. On a player level this statistic is team points allowed per 100 possessions while he is on court.
Offensive Rating (OffRtg): Measures a team’s points scored per 100 possessions. On a player level this statistic is team points scored per 100 possessions while he is on court.
Net Rating (NetRtg): Measures a team’s point differential per 100 possessions. On player level this statistic is the team’s point differential per 100 possessions while he is on court.
+/- : The +/- stat looks at point differential when players are in and out of a game, demonstrating how teams perform with various combinations.
Percentage of Defensive Rebounds (%DREB): The percentage of team defensive rebounds grabbed by a player.
Percentage of Offensive Rebounds (%OREB): The percentage of team offensive rebounds grabbed by a player
Rebound Percentage (REB%): The percentage of available total rebounds a player or team grabbed while on the floor.
Assist Percentage (Ast%): The percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor.
Assist Ratio (AST Ratio): The number of assists a player averages per 100 possessions used.
Assist to Turnover Ratio: The number of assists for player or team compared to the number of turnovers they have committed.
Double double: When a player reaches ten or more in two statistical categories.
Triple double: When a player reaches ten or more in three statistical categories.
Tactical Numbers 