Ryan Anderson Stat-Pack

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Published: September 2, 2012

Michael and I are taking a week off of the podcast, so instead I bring to you the Ryan Anderson stat-pack I’ve been sitting on for months.  Consume and enjoy. Oh, and should we call Ryan Anderson “Neo”? I think that could work . . .

On multiple episodes of the podcast and a slew of different posts here on the site, I’ve emphasized just how bad midrange shots are when compared to shots at the rim and behind the three point line.  On average, a shot around the rim – without free throws taken into account – was worth 1.24 points per shot(pps) last year.  A shot from the three point line was worth 1.04 pps.  Midrange shots – and it actually doesn’t matter whether it was 5 feet or 20 feet – were worth 0.75 pps. Nothing more needs to be said there.

Of course, it’s easy to write about it, it’s another thing to be good enough of a basketball player to be able to earn these types of shots.  Defenses are designed to stop penetration – and good defenses run shooters off the three point line as well.  In fact, you’ll find most prolific shooters are forced to take anywhere from 40%-50% of their jumpers inside the three point line. It’s simply not easy to manufacture these kinds of shots.

Why do I bring this up?  Because creating these smart, efficient shots happens to be Ryan Anderson’s primary skill in the NBA. For once it’s easy for me, without using video, to show how smart a player is at basketball and how he helps his team.  With Ryan Anderson, it takes just three numbers:  3.8, 1.7, and 6.9. Those are Ryan Anderson’s per game shot attempts broken down by location.  3.8 shots at the rim, 1.7 shots from midrange, 6.9 shots from three point land.   That means that only 13.7% of Anderson’s total shots are taken from the dumb zone.  That’s a blazingly smart – and skilled – player.

Now the question becomes what sort of impact does that kind of shot creation have on a team?  Well, I’ll let the various advanced stats tell the tale.  Oh, and let me remind you – unless you are evaluating someone named Lebron, Durant, Paul or Howard, you can usually find at least one advanced stat that screams mediocrity.  Here’s Anderson:

  • Ryan Anderson’s PER was 21.25, ranking him 29th in the league. (15 is average)
  • NBA Win Shares (modified from Bill James baseball method) credits Ryan Anderson with 9.32 Wins – ranking him 23rd in the league.
  • Wages of Wins rates his efforts a .228 (.100 is an average NBA player) which was 27th best in the league  – but if we take into account the minutes he played, he earned his team an estimated 9.3 wins, which was 12th best in the league.
  • Anderson’s Adjusted +/- ranked him 27th overall, crediting him with helping Orlando outscore opponents by an average of +5.49 points per 100 possessions, regardless of whom was playing with him.
  • Anderson’s Simple Offensive Rating was +16.14, meaning that he improved his team’s offense by 16.14 points per 100 posessions when he entered the game.  That is by far the best in the league, topping two cats named Blake Griffin and Chris Paul.

In fact, the only place you can nitpick is on the defensive end of the floor, where Ryan Anderson is credited with holding opposing power forwards to below average PERs of 14.1 – and a couple other stats show that the team’s defense was largely unaffected(positively or negatively) by his presence on the court.

Personally, after watching last year’s offensive trainwreck, I’m keen for any player who helps this offense and holds his own defensively.  You?

To cap this post off, here are some stats courtesy of Hoopdata.  I always like to look at how a player performs compared to an average basketball player.  Here are Mr. Anderson’s stats.  Enjoy:

 

Player

USG

TS%

%Ast

Ast Ratio

TOR

%Blkd

And1%

FTA/FGA

PER

League Average PF

19.62

53.1

67.9

12.58

12.39

6.6

2.9

0.29

15.88

Ryan Anderson

21.23

58.9

73.5

6.07

6.41

4.9

2.1

0.23

21.25

Player

ORR

DRR

TRR

STL

BLK

CHG

DEF PLS

PF

League Average PF

8.6

19.1

13.8

0.71

0.77

0.21

1.70

2.3

Ryan Anderson

13.0

14.7

13.9

0.82

0.43

0.39

1.64

2.4

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