New Orleans Hornets 2012-13 Power Rankings – Week 11

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Published: January 16, 2013

After a win in Philadelphia last night, the Hornets finished Week 10 of these power rankings 3-1, giving them their second week in a row without a losing record. The team improved to 6-2 with an active Eric Gordon and has as many wins in its past 9 games as it totaled in its first 29 games. How have the team’s power rankings changed as a result?

 

Week 11

 

1) Ryan Anderson, PF – 38 GP, 31.9 MPG, 55.8 TS%, 17.2% DRR, 5.4% TOR, .144 WS/48, 19.1 PER; Last Week: 1

Anderson has struggled a bit lately, but it hasn’t been anywhere near enough to bump him from the top of these rankings. Every player who makes his living with his 3-point shot will go through slumps, and that is what Anderson is dealing with right now. Combine that slump with a deep Hornets front court, and Monty doesn’t feel the need to force things if Ryan isn’t playing well. He’ll turn things around, and last night was a good move in that direction, totaling 14 points on 11 shots to go along with 9 rebounds in 29 minutes.

2) Robin Lopez, C – 38 GP, 26.0 MPG, 58.5 TS%, 11.1% ORR, 10.6% TOR, .146 WS/48, 20.5 PER; Last Week: 2

Another quiet but solid week for Lopez. Although he scored just barely over a point per field goal attempt this past week, he made up for his lack of scoring by taking care of the ball on offense and being a force on the defensive end, committing only about one turnover per 36 minutes and contributing 2.85 blocks per 36 minutes in that 4-game stretch. Eventually, a lack of minutes could cause him to fall a spot or two in these rankings, but not yet.  Lopez’s body of work over the  course of this season has been too solid to knock him from the #2 spot right now.

3) Greivis Vasquez, PG – 38 GP, 34.4 MPG, 51.5 TS%, 13.8% DRR, 34.5% AR,  12.9% TOR, .071 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 4

Another very good week for Greivis earns him a place back into the top 3. While his 2.31 assist/turnover ratio for the week is below his season average of 2.74 (it was at 2.80 for the week before last night’s 9 assist, 6 turnover performance), he has become a legitimate scoring threat for this Hornets team and one who needs to be planned for by opposing defenses. Arguably the biggest addition to offensive game has been his suddenly dangerous 3-point shot; after shooting 31.9% from long range in his first season with New Orleans, that percentage has skyrocketed to 39.7% this season after making 7 out of 15 over the past week. For comparison’s sake, Ryan Anderson is shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc so far this year.

4) Anthony Davis, PF – 25 GP, 29.6 MPG, 54.2 TS%, 10.6% ORR, 20.8% DRR, 10.2% TOR, 0.129 WS/48, 19.8 PER; Last Week: 3

Davis was generally solid while in the game over the past week; 38 points on 30 shots isvery solid, although his 18 rebounds over those four games leaves a lot to be desired. If I had to point to one reason for dropping out of the top 3, though, it’s his playing time. As Andrew noted last night, his minutes are down considerably over the past week; though he has averaged 30 minutes per game this season, that average has dropped to just 24 minutes over his past four games. This change has more to do with Monty riding the hot hand than anything Davis hasn’t done well, but it’s enough to help Vasquez leapfrog him in the rankings.

5) Eric Gordon, SG – 8 GP, 29.3 MPG, 48.0 TS%, 16.1% AR, 10.9% TOR, .018 WS/48, 15.8 PER; Last Week: 6

Production-wise, Gordon hasn’t done what we expected of him based on his reputation, but the fact of the matter is that it took the Hornets 8 tries to win as many games with him as they won without him in 30 tries (six). That has to count for something, and as of right now, that’s a move into the top 5 of these power rankings. He played in all four games over the past week, averaging 15.5 points on 13.8 shots to go along with 3.8 assists and 2.5 turnovers in 29.5 minutes. He really stepped up his scoring efficiency over the past two contests, pouring in 41 points on just 27 field goal attempts. If that kind of offense is what we see from Eric Gordon going forward, good things will happen for the Hornets.

6) Jason Smith, PF – 31 GP, 17.6 MPG, 52.4 TS%, 16.8% DRR, 12.1% TOR, .074 WS/48, 15.5 PER; Last Week: 5

Apart from the Hornets’ loss in New York during which he was a non-factor (only 7 minutes played), Smith once again played well this week, scoring 37 points on 28 shots in addition to 22 rebounds in the team’s three wins (70 minutes played). Jason continues to be a solid fourth big man in  this Hornets rotation, earning the confidence of his coach who will comfortably stick with him over more talented Hornets big men like Davis if he has the hot hand.

7) Al-Farouq Aminu, SF – 32 GP, 26.3 MPG, 50.6 TS%, 24.6% DRR, 14.5% AR, 17.4% TOR, .048 WS/48, 12.9 PER; Last Week: 9

Over the past week, Aminu has averaged an impressive 10.5 rebounds per game, 4 more per game than any Hornets player, which comes out to 14.4 per 36 minutes. If he were able to sustain that per-36 rebound total over the course of the season, he would trail just Kevin Love and Reggie Evans this year and be tied with Anderson Varejao for 3rd best in the entire NBA. Equally important to his rebounding prowess was his mere 1.5 turnovers per game over that stretch and improved shot selection, attempting slightly less than 5 field goal attempts per game (and making just over half of them!). Early returns show that maybe Coach Williams has finally gotten through to Aminu in regards to his role on the court, and if so, he could prove to be much more useful and efficient from here on out.

8) Brian Roberts, PG – 35 GP, 14.8 MPG, 50.1 TS%, 22.5% AR, 9.1% TOR, .062 WS/48, 14.8 PER; Last Week: 7

His minutes are still down,  but a better set of games from Roberts this week, as he appears to be figuring out how to make positive contributions even with less playing time. It’s even more impressive when you consider how he’s doing it; he is just 1-9 from 3-point range over his past 4 games, but he has made up for that by earning 9 free throw attempts and making all of them. As a result, he has scored 1.38 points per field goal attempt in that stretch with five assists and just one turnover in 41 minutes, very solid numbers for a backup guard. As was the case with Davis, Roberts dropped a spot mainly due to lack of playing time.

9) Lance Thomas, SF – 31 GP, 13.9 MPG, 51.4 TS%, 7.9% ORR, 6.8% TOR, .069 WS/48, 9.0 PER; Last Week: 8

Aminu’s very solid week has unsurprisingly led to less playing time for Thomas, culminating with a DNP-CD last night in Philadelphia. In the prior three games combined, he played 32 minutes and totaled 6 points on 5 attempts, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and just 1 turnover. Not bad by any stretch, but not enough to take minutes back from AFA.

10) Roger Mason Jr., SG – 35 GP, 19.3 MPG, 59.9 TS%, 13.2% DRR, 17.8% AR, 11.7% TOR, .074 WS/48, 11.0 PER; Last Week: 10

Mason may have just had his best 4-game stretch since turning 30, scoring 43 points on just 24 shots in 86 minutes of action largely thanks to making 8 out of his 9 attempts from beyond the arc. He also contributed 13 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals, and just 1 turnover in that stretch. Mason has picked up a lot of the slack in the 3-point shooting department with Anderson’s recent struggles, but if they can both get hot at the same time, this Hornets team will be dangerous.

11) Xavier Henry, SG – 24 GP, 12.3 MPG, 50.6 TS%, 13.8% DRR, 10.6% TOR, .047 WS/48, 10.9 PER; Last Week: 12

After not playing in the game against Houston last Wednesday, Henry received more minutes in each progressive game this past week, and rewarded Coach Williams for his trust. Henry played just 29 minutes total, but was 7-11 from the field and finished with 16 points in that time, also contributing 5 rebounds and 2 assists with just 1 turnover. The bulk of those minutes came last night, with Henry looking very solid in 15 minutes of action, most coming at small forward position instead of shooting guard. As I mentioned last night, playing the 3 is Henry’s best shot at carving out a role in this league, so I’m glad he’s seeing more of his action at this spot.

12) Austin Rivers, SG – 37 GP, 24.7 MPG, 39.9 TS%, 20.5% AR, 12.0% TOR, -0.058 WS/48, 5.4 PER; Last Week: 11

Just, yuck. After missing all five of his shots in his 20 minutes against Houston a week ago, Monty finally said “enough is enough” and dropped him in the rotation. As a result, he has played just 13 minutes over the past three games, contributing just a single point on two shot attempts, one rebound, two assists, and five turnovers. I’m not sure what he’s doing in the NBA at this point, as he would probably be better served getting more playing time in the D-League.

13) Darius Miller, SF – 23 GP, 13.6 MPG, 49.90 TS%, 28.2% AR, 14.1% TOR, .029 WS/48, 6.0 PER; Last Week: 13

Miller remained in the D-League over the last week.

NR) Donald Sloan, PG

 

All season long, these player power rankings will be presented alongside various “advanced stats” in order to more accurately evaluate each Hornets player’s impact (click here for a glossary of the statistic abbreviations). In addition, we also have created a chart with the goal of standardizing advanced stat categories to distinguish the good numbers from the bad ones. Hopefully, these tools give each of you the means to comprehend the advanced statistical metrics used in these rankings as well as other columns throughout Hornets247.com.

For historical power rankings, click here.

 

All stats were obtained from ESPN.com except for WS/48 stats, which are a product ofBasketball-Reference.com.

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