The Hornets finished their most recent week 1-3, facing three probable playoff teams (Rockets, Spurs, Grizzlies) and a fourth who could still very well get there given their level of talent (Lakers). What kinds of changes did these games cause within the rankings?

Week 13

1) Ryan Anderson, PF – 45 GP, 31.6 MPG, 56.6 TS%, 16.8% DRR, 5.3% TOR, .154 WS/48, 19.5 PER; Last Week: 1

Anderson has been a scoring efficiency machine over the past week, piling up the free throws (13) and made 3-pointers (12) en route to 73 points on 51 shots. He put up 13 attempts against Memphis on Sunday night, making 7 of them, with every single shot coming from beyond the arc. He may not have been selected to the all-star team, but he has been the closest thing to an all-star on the Hornets’ roster in the 2012-13 season thus far.

2) Greivis Vasquez, PG – 45 GP, 34.3 MPG, 50.1 TS%, 13.2% DRR, 35.2% AR,  12.7% TOR, .063 WS/48, 16.2 PER; Last Week: 2

Pretty brutal scoring week for Vasquez, but he kept chugging along as a facilitator, dishing out 43 dimes and posting an assist/turnover ratio of over 4. He continues to play well despite logging heavy minutes; entering last night’s game, he was just one of 35 players to have logged over 1,500 minutes so far this season. He is 162 minutes shy of his entire season total during last season’s lockout-shortened year. It will be interesting to see how Greivis handles such a heavy work load as the season wears on.

3) Anthony Davis, PF – 32 GP, 28.7 MPG, 56.3 TS%, 21.7% DRR, 10.7% TOR, 0.147 WS/48, 21.0 PER; Last Week: 4

Fortunately, Davis’ rolled ankle didn’t force him to miss any additional time past the night that the injury occurred. Davis had pretty solid all-around numbers for the week, but the 4 turnovers per 36 minutes that he posted during the 3-game stretch before last night is sloppier than usual (his season average is about half of that). He also averaged about 1.5 free throw attempts less per 36 minutes in those three games (2.7) than he has so far this season (4.2). A lot of this likely has to do with opposing teams learning how to better defend him, but Davis has the skill set to expand his game to easily counteract this; the only question is how quickly he is able to do it. Last night was a quick step in the right direction, as he totaled 18 points on just 12 shots with no turnovers.

4) Robin Lopez, C – 45 GP, 25.4 MPG, 58.6 TS%, 11.5% ORR, 10.8% TOR, .142 WS/48, 19.9 PER; Last Week: 3

Before last night’s game against the Lakers (in which he played 33 minutes largely due to the Dwight Howard match-up), Lopez had averaged just under 17 minutes per game in the other three games over the past seven days. Though this amount of playing time is more in line with what most people expected before the season, his production this year would appear to warrant more time on the court. The problem for Lopez is that the other three guys with whom he shares the front court with are also playing quite well. I truly believe that a trade of Smith or Lopez is coming; the only question is whether it happens this season or later.

5) Eric Gordon, SG – 14 GP, 29.6 MPG, 54.5 TS%, 13.8% AR, 12.5% TOR, .079 WS/48, 17.6 PER; Last Week: 5

Gordon picked up his scoring efficiency considerably over the past week (70 points on 39 field goal attempts), but inexplicably disappeared on offense in the win against Memphis on Sunday night with only 8 points (albeit on just 5 shots). Turnovers are still a concern for him as well, although his sky high usage rate (28.3%) makes those turnover numbers look less frightening. An area where he has looked consistently strong is on defense; he has provided a clear upgrade to the Hornets’ back court in this regard, proving to be a significantly better option than any of the team’s other guards.

6) Jason Smith, PF – 38 GP, 17.8 MPG, 53.0 TS%, 16.2% DRR, 12.3% TOR, .082 WS/48, 15.7 PER; Last Week: 6

Smith had a very up-and-down week, posting two solid games against San Antonio and Memphis (28 points on 18 shots, 14 free throw attempts, 13 rebounds, 0 turnovers) and two lackluster outings against Houston and Los Angeles (9 points on 11 shots, 3 free throw attempts, 7 rebounds, 4 turnovers). If there has been any real knock to Smith’s contributions this season, it is that lack of consistency.

7) Al-Farouq Aminu, SF – 39 GP, 26.7 MPG, 52.2 TS%, 25.2% DRR, 13.7% AR, 16.3% TOR, .066 WS/48, 14.0 PER; Last Week: 7

After three more games of average scoring and solid rebounding, Aminu got shut down by Metta World Peace and the Lakers, partially due to foul trouble. He was limited to two rebounds and no points last night, as Los Angeles clearly made it a priority to keep him off of the boards whenever possible. Fortunately enough, this kind of performance is more of an outlier than a normal occurrence over the month of January, so hopefully he can bounce back in Utah tonight. He is one of just 21 qualifying players in the entire NBA this season with a rebound rate of over 25%, and is the only small forward among them.

8) Brian Roberts, PG – 44 GP, 14.4 MPG, 48.4 TS%, 22.8% AR, 8.6% TOR, .051 WS/48, 13.7 PER; Last Week: 8

Though Roberts has been pretty good at taking care of the ball this season (10 assists and just one turnover in his past four games), his shot selection has seemed to regress as the season has drawn on. Scoring 19 points on 26 shots as a shoot-first point guard is not going to cut it even as a second string PG (Jannero Pargo, anyone?), but Roberts’ 2.75 assist/turnover ratio for the season gives hope for improvement if he can make some adjustments to his game.

9) Roger Mason Jr., SG – 41 GP, 18.7 MPG, 59.4 TS%, 13.2% DRR, 17.2% AR, 12.1% TOR, .070 WS/48, 10.7 PER; Last Week: 9

Mason has officially cooled off, and as a result has found his way back to the bench, totaling three minutes over his past two games. In the two before that, he played 33 minutes but attempted just four shots (making one) and has contributed little else to the team in other areas of the game.

10) Lance Thomas, SF – 38 GP, 12.9 MPG, 49.8 TS%, 7.9% ORR, 8.5% TOR, .054 WS/48, 8.0 PER; Last Week: 10

Thomas’ minutes have moved in the opposite direction as Mason’s, as he totaled 33 minutes over his past two games after just getting just six in the two before that. The results were similar, though,  as he has failed to bring much to the game besides a little rebounding and a little defense.

11) Austin Rivers, SG – 44 GP, 23.8 MPG, 39.9 TS%, 19.9% AR, 11.8% TOR, -0.058 WS/48, 5.3 PER; Last Week: 12

After two more brutal games against the Spurs and Rockets (8 points on 18 shots, 3 assists, & 2 turnovers), Rivers actually approached competence in his most recent two games (15 points on 12 shots, 1 assist, 2 steals, & 2 turnovers). Clearly, still a long way from even being average, but hooray progress!

12) Xavier Henry, SG – 28 GP, 11.8 MPG, 48.8 TS%, 14.0% DRR, 10.6% TOR, .032 WS/48, 9.5 PER; Last Week: 11

Only eleven total minutes for Henry over the Hornets’ past four games, including two DNPs. Monty is giving multiple people tons of chances to earn minutes backing up Aminu, but no one has done nearly enough to deserve consistent minutes at the spot (which may have led to the next guy getting recalled from the D-League).

13) Darius Miller, SF – 23 GP, 13.3 MPG, 51.0 TS%, 27.8% AR, 13.9% TOR, .041 WS/48, 6.2 PER; Last Week: 13

Miller finally returned to the Hornets’ bench on Sunday night in Memphis, but did not see the court until last night when he logged five minutes against the Lakers, making his only shot attempt.

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 of Basketball-Reference.com.

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