The Hornets finished their most recent week of games with a 1-2 record, sandwiching a win over Detroit between very bad losses to the Thunder and Magic. The same team that stepped up in crunch time against the Pistons folded down the stretch against the Magic, as New Orleans inexplicably blew a nine point lead with 3 1/2 minutes to go against the NBA’s second worst team. Here are the player power rankings updated with this week’s results.

Week 18

1) Ryan Anderson, PF – 61 GP, 31.1 MPG, 57.0 TS%, 16.0% DRR, 6.6% TOR, .145 WS/48, 19.3 PER; Last Week: 1

Anderson posted scoring numbers very close to his season averages this week, putting up 15.3 points per contest while shooting 38.9% from 3-point range. In the win over Detroit, he hauled in 13 rebounds, but totaled just two in the Hornets’ other two losses. Fellow True Hoop writer Jared Wade brought a very interesting fact to my attention yesterday about Anderson’s improved game this year, as he mentioned that more of Anderson’s jumpers from 16 feet and beyond are coming unassisted than ever before. This season, one out of every nine of Ryan’s made shots from this distance have been unassisted, while he made a TOTAL of just two such shots throughout the entire 2011-12 season. Anderson appears to be learning how to create shooting space for himself even when the pass to him doesn’t create enough of it.

2) Greivis Vasquez, PG – 61 GP, 34.2 MPG, 49.9 TS%, 13.8% DRR, 35.6% AR,  11.9% TOR, .074 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 2

Since the new year, Vasquez has been able to reduce his turnovers. From November to February, his turnovers per game average by month has gone from 3.5 to 3.6 to 3.1 to 2.5. Considering his inability to take care of the ball has been one of his biggest flaws, this trend is one that is very nice to see. The next hurdle that Vasquez needs to clear (and this is no easy task) is figuring out how to achieve the same level of success against the league’s top teams that he does against his weaker opponents.

3) Anthony Davis, PF – 46 GP, 27.9 MPG, 54.6 TS%, 22.5% DRR, 10.1% TOR, 0.140 WS/48, 20.7 PER; Last Week: 3

Davis didn’t play at all this week until Monday night thanks to his shoulder injury, but he came back with authority. AD scored 17 points on 13 shots to go along with 15 rebounds (5 offensive) and 4 blocks. Just as importantly, he logged 39 minutes, the first time he has logged 35 minutes or more in a game since New Year’s Day. With Smith out for the year, expect Davis to continue to receive more minutes than he has been getting.

4) Robin Lopez, C – 61 GP, 25.5 MPG, 58.7 TS%, 11.2% ORR, 10.2% TOR, .143 WS/48, 19.8 PER; Last Week: 4

A pretty pedestrian week for Lopez, scoring as many points as shots taken (26) along with only 11 rebounds in 73 minutes of play. He played pretty solid interior defense, though, recording 8 blocks in that time span. Like Davis, Lopez should see a spike in minutes with Jason Smith out for the season, and hopefully he can finish off this season like he started it.

5) Eric Gordon, SG – 24 GP, 29.5 MPG, 52.2 TS%, 14.3% AR, 13.1% TOR, .024 WS/48, 14.9 PER; Last Week: 5

After sitting out the OKC beat down last Wednesday night, Gordon started in both of the following two games, playing about 30 minutes in each one. Though he shot just 40.6% from the field, he scored about 1.2 points per field goal attempt thanks to making 5 out of 12 three-point attempts and 7 out of 8 free throws. He also tallied 8 assists and 4 rebounds over those two games, but committed 4 turnovers as well (all against the Pistons on Friday night). We still have yet to see the super-efficient scorer Eric Gordon that we hoped for when he first came to New Orleans in the Chris Paul trade.

6) Al-Farouq Aminu, SF – 55 GP, 27.2 MPG, 51.9 TS%, 26.3% DRR, 14.0% AR, 16.0% TOR, .072 WS/48, 13.8 PER; Last Week: 6

Nothing out of the ordinary from Aminu this past week. Coincedently enough, he scored as many points as field goal attempts in each of his past three games, and also gathered 29 rebounds over that stretch to go along with 5 blocks and 3 steals. Above average rebounding and below average shooting has become the norm for Aminu, and as long as he keeps the turnovers to a minimum (only three over the past three games), that’s okay with me.

7) Jason Smith, PF – 51 GP, 17.2 MPG, 54.4 TS%, 16.6% DRR, 11.6% TOR, .095 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 7

After his partially torn labrum became a fully torn one, Smith will have surgery this week and miss the remainder of the season. Jason has paid through pain all season long, and did so without ever complaining. He will be missed, and we’ll all be pulling for a healthy recovery.

8) Brian Roberts, PG – 57 GP, 14.3 MPG, 50.8 TS%, 24.1% AR, 8.2% TOR, .079 WS/48, 15.3 PER; Last Week: 8

Because of Monty Williams’ desire to give Rivers more minutes at point guard, Roberts has not played in the Hornets’ past two contests. He has performed adequately as the Hornets’ backup point guard, but it is in the Hornets’ best long-term interests for Rivers to start getting those minutes. I would not be opposed, however, to giving Roberts a few of Henry’s (or even Mason’s) minutes as the team’s backup 2-guard.

9) Roger Mason Jr., SG – 55 GP, 18.1 MPG, 59.4 TS%, 13.0 % DRR, 16.0% AR, 11.6% TOR, .069 WS/48, 10.9 PER; Last Week: 9

For the week, Mason was 6-13 from the field, including 3-8 from 3-point range, for 17 points to go along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 turnover in 44 minutes of play. Pretty standard week for Mason.

10) Lance Thomas, SF – 49 GP, 11.9 MPG, 51.9 TS%, 7.9% ORR, 8.5% TOR, .066 WS/48, 8.6 PER; Last Week: 10

With the injury to Smith, Thomas picked up extra playing time this past week, logging just over 15 minutes per game. Lance played well offensively when scoring opportunities arose, scoring 13 points on 6 shots thanks to making 5 of 6 free throws. He also recorded 9 rebounds and committed just one turnover. Thomas got more minutes, and responded with the best week he has played in a while.

11) Austin Rivers, SG – 60 GP, 23.4 MPG,  42.5 TS%, 20.1% AR, 11.7% TOR, -0.044 WS/48, 5.7 PER; Last Week: 11

Rivers continues to show some signs of improvement since the All-Star break. Over that stretch, he has scored 55 points on 47 shots, and that point total would be even higher if he wasn’t just 5-11 from the free throw line. While he hasn’t recorded a ton of assists (15) over those eight games, he has posted a 3:1 assist:turnover ratio, far better than his 1.75 AST/TO ratio on the season as a whole. Baby steps.

12) Xavier Henry, SG – 40 GP, 11.6 MPG, 48.9 TS%, 13.2% DRR, 11.4% TOR, .017 WS/48, 8.5 PER; Last Week: 12

Not a bad week for Henry from an offensive perspective, scoring 17 points on 12 shots in 47 minutes of play. Apart from 5 rebounds, though, he added little else. One important thing to note is that Henry made 7 out of 8 free throws in those three games, which hopefully is a trend that we will see continue.

13) Darius Miller, SF – 33 GP, 12.6 MPG, 48.8 TS%, 25.8% AR, 12.4% TOR, .033 WS/48, 6.1 PER; Last Week: 13

Miller got 16 minutes against the Thunder last Wednesday (mostly garbage time) and hasn’t played since. It’s looking less and less like he will have any real future in the league, as he simply doesn’t have enough NBA-caliber skills.

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.

One Comment