Stats are fun. And though the season is young, some patterns are starting to emerge for the Pelicans, particularly in the starting unit. So I decided to put together a couple of stats that I found interesting and provide a little explanation as to why I found them interesting or what seems to be causing them.
***All stats via NBA Wowy!
Stat 1: It is no longer called the Kobe assist. It is the Tyreke Evans assist.
When playing with the starters, 50% of Tyreke’s misses are rebounded by the Pelicans. 50 freaking percent. If you are looking for some sort of number to explain how pivotal Evans is to the offense, look no further. Tyreke is a drive machine, and he is freeing up an absurd amount of easy cleanup opportunities for Davis and Asik. To be clear, it isn’t all Tyreke- Davis can access putbacks that very few other players can and Asik is very good at carving out space.. but when Tyreke gets to the rack, good things happen.
Stat 2: Davis has to be the most unusual high-usage player in the NBA
For those of you who are unfamiliar with advanced stats, Davis’s conditional usage rate of 31.2 with the starters would be good for 6th highest in the NBA. The players with higher usage rates? Kobe, Cousins, Melo, Harden, Rose. All of these players do a heavy load of creating via isolation. Davis, despite being near the league lead in points, does not. 33 of his 45 made field goals in this unit were assisted.
Davis is involved in almost every play, of course, but for every isolation play or pin-down he receives, he is setting the screen on a pick and roll, flying down the floor in transition, or using his outrageously long arms to corral an offensive rebound. Davis could legitimately score 20 points a game without having a play being drawn up for him.
6 responses to “Stats v 1.0: The Starting Five”
So, given his 3 point shooting, is Tyreke the starter who the Pelicans offense score most efficiently? AD? Asik? Drew? And if so by how much?
Certainly Tyreke’s higher then normal misses are giving our big guys rebound opportunities. This number is destined for lower percentages but it is cool to see how high it is at this point. I am most excited about his assists and he seems to be getting better at it.
I think that is precisely what makes A.D. such a valuable player…he can impact games and still “get his” without plays necessarily being drawn up for him. I’ve got to think that at some point teams will pointedly try to keep him from following the penetrator in, but if so they are stuck with no help defense for the defender getting beat. And if they stick to Davis, then Asik gets free. One of the three are going to be free to the rim. Me likey!
I would like to see A.D. improve his passing and back to the goal offensive ability, but I am sure that is to come!
The fact that Brow can be so impactful without having plays drawn for him is his greatest asset.
Hopefully this helps us in free agency.
504ever In my mind, the offense takes a huge dip without Tyreke, at least until Eric Gordon becomes anything remotely resembling his old self.
Pelican Poster agreed on all counts.
Caffeinedisaster it’s what makes him such a unique superstar.