Our 4-headed center monster

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Published: February 13, 2011

I wanted to analyze how DJ Aaron Andersmith has performed since Oak went down. I have been less than thrilled with what I have seen from him in these past 7 games, so I crunched some numbers to find out, in the words of H Jon Benjamin, “Does this look as bad as it looks?”

First, in the 7 games without Oak, DJ Aaron Andersmith has averaged 58 minutes per game. 58! That would lead the league, if 4-headed monsters were eligible. To simplify things, I calculated the rest of his numbers per 32 minutes. Why 32 minutes? Because on the year our starters have averaged a tick over 32 minutes per game. 32 it is.

Pts       Reb       Blk       Fouls

10.5      8.1      0.9      4.6

What can we say about this statline?  Well, 8 boards and 1 block per game are rather mediocre averages for a starting center. The scoring isn’t bad… but remember this 7-game stretch includes career games by both Smith and Andersen.

And the fouls? If you project DJ Aaron Andersmith’s fouls per game over an 82 game season, he would come within 9 fouls of Darryl Dawkins’ NBA single-season record of 386.

So how crucial is it that we acquire a legit backup big? Even if Oak comes back soon, and even if both he and West stay healthy the rest of the way, we are going to need about 26-32 minutes per game from bigs not named Okafor or West. 

Good luck Demps!

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