Greg Smith leads the Rockets in EFF48M

Greg Smith currently ranks 4th among all qualified NBA players in terms of EFF48M, an efficiency indicator, after only Tim Duncan, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant.
<table border="1">
<tr><th>RANK</th><th>NAME</th><th>EFF</th><th>PER</th><th>EFF48M</th></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Greg Smith</td><td>10.5</td><td>23.34</td><td>34.85</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>James Harden</td><td>23.3</td><td>22.88</td><td>28.98</td></tr><tr><td>59</td><td>Omer Asik</td><td>16.3</td><td>14.20</td><td>25.53</td></tr><tr><td>109</td><td>Jeremy Lin</td><td>15</td><td>14.51</td><td>21.99</td></tr><tr><td>115</td><td>Chandler Parsons</td><td>16.8</td><td>14.65</td><td>21.7</td></tr><tr><td>121</td><td>Patrick Patterson</td><td>13.1</td><td>14.87</td><td>21.36</tr><tr><td>125</td><td>Marcus Morris</td><td>9.6</td><td>13.85</td><td>21.04</tr><tr><td>199</td><td>Toney Douglas</td><td>7.2</td><td>12.41</td><td>17.59</tr><tr><td>215</td><td>Carlos Delfino</td><td>8.3</td><td>10.35</td><td>16.52</tr></table>(Season 2012-13, as of Dec. 24, 2012)

We can see from the list that James Harden ranks after Greg Smith in both PER and EFF48M for the current season. And Jeremy Lin falls further behind.

For the purpose of comparison, I put together the EFF48M data for Yao Ming, James Harden, and Tracy McGrady as follows. We can see that in 2006-07 Season Yao Ming ranked 1st among all NBA players in EFF48M.
<table border="1">
<tr><th>RANK</th><th>PLAYER, TEAM</th><th>GP</th><th>MPG</th><th>PTS</th><th>EFF</th><th>RPG</th><th>APG</th><th>STPG</th><th>BLKPG</th><th>EFF48M</th><th>SEASON</th></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Ming Yao, HOU</td><td>82</td><td>29</td><td>13.5</td><td>17.7</td><td>8.23</td><td>1.7</td><td>0.4</td><td>1.79</td><td>29.21</td><td>2002-03</td></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Ming Yao, HOU</td><td>82</td><td>32.8</td><td>17.5</td><td>20.6</td><td>8.96</td><td>1.5</td><td>0.3</td><td>1.90</td><td>30.11</td><td>2003-04</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Ming Yao, HOU</td><td>80</td><td>30.6</td><td>18.3</td><td>20.6</td><td>8.40</td><td>0.8</td><td>0.4</td><td>2.00</td><td>32.31</td><td>2004-05</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Ming Yao, HOU</td><td>57</td><td>33.6</td><td>22.3</td><td>25.0</td><td>10.2</td><td>1.5</td><td>0.5</td><td>1.65</td><td>34.84</td><td>2005-06</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>Yao Ming, HOU</td><td>48</td><td>32.7</td><td>25.0</td><td>25.8</td><td>9.40</td><td>2.0</td><td>0.4</td><td>1.96</td><td>36.63</td><td>2006-07</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Ming Yao, HOU</td><td>55</td><td>37.2</td><td>22.0</td><td>25.5</td><td>10.8</td><td>2.3</td><td>0.5</td><td>2.02</td><td>32.97</td><td>2007-08</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Ming Yao, HOU</td><td>77</td><td>33.6</td><td>19.7</td><td>23.8</td><td>9.90</td><td>1.8</td><td>0.4</td><td>1.95</td><td>33.98</td><td>2008-09</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Ming Yao, HOU</td><td>5</td><td>18.0</td><td>10.2</td><td>12.6</td><td>5.40</td><td>0.8</td><td>0.0</td><td>1.60</td><td>33.41</td><td>2010-11</td></tr><tr><td>Career</td><td>Ming Yao</td><td>486</td><td>32.5</td><td>19.0</td><td>22.1</td><td>9.25</td><td>1.6</td><td>0.4</td><td>1.89</td><td>32.62</td><td>Career</td></tr></table>
<table border="1">
<tr><th>RANK</th><th>PLAYER, TEAM</th><th>GP</th><th>MPG</th><th>PTS</th><th>EFF</th><th>RPG</th><th>APG</th><th>STPG</th><th>BLKPG</th><th>EFF48M</th><th>SEASON</th></tr><tr><td>174</td><td>James Harden, OKC</td><td>76</td><td>22.9</td><td>9.90</td><td>9.70</td><td>3.2</td><td>1.8</td><td>1.0</td><td>0.26</td><td>20.35</td><td>2009-10</td></tr><tr><td>133</td><td>James Harden, OKC</td><td>82</td><td>26.6</td><td>12.2</td><td>12.2</td><td>3.1</td><td>2.1</td><td>1.1</td><td>0.29</td><td>21.91</td><td>2010-11</td></tr><tr><td>45</td><td>James Harden, OKC</td><td>62</td><td>31.4</td><td>16.8</td><td>17.5</td><td>4.1</td><td>3.7</td><td>1.0</td><td>0.24</td><td>26.84</td><td>2011-12</td></tr><tr><td>32</td><td>James Harden, HOU</td><td>25</td><td>38.4</td><td>25.6</td><td>23.2</td><td>4.4</td><td>5.4</td><td>1.8</td><td>0.48</td><td>28.98</td><td>2012-13</td></tr><tr><td>Career</td><td>James Harden</td><td>245</td><td>27.9</td><td>14</td><td>13.9</td><td>3.5</td><td>2.8</td><td>1.1</td><td>0.29</td><td>23.90</td><td>Career</td></tr></table>
<table border="1"><tr><th>RANK</th><th>PLAYER, TEAM</th><th>GP</th><th>MPG</th><th>PTS</th><th>EFF</th><th>RPG</th><th>APG</th><th>STPG</th><th>BLKPG</th><th>EFF48M</th><th>SEASON</th></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Tracy McGrady, TOR</td><td>64</td><td>18.4</td><td>7.0</td><td>9.55</td><td>4.2</td><td>1.5</td><td>0.8</td><td>0.95</td><td>24.90</td><td>1997-98</td></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Tracy McGrady, TOR</td><td>49</td><td>22.6</td><td>9.3</td><td>12.8</td><td>5.7</td><td>2.3</td><td>1.1</td><td>1.35</td><td>27.18</td><td>1998-99</td></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Tracy McGrady, TOR</td><td>79</td><td>31.2</td><td>15.4</td><td>17.5</td><td>6.3</td><td>3.3</td><td>1.1</td><td>1.91</td><td>26.95</td><td>1999-00</td></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Tracy McGrady, ORL</td><td>77</td><td>40.1</td><td>26.8</td><td>25.2</td><td>7.5</td><td>4.6</td><td>1.5</td><td>1.53</td><td>30.16</td><td>2000-01</td></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Tracy McGrady, ORL</td><td>76</td><td>38.3</td><td>25.6</td><td>25.5</td><td>7.9</td><td>5.3</td><td>1.6</td><td>0.96</td><td>31.94</td><td>2001-02</td></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Tracy McGrady, ORL</td><td>75</td><td>39.4</td><td>32.1</td><td>28.8</td><td>6.5</td><td>5.5</td><td>1.7</td><td>0.79</td><td>35.09</td><td>2002-03</td></tr><tr><td>N/A</td><td>Tracy McGrady, ORL</td><td>67</td><td>39.9</td><td>28.0</td><td>23.8</td><td>6.0</td><td>5.5</td><td>1.4</td><td>0.63</td><td>28.57</td><td>2003-04</td></tr><tr><td>23</td><td>Tracy McGrady, HOU</td><td>78</td><td>40.8</td><td>25.7</td><td>23.7</td><td>6.2</td><td>5.7</td><td>1.7</td><td>0.67</td><td>27.88</td><td>2004-05</td></tr><tr><td>32</td><td>Tracy McGrady, HOU</td><td>47</td><td>36.6</td><td>24.4</td><td>20.7</td><td>6.5</td><td>4.8</td><td>1.3</td><td>0.87</td><td>26.74</td><td>2005-06</td></tr><tr><td>28</td><td>Tracy McGrady, HOU</td><td>71</td><td>35.5</td><td>24.6</td><td>21.3</td><td>5.3</td><td>6.5</td><td>1.3</td><td>0.51</td><td>28.60</td><td>2006-07</td></tr><tr><td>94</td><td>Tracy McGrady, HOU</td><td>66</td><td>37.0</td><td>21.6</td><td>18.5</td><td>5.1</td><td>5.9</td><td>1.0</td><td>0.46</td><td>23.98</td><td>2007-08</td></tr><tr><td>135</td><td>Tracy McGrady, HOU</td><td>35</td><td>33.8</td><td>15.6</td><td>15.3</td><td>4.4</td><td>5.0</td><td>1.2</td><td>0.43</td><td>21.70</td><td>2008-09</td></tr> <tr><td>223</td><td>Tracy McGrady, NYK</td><td>30</td><td>22.5</td><td>8.2</td><td>8.8</td><td>3.1</td><td>3.3</td><td>0.5</td><td>0.47</td><td>18.87</td><td>2009-10</td></tr> <tr><td>149</td><td>Tracy McGrady, DET</td><td>72</td><td>23.5</td><td>8.0</td><td>10.4</td><td>3.5</td><td>3.5</td><td>0.9</td><td>0.47</td><td>21.33</td><td>2010-11</td></tr> <tr><td>137</td><td>Tracy McGrady, ATL</td><td>52</td><td>16.1</td><td>5.3</td><td>6.9</td><td>3.0</td><td>2.1</td><td>0.3</td><td>0.29</td><td>20.54</td><td>2011-12</td></tr> <tr><td>Career</td><td>Tracy McGrady</td><td>938</td><td>32.7</td><td>19.6</td><td>18.0</td><td>5.6</td><td>4.4</td><td>1.2</td><td>0.86</td><td>26.46</td><td>Career</td></tr>
</table>

In measuring efficiancy, PER is as good as EFF48M. In NBA history, there are only 7 players who has ever had a season PER over 30. Tracy McGrady is one of them. The others are Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, David Robinson and Dwyane Wade.

Someone has calculated the career PER for NBA players. Top the career PER list is Michael Jordan with 27.91. Among the top 50 list of career PER, there are 6 players who have played for the Rockets. They are
<table border="1">
<tr><th>RANK</th><th>PLAYER</th><th>Career PER</th></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Charles Barkley</td><td>24.63</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>Hakeem Olajuwon</td><td>23.59</td></tr><tr><td>21</td><td>Yao Ming</td><td>23.02</td></tr><tr><td>25</td><td>Moses Malone</td><td>22.31</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>Tracy McGrady</td><td>22.13</td></tr><tr><td>41</td><td>Clyde Drexler</td><td>21.07</td></tr></table>
Among the top 39 players in the list, Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are the only inactive players who has yet to be introduced into the Hall of Fame.

EFF = (Points - Field Goals missed - Free Throws missed) + (Steals - Turnovers) + Rebounds + Assists + Blocks
EFF48M = EFF per 48 miniutes

 

I like numbers.

Numbers speak for themselves.

 

Well, perhaps I should not have included some trival data there.

From the data presented, we can see Harden and Mcgrady has similar efficiency numbers in the first four years in NBA, though McGrady's numbers are a little better, but pretty close.

McGrady peaked in the sixth year. Can Harden follow the pace?

.　　　　　　　 James Harden　　Tracy McGrady
<table border="0"><tr><th>Year in NBA</th><th>　EFF</th><th>　EFF48M</th><th>.　.</th><th>EFF</th><th>　EFF48M</th></tr><tr><td>1st Year</td><td>　9.70</td><td>　20.35</td><td>　　</td><td>9.55</td><td>　24.90</td></tr><tr><td>2nd Year</td><td>　12.2</td><td>　21.91</td><td>　　</td><td>12.8</td><td>　27.18</td></tr><tr><td>3rd Year</td><td>　17.5</td><td>　26.84</td><td>　　</td><td>17.5</td><td>　26.95</td></tr><tr><td>4th Year</td><td>　23.2</td><td>　28.98</td><td>　　</td><td>25.2</td><td>　30.16</td></tr><tr><td>5th Year</td><td>　　</td><td>　　 </td><td>　　</td><td>25.5</td><td>　31.94</td></tr><tr><td>6th year</td><td>　　</td><td>　　 </td><td>　　</td><td>28.8</td><td>　35.09</td></tr></table>

 

Only 5 games that year. For 18 min playing time a game, he scored 10.2 points (FG% = 48.6%) and catched 5.4 rebounds. Still quite efficient.

 

Will get much worse. No doubt.

 

Greg Smith rediscovered!

<a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1455356-houston-rockets-greg-smith-is-currently-the-best-deep-reserve-player-in-the-nba">Houston Rockets' Greg Smith Is Currently the Best Deep Reserve Player in the NBA</a>

By Nick Farnsworth(Analyst) on December 23, 2012 (Bleacher Report)

<a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1455356-houston-rockets-greg-smith-is-currently-the-best-deep-reserve-player-in-the-nba" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/photos/002/054/860/hi-res-6871988_crop_exact.jpg?w=650&h=440&q=75" /></a>


James Harden, Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik are making headlines in the NBA with the new-look Rockets, but there is another player that is providing Houston the most impressive performances in the league in short minutes this season.

After spending a year in the NBA D-League playing for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Greg Smith has found his way onto the Rockets roster and has been taking advantage of every minute he has spent on the court this year.

An analysis of players' statistics, compiled from Basketball Reference, who have averaged between eight and 18 minutes in at least 15 games this season showed that Smith has put together more impressive performances than any other reserve player that fits into this category.

According to ESPN, Smith is averaging 7.2 points on a ridiculous 63.1 percent from the field, 4.3 rebounds, 0.8 blocks, and 0.4 assists while giving up the ball on only .4 turnovers in 14.2 minutes a game. In addition, Smith is hitting on 75.5 percent of his free throws, which has greatly improved from the 56.6 percentage that, as reported by Yahoo Sports, he posted at Fresno State.

One of the most overlooked aspects of a successful team is the reserve players that can produce at a high level for the few minutes that they are in the game that often are the key to winning games. Smith is taking this to another level for the Houston Rockets, providing one of the most efficient offensive performances of any Rockets player every game.

In fact according to ESPN, Smith is even posting a ridiculous 23.28 player efficiency rating, which is better than Dwight Howard (20.85), Tyson Chandler (22.48) and Al Jefferson (20.34) have put together so far this season.

Although Smith still has the occasional game that an inexperienced player is expected to have, he is becoming quite consistent with strong performances on both sides of the floor through his strong effort to crash the boards and push for every possession. The 21-year-old undrafted big man has done a great job of developing his game and taking advantage of every opportunity in front of him to contribute to his team's success.

He has continued to produce strong performances against the best teams in the NBA, and there is no reason that he couldn't continue this trend for the rest of the year. Smith may find his playing time increase as the season goes on, but for now he is the most productive player on the court for less than 18 minutes a game in the NBA.

Houston has found a talented and hard-working player in Greg Smith that will likely continue to provide a much-needed spark off the bench and contribute to their success the rest of the season.

 

The Rockets split in the 4-game stretch with 2 back-to-back in 5 days, all against higher ranked teams. The result is not bad, though the .500 result is a little below its season average. And this is directly reflected in the players' efficiencies, with only James Harden, Omer Asik, Chandler Parsons, and Jeremy Lin managed edging up in efficiency. On the bright side, those 4 players happen to be the core of the team.

The Rockets, Efficiency Ranking　　　　　　　　　　　　　Season 2012-13<table border="0"><tr bgcolor="#0069B9";font style="color:#ffffff;"><th>RANK</th><th>NAME</th><th>　EFF</th><th>　　PER</th><th>　EFF48M</th><th>　EFF</th><th>　　PER</th><th>　EFF48M</th></tr></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Greg Smith</td> <td align="right">9.8</td><td align="right">21.43</td><td align="center" >32.83</td> <td align="right">10.5</td><td align="right">23.34</td><td align="center" >34.85</td></tr><tr><td>33</td><td>James Harden</td><td align="right">23.5</td><td align="right">23.22</td><td align="center" >29.46</td><td align="right">23.3</td><td align="right">22.88</td><td align="center">28.98</td></tr><tr><td>66</td><td>Omer Asik</td><td align="right">16.7</td><td align="right">14.37</td><td align="center" >26.35</td><td align="right">16.3</td><td align="right">14.20</td><td align="center">25.53</td></tr> <tr><td>132</td><td>Chandler Parsons</td><td align="right">17.3</td><td align="right">15.19</td><td align="center" >22.37</td><td align="right">16.8</td><td align="right">14.65</td><td align="center">21.70</td></tr> <tr><td>139</td><td>Jeremy Lin</td><td align="right">15.0</td><td align="right">14.44</td><td align="center" >22.13</td><td align="right">15.0</td><td align="right">14.51</td><td align="center">21.99</td></tr><tr><td>180</td><td>Patrick Patterson</td><td align="right">12.5</td><td align="right">14.36</td><td align="center" >20.86</td><td align="right">13.1</td><td align="right">14.87</td><td align="center">21.36</tr><tr><td>188</td><td>Marcus Morris</td><td align="right">9.8</td><td align="right">13.55</td><td align="center" >20.41</td><td align="right">9.6</td><td align="right">13.85</td><td align="center">21.04</tr><tr><td>269</td><td>Toney Douglas</td><td align="right">7.4</td><td align="right">12.15</td><td align="center" >17.44</td><td align="right">7.2</td><td align="right">12.41</td><td align="center">17.59</tr><tr><td>297</td><td>Carlos Delfino</td><td align="right">8.5</td><td align="right">9.98</td><td align="center" >16.42</td><td align="right">8.3</td><td align="right">10.35</td><td align="center">16.52</tr><tr><td colspan="2">Ranking in all NBA players</td><td colspan="3" align="center">(As of Dec. 30, 2012)</td><td colspan="3" align="center">(As of Dec. 24, 2012)</td></tr></table>

Just for record purpose, I put the efficiency numbers of James Harden and Tracy McGrady in the following table. Please note the nearly identical growth curve in EFF in first 4 years in their NBA careers.
<table border="0"> <tr><td></td><td colspan="2" align="center">James Harden</td><td colspan="2" align="center">Tracy McGrady</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#0069B9";font style="color:#ffffff;"><th>Year in NBA</th><th>　EFF　.</th><th>EFF48M　.</th><th>　EFF　.</th><th>EFF48M</th></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff" ><td>　1st Year</td><td>　9.70</td><td>　20.35</td><td>　9.55</td><td>　24.90</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>　2nd Year</td><td>　12.2</td><td>　21.91</td><td>　12.8</td><td>　27.18</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff" ><td>　3rd Year</td><td>　17.5</td><td>　26.84</td><td>　17.5</td><td>　26.95</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>　4th Year</td><td>　23.22</td><td>　28.98</td><td>　25.2</td><td>　30.16</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td>　5th Year</td><td>　　</td><td>　　 </td><td>　25.5</td><td>　31.94</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>　6th year</td><td>　　</td><td>　　 </td><td>　28.8</td><td>　35.09</td></tr></table>(As of 30 December 2012)