Offensive PER's of the Rockets

I didn't know where else to bring up the topic, and really when it comes to the top 50, probably top 100 posters on this BBS at understanding advanced stats, I'm not on that list. Nonetheless, I have noticed a trend towards improved individual efficiencies across the board from the guys that comprise the bulk of our rotation. I knew that this would be a daunting task going in, so I waited until a day off to write it all out. Below are the individual PER's of our primary rotation players by the END OF THE YEAR for the past few years, basically since the Yao-McGrady era ended. I also included a horrible stat there for the weighted average. I didn't take into account how many games each player played, nor the efficiencies of other non-rotational guys who also got minutes. So it's a horrible number I know, but still it serves my purpose here.

Rockets 2008-2009 (MPG Player Name PER)

Spoiler

35.5 Ron Artest 15.6
33.9 Shane Battier 10.7
33.6 Yao Ming 22.7
30.3 Luis Scola 17.1
25.0 Aaron Brooks 13.0
21.7 Kyle Lowry 15.1
21.3 Carl Landry 17.7
19.4 Von Wafer 14.8

Weighted Average PER: 15.92

Rockets 2009-2010

Spoiler

36.5 Trevor Ariza 13.4
35.6 Aaron Brooks 16.0
35.5 Kevin Martin 17.1
32.6 Luis Scola 17.2
32.4 Shane Battier 11.1
24.3 Kyle Lowry 15.5
21.6 Chuck Hayes 11.7
20.1 Chase Budinger 14.1

Weighted Average PER: 14.66

Rockets 2010-2011

Spoiler

34.2 Kyle Lowry 16.5
32.6 Luis Scola 18.4
32.5 Kevin Martin 21.5
30.8 Shane Battier 12.8
28.1 Chuck Hayes 16.2
22.3 Chase Budinger 14.2
21.3 Courtney Lee 12.6
17.2 Goran Dragic 17.7
16.9 Brad Miller 16.4
16.7 Patrick Patterson 16.8

Weighted Average PER: 16.47

Rockets 2011-2012

Spoiler

32.1 Kyle Lowry 18.9
31.6 Kevin Martin 16.6
31.3 Luis Scola 15.5
30.3 Courtney Lee 12.6
28.6 Chandler Parsons 13.3
26.5 Goran Dragic 18.0
24.1 Marcus Camby 19.6
23.2 Patrick Patterson 11.6
22.2 Sam Dalembert 17.0

Weighted Average PER: 15.90

Rockets 2012-2013

Spoiler

38.3 James Harden 23.0
36.3 Chandler Parsons 15.3
32.2 Jeremy Lin 14.9
30.0 Omer Asik 14.9
25.2 Carlos Delfino 13.4
17.7 Francisco Garcia 11.1
17.4 Patrick Beverley 15.4
15.9 Greg Smith 16.2

Weighted Average PER: 16.07

Rockets This Season So Far:

Spoiler

39.8 James Harden 21.7
38.5 Chandler Parsons 15.9
35.7 Dwight Howard 19.2
33.8 Jeremy Lin 19.4
28.9 Patrick Beverley 11.8
21.7 Omri Casspi 13.7
20.9 Francisco Garcia 10.6
18.8 Terrence Jones 13.1

Weighted Average PER: 16.48

Compare that to the gold standard, the San Antonio Spurs, who always to me seemed to have a billion guys with above average efficiencies.

Spurs 2012-2013

Spoiler

32.9 Tony Parker 23.1
31.2 Kawhi Leonard 16.5
30.1 Tim Duncan 24.5
27.5 Danny Green 14.2
24.7 Tiago Splitter 18.7
23.2 Manu Ginobili 19.2
22.8 Boris Diaw 12.0
21.8 Gary Neal 11.6

Weighted Average PER: 17.91

Spurs This Season So Far:

Spoiler

31.5 Tony Parker 20.5
28.3 Time Duncan 15.4
28.3 Kawhi Leonard 17.4
25.0 Danny Green 14.1
24.2 Manu Ginobili 14.9
24.1 Boris Diaw 18.3
22.7 Tiago Splitter 18.0
20.7 Marco Belinelli 14.6
15.5 Patty Mills 18.0

Weighted Average PER: 16.88

What say ya'll? Is Morey's plan finally playing out? Are we finally approaching that Spurs state of nirvana where we don't have to rely on any one guy, where everyone can play 30 minutes or less and just be ridiculously effective doing it? Also FWIW, that 2011 Rockets squad really overachieved relative to their talent level, but probably underachieved relative to their efficiency stats. What a horrible collapse.

I think our team this year has tremendous upside. Just look how much better we are in efficiency compared to last year, with Harden and Parsons and Beverley playing injured, and people are STILL griping nonstop. There's lots of cause for optimism this year. And the Spurs might just be fools gold if they keep these stats up. Not like Tim Duncan's getting any younger.

 

I'm not trying to be cumulative, only representative of the rotations at the end of the year or in the case of the current team, the rotation at present. Maybe it'll change today, who knows.

 

Yes it's obvious there are better ways to judge a team's efficiency. I'm not trying to assess that. Maybe what I'm trying to say is...our PER's are getting better?

One thing the Spurs have always been able to do, I feel, that almost no one else does well is have their backups come in and perform at really high levels. They also use their backups a lot more than anyone else. On the whole it seems to contribute to a better brand of basketball.

I know Garcia, Casspi, and Beverley, the guys who effectively round out our rotation (depending on the Asik situation) have not yet taken their efficiency up to desired levels. Nevertheless, I still feel like this roster is primed to make its role players be more efficient, and maybe we'll see that played out this year, manifested in our #6 7 and 8 guys being more efficient. Plus there won't be any Shane Battier Chuck Hayes all-stars lending their intangibles and horrible PER's.

I know it doesn't translate to wins like that, but somehow it makes me feel better inside that we are moving closer towards that Spurs ideal.