More fun with RAPM: I took every player's 2012-13 Offense/Defense RAPM and made a scatterplot in Excel and added the names of some of the more notable good players. The x-axis is the offensive RAPM and the y-axis is the defensive: Data source: http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/ratings/2013.html Some observations: 1. The players with the best offensive RAPM (> +4) are all perimeter players-- Specifically, they are ball-controlling guys with at least decent efficiency. None of the post players, even high-scoring ones, is at that level. The best Off. RAPM "bigs" are Ryan Anderson (+3.3), Kevin Love (+3.2), Griffin (+3.1), Dirk (+2.5), and Ilyasova (+2.4). Many of the guys known as good offensive bigs like both Gasols, Duncan, Pekovic, David Lee, Zach Randolph and LaMarcus Aldridge are in the 0 to +2 range. 2. The players with the best defensive RAPM (>4) are all big rim-protecting Cs (or PF/Cs). The best perimeter defenders were Tony Allen (+3.5), Iguodala (3.3), Gerald Wallace (3.2) and Paul George (3.1). The only PGs above +1 that I see are Conley, Kidd and Bledsoe. Many of the rim protecting center (Okafor, Thabeet, Dalembert, Perkins, Udoh) types have good defensive RAPM (between 2 and 4), at the same time, these "big stiffs" tend to have pretty negative offensive RAPM.
Good job, CH! Rubio should be there too. He is tied with Conley with +2.0 dRAPM, but I would personally take 0.5 off for his flops.
This may be somewhat interesting: The same 2012-13 RAPM chart as above, except with the significant Rockets players highlighted: Notes: 1. The Rockets have no "First Quadrant Players" (those with positive RAPM both offensively and defensively) on its roster. A few guys come close and Dwight Howard has had a positive offensive RAPM before last season. 2. Chandler Parsons is literally the most average player in the entire NBA judging by RAPM. Specifically, if you calculate the distance between every single dot (each representing a player) and the origin point (i.e., the coordinate (0,0)), Parsons' dot is the closest. 3. The PF situation is an issue: Delfino and Greg Smith were the best among guys who logged minutes at PF. Patterson was a below average NBA player last season (coordinate (-0.04, -1.58) but he was still quite a bit better than the rest of the PF crew. Jones and Motiejunas need to take a big leap before becoming above-replacement level players. 4. Garcia's numbers were not good last season-- though the vast majority of his minutes here (regular season only) came with the Kings and we have reasons to believe that he's better than these numbers. 5. Camby, Brewer and Casspi look like decent risks to take. Brooks and Williams look like salvage projects.
Nice formatting, Carl. RAPM has issues with defensive stats for rookies. If Beverley can play as well as he did last year, I suspect he would be a 1st quadrant player (barely). Parsons played better the last three months of the season. If he continues to play like that, he should see a jump to his offensive RAPM. Holy crap, Brooks isn't the worst defensive player on roster currently! Asik sure looks like a third star according to RAPM. Casspi looks very interesting to me. Looking at shot charts, he seemed to shoot from areas of the floor where he shot poorly the last couple of seasons. He appears to be a very good corner 3 point shooter. If he can hold his defense up, he could slide into the x+y>0 crowd.
Casspi is certainly a player to watch. This is do or die season for Casspi's NBA career. His best year was his rookie season and was great with his hustle and move w/o the ball. He regressed every year ever since. After traded to Cavs, he was in Byron's doghouse early and often, which let me believe he had some attitude and/or on-court effort problems. He sulked and pouted and actually requested for a trade(link) when he fell out of rotation. If he doesn't find his mental toughness in Houston, this could be his last NBA season.
So, the following are the RAPM numbers for some of the significant PGs from last season: Spoiler <style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } </style><table class="tableizer-table"> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th></th><th>Name</th><th>Offense per 100</th><th>Defense per 100</th><th>Off+Def per 200</th></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td>Chris Paul</td><td>7.7</td><td>0.5</td><td>8.2</td></tr> <tr><td>2</td><td>Russell Westbrook</td><td>5.3</td><td>0.1</td><td>5.3</td></tr> <tr><td>3</td><td>Mike Conley</td><td>3.1</td><td>2</td><td>5.1</td></tr> <tr><td>4</td><td>Stephen Curry</td><td>4.7</td><td>-0.5</td><td>4.2</td></tr> <tr><td>5</td><td>Kyle Lowry</td><td>3.3</td><td>0.4</td><td>3.7</td></tr> <tr><td>6</td><td>Tony Parker</td><td>3.7</td><td>-0.4</td><td>3.3</td></tr> <tr><td>7</td><td>Ricky Rubio</td><td>1.2</td><td>2</td><td>3.2</td></tr> <tr><td>8</td><td>John Wall</td><td>3.2</td><td>-0.4</td><td>2.9</td></tr> <tr><td>9</td><td>Deron Williams</td><td>5.1</td><td>-2.8</td><td>2.3</td></tr> <tr><td>10</td><td>George Hill</td><td>2.3</td><td>0</td><td>2.3</td></tr> <tr><td>11</td><td>Goran Dragic</td><td>3.1</td><td>-1.1</td><td>2</td></tr> <tr><td>12</td><td>Eric Bledsoe</td><td>0.2</td><td>1.5</td><td>1.7</td></tr> <tr><td>13</td><td>Devin Harris</td><td>1.5</td><td>0</td><td>1.6</td></tr> <tr><td>14</td><td>Jason Kidd</td><td>-0.3</td><td>1.7</td><td>1.4</td></tr> <tr><td>15</td><td>Monta Ellis</td><td>1.2</td><td>-0.1</td><td>1.1</td></tr> <tr><td>16</td><td>Kyrie Irving</td><td>3</td><td>-2</td><td>0.9</td></tr> <tr><td>17</td><td>Raymond Felton</td><td>2.6</td><td>-1.8</td><td>0.8</td></tr> <tr><td>18</td><td>Steve Nash</td><td>2.5</td><td>-1.8</td><td>0.7</td></tr> <tr><td>19</td><td>Jrue Holiday</td><td>0.2</td><td>0.5</td><td>0.7</td></tr> <tr><td>20</td><td>Ty Lawson</td><td>2.9</td><td>-2.3</td><td>0.6</td></tr> <tr><td>21</td><td>Damian Lillard</td><td>2.1</td><td>-1.5</td><td>0.6</td></tr> <tr><td>22</td><td>Rajon Rondo</td><td>1.2</td><td>-0.6</td><td>0.6</td></tr> <tr><td>23</td><td>Mario Chalmers</td><td>-0.3</td><td>0.8</td><td>0.5</td></tr> <tr><td>24</td><td>Jameer Nelson</td><td>1.7</td><td>-1.3</td><td>0.4</td></tr> <tr><td>25</td><td>Kemba Walker</td><td>1</td><td>-0.6</td><td>0.4</td></tr> <tr><td>26</td><td>Patrick Beverley</td><td>1</td><td>-0.5</td><td>0.4</td></tr> <tr><td>27</td><td>Pablo Prigioni</td><td>0.7</td><td>-0.3</td><td>0.4</td></tr> <tr><td>28</td><td>Jeremy Lin</td><td>0.6</td><td>-0.2</td><td>0.4</td></tr> <tr><td>29</td><td>Isaiah Thomas</td><td>2.2</td><td>-2.2</td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>30</td><td>Jeff Teague</td><td>0.7</td><td>-0.8</td><td>-0.1</td></tr> <tr><td>31</td><td>Greivis Vasquez</td><td>2.2</td><td>-2.4</td><td>-0.2</td></tr> <tr><td>32</td><td>Andre Miller</td><td>1.2</td><td>-1.4</td><td>-0.2</td></tr> <tr><td>33</td><td>Kirk Hinrich</td><td>-0.4</td><td>0.1</td><td>-0.2</td></tr> <tr><td>34</td><td>Jose Calderon</td><td>2.7</td><td>-3.1</td><td>-0.4</td></tr> <tr><td>35</td><td>Louis Williams</td><td>2</td><td>-2.4</td><td>-0.4</td></tr> <tr><td>36</td><td>Jarrett Jack</td><td>0.9</td><td>-1.6</td><td>-0.7</td></tr> <tr><td>37</td><td>Nate Robinson</td><td>2.4</td><td>-3.1</td><td>-0.8</td></tr> <tr><td>38</td><td>Ramon Sessions</td><td>2.1</td><td>-2.9</td><td>-0.8</td></tr> </table>
First thing I noticed about your list of PG's was in their unbalanced of defensive, offensive, and total RAPM's. There are 28 PG's whose total RAPM's are on the + side. Those positive numbers HAD to come from other PG's with negative RAPM's. After all the PG's numbers are tallied up (with number of possessions taking into consideration), they should be around 0. Translation: There are a whole lot more scrub PG's than I'd imagined.
Is RAPM adjusted that way by position, or across the whole NBA? It could just be saying there is a reason going small is working for teams... which makes sense as you would expect to have better athletes as they get shorter (and thus have a broader pool of players to draw from).
Not sure it is balanced by position. I calculated the average RAPM weighted by possessions played for the league in 2012-13 and it came up to 0. Also, what "position" a guy is playing can be subjective: When Dragic and Lowry played together, who was the PG? I think, judging by the numbers: 1. There is a bumper crop of at least decent PGs in the NBA right now. 2. However, other than the top 12 or so guys, the next couple dozen guys can be pretty close to each other.
It's not exactly adjusted by positions. Let's assume under ideal situation where teams only play one PG at a time for 48 minutes. If one team's PGs have a total of +5, then the combined of opposition PG's HAS to be -5. Under different situations where one team plays two PG's or no PG's will skewed the numbers but it doesn't happen as much.
If it doesn't balance out, it SHOULD be close. I list some of the PG's who had substantial amount in minutes played: <pre>Darren Collison 0.9 -2.2 -1.3 Brandon Knight -1.2 -0.4 -1.6 Randy Foye -0.8 -2.2 -3 Brando Jennings 0.6 -3.2 -2.6 Luke Ridnour -0.7 -0.8 -1.5 Jose Barea 0.5 -3.2 -2.7 Norris Cole -3.4 -2.8 -6.1 C J Watson 0.1 -1.8 -1.7 Mo Wliiams 0 -2.7 -2.7 Brian Roberts -0.3 -3.4 -3.7 Reggie Jackson -1.5 -1.3 -2.7 Toney Douglas 1 -2 -1 Alexey Shrved -0.5 -1.6 -2.1</pre>
For raw +/- maybe, but I am not sure it should balance out if we are talking about adjusted plus minus-- which can redistribute the positive or negative impact of players from position to position. For the Rockets, for example, the PF position's total raw +/- should be the same as that of every position, but it's RAPM total shouldn't be (and isn't).
You are correct. I totally forgot about the 'A' in RAPM. Since PG is considered as a position of strength in NBA that the RAPM for averaging out all the PG's could fall slightly over to the + side.
But looking at Lebron's numbers and Paul Pierce's numbers here really shows the issue. Here we two forwards playing on teams with similar defensive rankings. Even if Lebron coasted, was he worse than Paul Pierce? I can't imagine that. Not when the Boston defense features so many other players so prominently ahead of Pierce. Whereas Lebron was a focal point of the Miami defense.
Given that we are talking a lot about improving the defense via trade, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the better defensive players according to RAPM: Here are the top 101 players in terms of defensive RAPM from 2012-13: Spoiler <style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } </style><table class="tableizer-table"><tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Rank</th><th>Name</th><th>O-RAPM</th><th>D-RAPM</th><th>OVERALL</th></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td>Tim Duncan</td><td>1</td><td>6.3</td><td>7.3</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Dwight Howard</td><td>-0.8</td><td>6.3</td><td>5.5</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Larry Sanders</td><td>-2.7</td><td>6.1</td><td>3.3</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Kevin Garnett</td><td>-1.9</td><td>5.9</td><td>4.1</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Marc Gasol</td><td>0.4</td><td>5.6</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Omer Asik</td><td>-0.8</td><td>5.4</td><td>4.5</td></tr> <tr><td>7</td><td>Joakim Noah</td><td>-0.3</td><td>4.9</td><td>4.6</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Chris Andersen</td><td>0.6</td><td>4.5</td><td>5.2</td></tr> <tr><td>9</td><td>Tyson Chandler</td><td>0.9</td><td>4.4</td><td>5.3</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Roy Hibbert</td><td>0.3</td><td>4.3</td><td>4.6</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Andris Biedrins</td><td>-5.7</td><td>4</td><td>-1.7</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Andrew Bogut</td><td>-1.9</td><td>3.9</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Amir Johnson</td><td>1.1</td><td>3.6</td><td>4.7</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>Nene Hilario</td><td>0.2</td><td>3.6</td><td>3.7</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>Al-Farouq Aminu</td><td>-1.9</td><td>3.6</td><td>1.8</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>Tiago Splitter</td><td>0.2</td><td>3.5</td><td>3.7</td></tr> <tr><td>17</td><td>Serge Ibaka</td><td>-0.8</td><td>3.5</td><td>2.7</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>Tony Allen</td><td>-2.5</td><td>3.5</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>Jermaine O'Neal</td><td>-3.2</td><td>3.5</td><td>0.3</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>Paul Millsap</td><td>2</td><td>3.4</td><td>5.4</td></tr><tr><td>21</td><td>Emeka Okafor</td><td>-2.2</td><td>3.4</td><td>1.2</td></tr> <tr><td>22</td><td>Lamar Odom</td><td>-2.6</td><td>3.4</td><td>0.8</td></tr><tr><td>23</td><td>Greg Stiemsma</td><td>-4.1</td><td>3.4</td><td>-0.7</td></tr><tr><td>24</td><td>Andre Iguodala</td><td>0.7</td><td>3.3</td><td>4.1</td></tr><tr><td>25</td><td>Josh Smith</td><td>0</td><td>3.3</td><td>3.4</td></tr><tr><td>26</td><td>Kendrick Perkins</td><td>-4.7</td><td>3.3</td><td>-1.4</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>Gerald Wallace</td><td>-1.4</td><td>3.2</td><td>1.8</td></tr><tr><td>28</td><td>DeAndre Jordan</td><td>0</td><td>3.1</td><td>3.1</td></tr><tr><td>29</td><td>Paul George</td><td>-0.2</td><td>3.1</td><td>2.9</td></tr><tr><td>30</td><td>Derrick Favors</td><td>-1.3</td><td>3.1</td><td>1.9</td></tr><tr><td>31</td><td>Reggie Evans</td><td>-2.1</td><td>3</td><td>0.9</td></tr><tr><td>32</td><td>Ekpe Udoh</td><td>-2.2</td><td>3</td><td>0.8</td></tr><tr><td>33</td><td>Hasheem Thabeet</td><td>-3.3</td><td>2.8</td><td>-0.5</td></tr><tr><td>34</td><td>Brendan Haywood</td><td>-2.6</td><td>2.7</td><td>0.1</td></tr><tr><td>35</td><td>Taj Gibson</td><td>-0.2</td><td>2.6</td><td>2.5</td></tr><tr><td>36</td><td>Marcin Gortat</td><td>-1.7</td><td>2.6</td><td>0.9</td></tr><tr><td>37</td><td>Elton Brand</td><td>-1.9</td><td>2.6</td><td>0.7</td></tr><tr><td>38</td><td>Hamed Haddadi</td><td>-2.3</td><td>2.5</td><td>0.2</td></tr><tr><td>39</td><td>Kosta Koufos</td><td>-0.6</td><td>2.4</td><td>1.8</td></tr><tr><td>40</td><td>Kenyon Martin</td><td>-3.1</td><td>2.4</td><td>-0.7</td></tr><tr><td>41</td><td>Jason Maxiell</td><td>-3.3</td><td>2.4</td><td>-0.9</td></tr><tr><td>42</td><td>Kevin Durant</td><td>5.7</td><td>2.3</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>43</td><td>Anderson Varejao</td><td>1.8</td><td>2.3</td><td>4.1</td></tr><tr><td>44</td><td>David West</td><td>1.1</td><td>2.3</td><td>3.4</td></tr><tr><td>45</td><td>Bismack Biyombo</td><td>-2.1</td><td>2.3</td><td>0.2</td></tr><tr><td>46</td><td>Samuel Dalembert</td><td>-2</td><td>2.2</td><td>0.2</td></tr><tr><td>47</td><td>Ronny Turiaf</td><td>-3.3</td><td>2.2</td><td>-1.1</td></tr><tr><td>48</td><td>Kevin Love</td><td>3.2</td><td>2.1</td><td>5.3</td></tr><tr><td>49</td><td>LaMarcus Aldridge</td><td>1.7</td><td>2.1</td><td>3.8</td></tr><tr><td>50</td><td>Brook Lopez</td><td>1.6</td><td>2.1</td><td>3.6</td></tr><tr><td>51</td><td>Robin Lopez</td><td>-0.1</td><td>2.1</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>52</td><td>Mike Conley</td><td>3.1</td><td>2</td><td>5.1</td></tr><tr><td>53</td><td>Ricky Rubio</td><td>1.2</td><td>2</td><td>3.2</td></tr><tr><td>54</td><td>Andrei Kirilenko</td><td>0.5</td><td>2</td><td>2.5</td></tr><tr><td>55</td><td>Chris Bosh</td><td>-0.1</td><td>2</td><td>1.9</td></tr><tr><td>56</td><td>Thabo Sefolosha</td><td>-1.4</td><td>2</td><td>0.6</td></tr><tr><td>57</td><td>Ian Mahinmi</td><td>-4.1</td><td>2</td><td>-2.1</td></tr><tr><td>58</td><td>Kurt Thomas</td><td>-4.2</td><td>2</td><td>-2.2</td></tr><tr><td>59</td><td>Nazr Mohammed</td><td>-2.9</td><td>1.9</td><td>-1</td></tr><tr><td>60</td><td>Udonis Haslem</td><td>-4</td><td>1.9</td><td>-2</td></tr><tr><td>61</td><td>Paul Pierce</td><td>2</td><td>1.8</td><td>3.8</td></tr><tr><td>62</td><td>Greg Monroe</td><td>0.7</td><td>1.8</td><td>2.5</td></tr><tr><td>63</td><td>Marcus Camby</td><td>-1.8</td><td>1.8</td><td>0.1</td></tr><tr><td>64</td><td>Joel Anthony</td><td>-2.7</td><td>1.8</td><td>-0.9</td></tr><tr><td>65</td><td>Thaddeus Young</td><td>1.3</td><td>1.7</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>66</td><td>Jason Kidd</td><td>-0.3</td><td>1.7</td><td>1.4</td></tr><tr><td>67</td><td>LeBron James</td><td>8.5</td><td>1.6</td><td>10.1</td></tr><tr><td>68</td><td>Pau Gasol</td><td>0.8</td><td>1.6</td><td>2.4</td></tr><tr><td>69</td><td>Anthony Randolph</td><td>-1.4</td><td>1.6</td><td>0.2</td></tr><tr><td>70</td><td>Shawn Marion</td><td>-2.3</td><td>1.6</td><td>-0.7</td></tr><tr><td>71</td><td>DeMarcus Cousins</td><td>0.4</td><td>1.5</td><td>1.9</td></tr><tr><td>72</td><td>Eric Bledsoe</td><td>0.2</td><td>1.5</td><td>1.7</td></tr><tr><td>73</td><td>Nick Collison</td><td>0</td><td>1.5</td><td>1.5</td></tr><tr><td>74</td><td>Metta World Peace</td><td>-0.3</td><td>1.5</td><td>1.2</td></tr><tr><td>75</td><td>JaVale McGee</td><td>-0.3</td><td>1.5</td><td>1.2</td></tr><tr><td>76</td><td>Chuck Hayes</td><td>-0.7</td><td>1.5</td><td>0.8</td></tr><tr><td>77</td><td>Glen Davis</td><td>-1.8</td><td>1.5</td><td>-0.3</td></tr><tr><td>78</td><td>Blake Griffin</td><td>3.1</td><td>1.4</td><td>4.5</td></tr><tr><td>79</td><td>Kawhi Leonard</td><td>0.1</td><td>1.4</td><td>1.5</td></tr><tr><td>80</td><td>Nikola Vucevic</td><td>-1.8</td><td>1.4</td><td>-0.4</td></tr><tr><td>81</td><td>Chris Kaman</td><td>-2.5</td><td>1.4</td><td>-1.1</td></tr><tr><td>82</td><td>Jason Collins</td><td>-5.3</td><td>1.4</td><td>-3.9</td></tr><tr><td>83</td><td>Danilo Gallinari</td><td>2.5</td><td>1.3</td><td>3.8</td></tr><tr><td>84</td><td>Dirk Nowitzki</td><td>2.5</td><td>1.3</td><td>3.8</td></tr><tr><td>85</td><td>Andre Drummond</td><td>0.6</td><td>1.3</td><td>1.9</td></tr><tr><td>86</td><td>Al Horford</td><td>0.5</td><td>1.3</td><td>1.7</td></tr><tr><td>87</td><td>Chris Singleton</td><td>-3.5</td><td>1.3</td><td>-2.2</td></tr><tr><td>88</td><td>Zaza Pachulia</td><td>-1.3</td><td>1.2</td><td>-0.1</td></tr><tr><td>89</td><td>Ed Davis</td><td>-1.5</td><td>1.2</td><td>-0.3</td></tr><tr><td>90</td><td>Ivan Johnson</td><td>-2.2</td><td>1.2</td><td>-1</td></tr><tr><td>91</td><td>Dwyane Wade</td><td>3.4</td><td>1.1</td><td>4.5</td></tr><tr><td>92</td><td>Brandan Wright</td><td>1.1</td><td>1.1</td><td>2.2</td></tr><tr><td>93</td><td>Kenneth Faried</td><td>0.6</td><td>1.1</td><td>1.7</td></tr><tr><td>94</td><td>David Lee</td><td>0.3</td><td>1.1</td><td>1.4</td></tr><tr><td>95</td><td>Luol Deng</td><td>0.3</td><td>1.1</td><td>1.4</td></tr><tr><td>96</td><td>Anthony Davis</td><td>-0.3</td><td>1.1</td><td>0.8</td></tr><tr><td>97</td><td>Andray Blatche</td><td>-0.3</td><td>1.1</td><td>0.8</td></tr> <tr><td>98</td><td>Spencer Hawes</td><td>-0.7</td><td>1.1</td><td>0.4</td></tr><tr><td>99</td><td>Gustavo Ayon</td><td>-0.7</td><td>1.1</td><td>0.4</td></tr><tr><td>100</td><td>Trevor Ariza</td><td>-1.3</td><td>1.1</td><td>-0.2</td></tr><tr><td>101</td><td>Luc Mbah a Moute</td><td>-1.7</td><td>1.1</td><td>-0.6</td></tr> </table> My thoughts: 1. Many of those, especially the very top guys, are centers (including Dwight and Omer). So, they are likely not trade targets in terms of fit with the current roster. 2. Paul Millsap stands out as the best fit. Two way player, his team needs a big C, similar contract to Asik. 3. Thaddeus Young is similar to Millsap. Sam Hinkie is with Philly but the question is whether the Sixers want Asik since they are not really contending. Seems more like a candidate for a 3 team deal with Philly getting draft picks/prospects. 4. Out of the Chicago guys, Gibson and Deng both are on there. Deng's RAPM number though, has declined from the past seasons and one has to worry what kind of impact mileage has on his body. 5. One guy who is not on here? Jeff Green. It seems he should be better than his RAPM suggests and may be one of those Monta Ellis type "fix it up" projects who can become more efficient and useful in the right situation. We also know that Boston has some analytics guys and they signed Green to a substantial contract right off of a heart surgery, so maybe there are things that makes Morey's group like him, too.
How so? You thought Biedrins got his contract by being an unstoppable offensive force? He can defend pretty well and rebound really well. He cannot do anything else and his ORAPM seems to reflect exactly that.
Yep. Biedrins is actually not a bad defender. Perhaps not the 11th best in the league, but that ranking is based on a relatively small sample size so a guy's number can get quite high based on luck. It's all about properly understanding the context in which a number arises.
