Since there's a bit of a break here in the preseason, I thought I'd post some stats here for the players. First of all, how predictive/useful are these numbers? In Kevin Pelton's recent BP article "Preseason Stats: Information or Noise?", he concludes that we shouldn't "throw out preseason stats altogether. The evidence indicates there is some predictive value to how players play even in seemingly meaningless games." Of course, a huge difference between preseason and regular season is how the minutes will be distributed. I think looking at per-minute stats is therefore particularly more informative when we're talking about preseason (if we're to take anything from these numbers, of course). We could perhaps combine our expectations for the minutes break down with the per-minute numbers from the players, and get a rough idea of what they'll do during the season. First, here are the per-game numbers for the Rockets through 6 preseason games: And here are the numbers per-36 minutes: I've included a GS column, which is the Game Score rating devised by John Hollinger that is sort of a composite box score stats rating (think of it as an alternative to NBA EFF from NBA.com). That roughly tells us who's played the best just based on the box score. Very little about defense can be gleaned from any of this, of course. What the per-minute table suggests is that Landry's surprisingly high per-minute numbers last season may not have been a fluke. While he hasn't had the same stellar FG%, he's still giving the team 19 points and 11 rebounds per 36 minutes (he produced 17.5/10.5 against regular season NBA competition as a rookie). The numbers also suggest that people going gaga over Von Wafer may want to settle down. He has certainly shot well, but it appears he's done little else to "fill the boxscore". Brooks's scoring has been far superior to Rafer's, who seems to be scaling back his shot attempts (no apparent improvement in efficiency, though). Yao's numbers are about what we'd expect (his scoring figures to decrease this year with a greater emphasis on fast breaks, Adelman's motion offense, and the inclusion of Artest). Scola's production has been way down, for whatever reason. Barry has led the team in per-minute assists, so we should expect him to be something more than a sharp shooter. He may be a real playmaker for this team. Edit: Note I fixed some errors in the game score calculation.
I'm most impressed with barrys 6.6 assists. he has been the guy io've enjoyed watching the most. his shot is a little off. but i just like the way he sets the tone. i like the way he pushes the ball up to create fast break points. but he also knows when to slow things down. in my opnion he is our nd best passer behind mcgrady. he just has a great feel for the game.
great excel work,man. despite your birlliant job, we'd better focus a little bit more on what the datas show us. Firstly, it's exciting to see so many rockets are able to score, especially for those who didn't get enough game time last season. preseason games are a great platform for them to show their real values. Sencondly, our 3pt shows great improvement in the preseason games with three over 40% and two over 36%(never to mention rafer). And brent barry should be still a good three points shooter if he cares more about the regular season games than the preseason games. However, I'm also converned with something that the stats show us. That's ft, still the fts. even yaoming's ft rate was just59% and luther head's team highest ft rate was just67%. it seemed that luther is the best free throw shooter but will any guy make any foul on him in the regular season? But preseason games show nothing, I mean, no one cares how many games we win in the preseason, but no one doesn't care whether we'll win the championship in June.
That column, TS%, isn't referring to free throw shooting. That's "true shooting %", which is a measure of overall scoring efficiency combining 2-point, 3-point, and free throw shots. The Rockets free throw shooting in the preseason has been improved, though it's slipped some the last few games. Yao had an uncharacteristic 1-5 night from the stripe against the Kings.
durvasa = one of the best posters at ClutchFans Always brings the stats and sharp analysis. + Avoids the childish banter. ------------------------------------------ = Two thumbs up. Good role model for many others around here... ...including myself.
thanks for posting this Durvasa! i''l ignore the GS number since i'm clueless. what jumps out at me is Barry's avg. assists. as a side note, i'm not terribly concerned with his shooting numbers thus far, pretty certain his career pedigree will eventually resurface. per average 18 minutes for SAS last year, he had less than 2 assists. so far this pre-season thats almost doubled. could be a change of system or a sampling anomaly. Brent clearly wants a more involved role, so maybe both. from the "i watched all the pre-season games" twilight zone; Dorsey averaged 15 mins! (nice rebound numbers though)
Von Wafer shoots above 50%, and has the ability to finish around the basket. At this point, I just don't know why we're keeping Luther anymore. Of course Wafer hasn't played a game yet in the regular season, but early in the season and already making 7 3s, this is very impressive. Also, we have now 3 proven shooters in our team, Artest, Barry and Brooks (still need to see reg season though). Luther is very expendable at this point, and Wafer is a project worth testing on. I get the feeling that Wafer is a gift in disguise, and somehow It's ironic that Wafer probably played so bad the past few seasons because he had absolutely no confidence. He was dunked on horribly early in his career (when he was a Laker) by the Ex-Rocket Kirk Snyder. Where Snyder jumped over him. This leaves a huge mark of embaressment for him, especially since it was his first season in the NBA. I hope we keep Wafer. That boy just has too much talent to give away. He has amazing athletism, and puts it in to great use when he fires a jumpshot (His elevation in his 3 point shots are insane). He also proved that he can finish round the basket, and isn't far behind from Luther in terms of speed.
barry said that he looked forward to having an increased role on a new team, and in a system that will a low him more freedom. in SAS he was a spot up shooter. here he is a play maker.
Fantastic post. Nothing like waking up on Sunday morning and checking out some stats about the rockets. Man Landry is playing really really well. These numbers on him are nice. This season is going to be a lot of fun.
I realized that I made a mistake calculating the game score rating. Now, Strawberry's stats look pretty good. He's done the following pretty well: gotten to the free throw line and made them, gotten steals, kept his turnovers low.
i'd like to remind you that ron artest is a 33 % shooter from 3-point range for his career. he's not a proven shooter. at least not a proven good shooter. i'd also like to remind you that the one thing that aaron brooks has shown in regular season games so far is that he's a very, very inconsistent shooter. in the preseason games this year he's been better but i still wouldn't call him a consistent shooter just yet. if i had to rank the 3-point shooters on the rockets: good shooters: 1. brent barry 2. luther head average shooters: 3. rafer alston 4. von wafer slightly below average shooters: 5. ron artest 6. aaron brooks 7. tracy mcgrady bad shooters: 8. dj strawberry
