Here's a link to a blog post on basketball-reference.com, discussing the concept of being a "black hole"-- i.e. one who tends not to pass the ball once he touches it: http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=8827 According to the link, among guards who play more than 30 mpg and who get more than 1 touch per minute, Kevin Martin is by far the biggest "black hole" since he passes the ball on only about 36% of these "touches." This does not include center or forwards. Here are some of my thoughts: 1. The post is interesting but there are flaw in the method. For one thing, the numbers used are often based on box-score estimates rather than actual data. The number of times a player "passes the ball" is apparently Assists/.17. My guess is this is because, on average, every 100 passes by an NBA player produces 17 assists. However, that ratio isn't true for all players. A player with better court vision, for example, will likely have more assist-resulting passes as oppose to non-assist resulting passes (and those may be "hockey assist" passes, passes that move the offense along, harmless passes that don't do anyting, or bad passes that were not TOs only because you got lucky). A greedy player who refuses to pass unless it will directly lead to an assist, will also have a higher ratio of his passes resulting in assists. 2. But I can see why they use estimates: It's too labor intensive for most fans to get the actual data. I bet Morey, Cuban and other more stat-happy front office guys have those numbers handy, though. 3. If KMart is a black hole, I don't think he's a bad one. Kevin McHale was called a black hole once, too, but at the kind of efficiency that these guys achieved, chances are the passes they didn't make probably wouldn't have often led to shots better than the ones they took anyway. 4. I think KMart is more willing to pass than this chart gives him credit for. A lot of his passes probably didn't result in assists, but he does move the ball along in the offense when there isn't an good opportunty for him to attack. I think what the data probably do reflect is the fact that he's not a "Tracy McGrady" type offense initiator/creator, but rather a finisher by design in the Adelman offense that takes advantage of his skills. 5. Also, I don't think being a black hole is just about taking shots when you touch the ball-- what about those classic Steve Francis possessiosn where he dribbled the clock down and then passed the ball? Doesn't black holing shot clock count as much as black holing shots? 6. KMart by far has the most number of touches resulting in an opponent foul among this group. The other top foul-drawer in the league are Fs or Cs.
Anyone who has eyes and watches the games can tell you that Kevin Martin is not a "black hole" out there. He has his moments where he keeps shooting when you wish he wouldn't because his shot is off, but few would consider him a jacker, a guy who doesn't move the ball, a guy who sits on his dribble, etc. Given all the things you pointed out, I think this falls into the category of interesting read, but relatively useless analysis. It's also somewhat confusing as to why they are including PGs with SGs? It's almost as if people have forgotten what a SG is supposed to do?
Black holeness should be measured by adding shots and dribbles together subtracting passes and dividing by the number of touches a player has. Black Hole Density = (Shots + dribbles-passes)/Touches
He s shooting percentage is what? True He is scorer But he guy hardly passes the ball cause he shoots alot.
Kevin Martin isn't even close to being a "Black Hole." When he shoots, it's usually a good look... and he didn't have to do much to get it either. When he gets the ball, he quickly assesses the situation and makes his decision based on what he sees. If he thinks he can get a step on the defender, he goes for it. If he's got a screen coming, he uses it well. If he's open, he shoots. If he doesn't like the situation, he doesn't force up a ridiculous shot, he just passes it off and moves the offense forward. There's no useless dribbling when Kevin Martin has the ball.
great commentary CH. The thing is, being a "black hole" isn't really a bad idea if the player is good enough to carry the offense. For example, LBJ during his cavs tenure probably hogged the ball just as much as guys like Francis or Iverson did, however since Lebron was so good at creating shots for others it didn't really matter. In Martin's case, he was converting at a 60% TS clip. Even if he wasn't really the shot-creating type, he was so effective at generating points that he pulled the Rockets offense along almost single-handedly. At the end of the day, I think the offense of the team is what's really important, if the player is lifting up the offensive efficiency of the team when he hogs the ball then he should continue to hog it IMHO.
The reason you don't include post players is they take more efficient shots usually, so no one's gonna complain about a center taking 10s to create a shot for himself. Same thing with Martin.
Two responses for the blog sums up my point exactly. [rquoter]One thing to consider is some of these guys are assisters and some of them are assistees. There's no real problem with taking the shot that was set up for you. "Black Holeyness" is more what you think of when a player takes a lot of unassisted non-transition shots, I think.[/rquoter] [rquoter]One thing to consider is some of these guys are assisters and some of them are assistees. There's no real problem with taking the shot that was set up for you. "Black Holeyness" is more what you think of when a player takes a lot of unassisted non-transition shots, I think.[/rquoter]
Oops. Missed the other one. [rquoter]Martin's drawn foul percentage seems to make up most of the difference. Almost twenty percent! I bet that's up there with the Dwight Howard's of the league. And he shoots nearly 90% from the line. Martin shooting free throws is pretty close to an ideal possession by NBA standards. If you're Houston, you want to engineer your offense so that alot of possessions end with him. An additional pass would often just lower your efficiency.[/rquoter]
No. Not fixed. Steve Francis was much much much worse (at his best) than Aaron Brooks has ever been at dribbling out the clock.
When a guy has his kind of scoring efficiency, isn't adept at creating off the dribble, is on the perimeter, and is largely surrounded by offensively-challenged guys - I don't want him giving up the Rock. I want him doing what he does best, finishing the play. If he were a PG or a low post guy, I'd be more concerned. But a perimeter outside shooting wing? Fire away.
