I just finished watching tonight's loss for second time. You might be asking yourselves, "Why does jsams put himself through the agony of watching a loss not once, but twice?" and "Does this dude have a life?"
The sole purpose for re-watching tonight's meltdown was to crunch stats -- not just any stats, stats that will revolutionize they way we analyze basketball.
These revolutionary stats weren't my idea. They were introduced by Bill Simmons in his latest column, Don't deny NBA stat geeks the truth.
Here were the stats Bill came up with:
I want "mega-assists" (passes that create a layup or a dunk) and "half-assists" (for each made foul shot). I want "unforced turnovers," like in tennis (Tony Allen would be Wilt Chamberlain in this category), and "nitty-gritties" (some combination of charges taken, deflections, balls saved from going out of bounds and rebounds tipped to teammates). I want "Unselds" (a long outlet pass that leads to an assist for a layup or a dunk) and "Russells" (a blocked shot directed to a teammate).
After watching the game and attempting to track some of these stats, there were some I liked and some I didn't like. As of right now this is nothing but an experiment. The stats I track are subject to change. I might add some stats, subtract some stats, or invent some stats. The ultimate goal is to perfect the system by next season and track for an entire 82 games. This is going to take a lot of work, and a lot of parties involved, but we'll worry about that when the time comes. Here are the numbers:
Mega-assists
Andre Miler - 3
Thaddeus Young- 2
Willie Green - 1
Andre Iguodala - 1
Half-assists
Willie Green - 3
Andre Iguodala - 2
Lou Williams - 2
Unforced Turnovers
Andre Iguodala - 3
Andre Miller - 1
Thaddeus Young - 1
Reggie Evans - 1
Donyell Marshall - 1
Lou Williams - 1
Nitty-gritties
Andre Miller - 6
Theophilus Ratliff - 3
Willie Green - 2
Andre Iguodala - 2
Royal Ivey - 2
Reggie Evans - 2
Thaddeus Young - 1
----------
A few things jump out at me.
After watching the game for a second time and tracking these stats, Marreese Speights was worse than I thought. He did absouletely nothing to help the team tonight. When people say he's hit the "rookie wall" it's an understatement. In 13 minutes he took five shots (all misses), committed four fouls, recorded only two rebounds and failed to get on the board in either of the new assist categories or the "Nitty-gritty" category.
William (Bill from now on) Green actually impressed. In basically the same amount of minutes, he contributed in more ways than Lou Williams. Is it possible that William is a better option than Lou? Probably not, but this is something to keep an eye on in future "Stats of the Future".
Andre Miller also played better than originally thought tonight. He dominated the "Nitty-gritty" category with six, mostly do to his extremely active hands on defense. And half of Miller's six assists went down as "Mega-assists" meaning they led to dunks or layups. I wouldn't have picked up on either one of these things if I hadn't re-watched the game.
As a team, the Sixers failed to record an "Unseld" or a "Russell". Now that I think about it, I don't think "Unselds" apply to the Sixers as much as other teams. Our version of an "Unseld" is Iguodala ripping down a defensive rebound, racing up court and either creating an easy shot for himself, or a teammate. He accomplished that four times tonight, by the way.
There you have it. The first installment of "Stats of the Future".
Let me know what you guys think, let me know if you want to help, and let me know what stats you like or don't like. As you can imagine, this takes a lot of time, a lot of rewinding and a lot of concentration. I don't want to track a certain stat if the majority of you think it's useless.
Obviously I won't have six hours to watch and analyze a basketball game every night, but I'll do my best.
I've already eliminated "Unselds" from my arsenal and added the "Iguodalas" (Defensive rebounds, coast-to-coast, easy shot for himself or teammate). By all means, chime in with any stats you'd like to see tracked.