May 20, 2013

WFNY Stats & Info: Tristan Thompson’s improving blocked rate

February 21, 2013 by 3 Comments

I noticed this comment on my latest edition of The Diff from Wedensday. This one fellow believes that Cavaliers power forward Tristan Thompson is being blocked less often than last year.

So, I decided to look into his game log from this season, before/after Dec. 19, the game when center Anderson Varejao got hurt.

Type GP FGA/G BLKD/G BLKD%
Since 12/19 28 11.29 1.50 13.3%
Thru 12/18 26 7.42 1.27 17.1%

Verdict: Yes. Along with the better shooting percentages (or intuitively because of it?) Thompson also is getting blocked less often since Varejao’s been out. Still a pretty high number. But noticeably less.

For a bit of added context, according to HoopData, the average blocked percentage in the NBA this season is 6.1 percent. Among full-time regulars, I only spot three players that are clearly worse than Thompson this season at this category: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Reggie Evans and Austin Rivers. Yikes.

Also notable, ESPN stats guru Kevin Pelton mentioned rookie Thomas Robinson’s blocked percentage in his trade analysis today. He wrote: “He has had a tough time dealing with shot-blockers in the paint and is getting more than 10 percent of his shots rejected, per Hoopdata.com, one reason he’s shooting just 42.9 percent from the field.”

So yes, again, this isn’t exactly time to celebrate boisterously about Thompson’s blocked shot improvements as he’s still well below league-average. But improvements are improvements nonetheless.

[Related: The Diff: Cavalier notes on Tristan, turnovers, trades, etc]

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Small goals paving the way for big wins in Cleveland

February 7, 2013 by 23 Comments

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The mountain has been turned into a series of considerably smaller molehills. While the Cleveland Cavaliers have a long way to go before they are even within eyesight of the top, each rest station along the way comes with its own intrinsic reward.

After being embarrassed by 18 points in Detroit late last week, the Cavaliers — the team as well as the front office —  had a series of meetings. There was a closed-door meeting with Byron Scott, his assistant coaches and all 15 players. Blunt objects were not thrown, but choice words most definitely were. From there, Scott and his coaches sat down to focus on the short and intermediate term. Long term talk is fantastic fuel for narrative, but it was obvious that young players needed something on which to hang their respective hats.

[Read more...]

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While We’re Waiting… Super Bowl Halftime Show Facts, PER, and Michigan Catfish

February 3, 2013 by 3 Comments

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

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Leading off, it’s Super Bowl Sunday, so let’s look at some fun, potentially unknown to you facts about the Super Bowl Halftime Show, “Of course you read this on Shutdown Corner yesterday, but Beyonce won’t get paid for performing. Nobody else has gotten paid by the NFL for performing at halftime either. The artists get expenses paid for and that’s it. It makes sense, because even the biggest artists in the world aren’t going to have an audience of more than 110 million people ever again. The exposure is priceless, as long as you don’t screw it up (hello, Black Eyed Peas!). And if Michael Jackson didn’t get paid for his halftime show, you’ve got no shot.” [Shutdown Corner]

For those who are player efficiency rating (PER) fans in NBA stats circles, here’s someone who isn’t a fan and uses computer science sort algorithm analogies to make his point (ahh, the undergraduate days for yours truly), “There is really no reason to use PER.** At least, not if the advancement of useful stats in basketball is your goal. The truth is that PER is still heavily used. ESPN has a vested interest in using it. Many analysts on the web use it, because candidly, it’s hard to get stats. It’s a lot of work to break apart metrics and understand how they work (something we’re trying to do a better job of with Wins Produced). The simple fact is when people bring up PER or use sentences like “I know +/- is noisy, but…” well all I can say is that it’s a wrong way to go.” [Wages of Wins Journal] [Read more...]

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WFNY Stats & Info: Cavs’ efficiency up despite Anderson Varejao being out

January 24, 2013 by 1 Comment

The Cleveland Cavaliers may have had a rough stretch of games out west, and while it may not exactly be leading to a significant difference in the win column, the Wine and Gold have been playing markedly better when on the floor. Let’s take a look…

Cavs’ efficiency in first 28 games (record: 5-23): 99.1-105.9 (-6.8)
Cavs’ efficiency in last 15 games (record: 6-9): 102.9-106.4 (-3.5)

Would-be All-Star center Anderson Varejao has been out for all of these last 15 games…

The team is doing slightly worse defensively (still among the bottom five in NBA, either way), but notably better on the offensive efficiency side. An offensive efficiency mark of 99.1 also is in the bottom five of the NBA on that side of the ball, but 102.9 is pretty mediocre with league average being 102.4 so far this season.

This is pretty intriguing to me, so I tried to figure out why.

The Cavs are notably rebounding awfully during this stretch. That’s especially true on the offensive end.

Rebounding margin: +1.1 margin in first 28 games; -5.1 in last 15 games
Offensive rebound rate: 30.6%  orb% in first 28 games, 27.1% in last 15 games

But the biggest positive differences? Fewer turnovers, better two-point shooting percentage and better free-throw shooting percentage.

Turnovers: 14.8 pg in first 28 games, 12.5 pg in last 15 games
2-point shooting: 43.7% in first 28 games, 45.5% in last 15 games
Free throw shooting: 72.4% in first 28 games, 79.6% in last 15 games

Given that the Cavaliers are among the league leaders in pace of play, this improved efficiency — coupled with fewer turnovers and improved conversion rates at the charity stripe — have proven to be huge despite the absence of a player who was averaging 14 points and 14 rebounds while providing heart, soul, energy and a career-best PER.

[Related: The Diff: Franchise comparisons for the Cavaliers]

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WFNY Discussion: Dion Waiters’ shooting at the rim

December 15, 2012 by 5 Comments

As you may know from being a WFNY reader, the WFNY writers have a daily email chain that can linger on and on. Sometimes, we’ll discuss prom jokes and other unsurprisingly immature topics for a group of 10+ males. But also, we really have some great discussions off the cuff about sports. Today, we bring you inside the WFNY email thread for a stats-based discussion about Cavs rookie Dion Waiters.

Jacob: Here’s your stat of the day y’all: (Source: HoopData as of games played on 12/10)

Of all 174 NBA players with at least 35 FGAs at the rim this season, Dion Waiters ranks LAST in shooting percentage at the rim at 41.2% (28-68). The average of these 174 players is 64.7% (44.6-69.0). The average of the 59 guards in this list is 60.9% (40.3-66.2).

Of the 59 guards, Waiters ranks in the top-fifth (No. 11) with 15.7 FGAs per 36 minutes.
Of the 59 guards, Waiters ranks in the upper-half (No. 23) with 4.5 FGAs at the rim per 36 minutes.
Of the 59 guards, Waiters ranks in the bottom-eighth (No. 8) with a 44.5% efg. [Read more...]

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Lebron James in the Clutch

April 6, 2009 by 9 Comments

I just need to start by saying thank goodness for 82games.com.  Their statistical analysis is some of the most intriguing if not the best available on the Internet.  I use that qualifier as I am guessing the statisticians that Mark Cuban has working for him in Dallas come up with some interesting stuff that isn’t available to the general public.  Anyway, 82games.com has come up with a section on their site dedicated to clutch stats.  These stats are compiled in game situations in the 4th quarter or overtime with less than five minutes remaining and neither team is ahead by more than five points.  The stats are then extrapolated out to 48 minutes in order to give them perspective of a regulation NBA game.  The idea being, that a player who can perform late in games when the game is still on the line is truly “clutch.” Lebron James has plenty of opportunities in the clutch, but how has he performed? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cavaliers, General Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,