(The original text was published on January 26. The author is The Ringer’s contributing writer, ach Kram. The content of The article does not represent The translator’s point of view.)
Introduction: even the best stars will play abnormally on some nights. So, what can we learn from their lower-than-expected performance?
The faster pace, larger space, more efficient attack, and the big nuclear strategy that single-core teams are willing to adopt make NBA’s super-level performance this season everywhere. However, for the most shining stars in the league, although the most gorgeous data gave birth to most of their highlight moments, stability and qualified performance in a depressed state are equally important.
This is especially true when we observe a player’s performance throughout the season or consider whether he should be selected as an all-star. Yes, chamberlain once scored 100 points in a single game in a season with an average of 50 points-but his ruling power in that season was so strong that even if he didn’t count the game, he can also reach an average of 50 points in other matches (after rounding, of course; His average score in other matches is 49.7 points). His lower limit and upper limit are equally important; In the 1961-62 season, Chamberlain scored at least 30 points in 78 regular season games, and the single score in the whole season was never lower than 26 points.
On the contrary, most players’ worst matches have huge data attenuation compared with the best matches. This season, portland’s anfinny simmons-we just randomly selected a defender who ranked in the middle game from the top 100 players in the league-with a range of 51% in the half of the matches we played better. 28 points, however, in the worse half, only 16 points and 37% hit rate were averaged. When the situation of mickey bridges (a flank player we choose casually) in phoenix is not good, it will fall from an average of 21 points and a shooting rate of 54% to an average of 12 points and a shooting rate of 36%. When Sun Center Elton (a big player we randomly selected) falls into the worst game from the best game, it will lose nearly half of the average score and 40% of the average number of rebounds.
However, the best players in the league-real superstars and the hottest MVP candidates-all try their best to maintain their data output every night. They are special, not only because they can cut 60 points or three pairs in a single game, it is also because they-taking Dong Qiqi this season as an example-can still contribute 30 + three pairs twice in the worst performance.
On Thursday, NBA announced the starting list of next month’s All-Star Game to praise the top players in the league. So, let’s take the opportunity to recall the old indicator of game score-it was proposed by John Hollinger, it is a comprehensive score obtained by weighting and summing various data of a player’s game. Using this indicator, we can arrange the game data of a player in the order from the best to the worst, and then split it into two from the middle to obtain a set of two samples with the same number (translation note: the half of the matches with higher scores are defined as the best matches, while the half with lower scores are defined as the worst matches). According to the MVP odds set out in FanDuel, we will examine the truly competitive candidates one by one this year to see what these top players’ worst matches can reveal.
Yokedge
Data in the worst match: 18.7 points per game, 9.6 rebounds, 9.4 assists, three hit rates 60-37-79, real hit rate 67%
Yes, you are right-jokiki averaged three pairs in almost his worst match, with a hit rate of 60%. A “bad” yorkich’s average assists can still rank third in the league, and the real hit rate can also rank first in the league.
The above data about hit rate is particularly noticeable, because at least from the calculation method of the game score, the simplest way to perform poorly one night is to throw a lot of balls. None of the MVP candidates in this article can approach yokedge’s hit rate in the worst match. And jokiki only shot less than 50% in one game in the whole season (in the big victory against jazz, he made 3 out of 10 shots, because he didn’t have to play in the fourth quarter).
But the most important factor that determines the good or bad performance of jokiki is how many times he has voted, not-as most players do-how accurate he is. In the best game, yokiki shot about 12 more sports shots and free throws; Otherwise, his data will be basically the same as the worst game.
Data of yokedge in the best and worst matches
Dong Qiqi
Data in the worst match: 28.0 points per game, 7.8 rebounds, 8.1 assists, three hit rates 43–73, real hit rate 55%
In the history of NBA, only eight players have achieved 28 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in a single season (including Dong Qiqi who has obtained such data twice) — And this is how Dong Qiqi played in the worst game this season. Even though the players’ data has generally soared this season, his performance is still outstanding: “bad” Lucca’s average score is still ranked ninth in the league, and the average number of assists can also be ranked fourth in the league.
Although his jump shot in the worst competition is far less accurate than that in the best competition, but he can still make up for it with 10.1 free throws-this is a drop from 12.5 free throws in his best match, but it is still an excellent measure to deal with unstable shots.
However, one of the data of Dong Qiqi in his worst performance was very harmful. Dallas’s winning rate will fall from 77 percent (17-5) of his best match to 36 percent (8-14). This decline is larger than that of other candidates listed in this article, which further proves that the Lone Ranger who let Jay Brunson go is not equipped with enough support around his stars.
Enbede
Data in the worst match: 26.8 points per game, 9.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 49-33-83 hit rate for three games, and 60% hit rate for real games
We are talking about a player who also gets a lot of points through free throws when it feels good: enbide still has 10.2 free throws in the worst match. There is a reason why I have written so much about free throw rate-it can help players like enbide maintain output data, no matter what is happening in a certain match.
Yokiki is now the biggest hit of MVP. He is trying to be the first player to win this honor for three consecutive years after Byrd, but East Chech and enbid are also worthy of respect-they will also present us with an interesting scoring battle in the second half of the season. At this moment, the average score of East cheqi is only 0.2 points ahead of enbide; Enbide scored higher than East cheqi in the best match (40.4 points on average, dong Qiqi averaged 39.5 points per game), but Dong Qiqi scored better in the worst game (28.0 points per game and 26.8 points per game for enbide).
Tatum
Data in the worst match: average 25.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists, three hit rates 42–82, real hit rate 55%
Oh, look, another star used to making free throws frequently! Tatum’s score data fell naturally in his worst match, but they still reflect how much he has improved in a short period of time as a scorer-because East Chech and enbede have been able to stand on freethrow line many times, but Tatum developed this skill only in the middle of his career. Last season, the average number of free throws in Tatum was only 6.2. This season, he has already won 6.9 free throws in his worst midfield, in the best game, there are 10.5 games average. Moreover, only two seasons ago, Tatum’s two-point shooting rate was only 50%; Now, his two-point shooting rate in the worst game is 50%.
Aside from the score, Tatum’s rebounds, assists, cap and steals are almost not affected by the ups and downs of the state-this is a great sign, it is proved that any bad night will only affect his shooting efficiency, not his ability to create opportunities for his teammates and his defensive efforts.
Letter brother
Data in the worst game: 23.6 points per game, 11.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, three hit rates 43-23-59, real hit rate 50%
Yanis was once named the most stable player in NBA, but his decline in the worst game this season was much more striking than before. His data seems to be good-every NBA team hopes to have a player who can cut down 24+11+5 every night, not to mention that this is only the worst performance-but it is not up to his standard as a two-time MVP winner. Six players have scored more than 30 points on average this season, among which Yannis has the biggest difference between the best match and the worst match.
The performance of scorers with an average of more than 30 points in the best match and worst match this season
Moreover, his hit rate also became ugly in those depressed nights. In the worst game, yannis didn’t just throw more three-point shots and free throws-his two-point shooting rate also plummeted from 64% in the best game to 47%. In contrast, yokedge’s two-point hit rate dropped only from 69 percent to 66 percent.
Brother alphabet is still a special player. However, this unusual data fluctuation also helps us explain why the stag’s attack is struggling and why Yanis is falling behind in the MVP competition, and why he seemed a little out of place in the front trio starting in the east of All-Star.
Morant
Data in the worst match: 20.9 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, 8.4 assists, three hit rates of 39-22-72, real hit rate of 47%
Morant’s jump shot-in the past two seasons, his three-point hand feeling was hot first and then cold-once again showed the bad signs of going downhill. His three-point hit rate (22%) in the worst match was nearly half lower than that in the best match (39%), and the drop rate of two-point hit rate was also equivalent to that of Yannis. For reference, the real hit rate of 47% can only be ranked second to last in the league this season (only higher than Kilian-bass in Detroit).
However, Morant’s worst match was accompanied by a strange and unique positive data: the grizzly bear’s record was at his worst performance (14-5) slightly higher than when he performed best (13 wins and 6 losses). This is only a slight gap, so I don’t want to say that memphis is more competitive when there is no morante. However, this means that Morant has a better depth of rosters than a star like East chip in Dallas, thus gaining more support. This further proves that Memphis is far from a single-core team, along with the 20-5-loss record when Morant missed last season.
Durant
Data in the worst match: 25.2 points per game, 5.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists, three hit rates 51–93, and real hit rate 62%
In my research, I found that players who rely on jump shots are more likely to perform unstable than other players-such as big men whose main duties are rebound, layup and free throws. But Durant is an exception-despite frequent jump shots, he has always been one of the most stable players in the league.
Throughout the history of basketball, Durant’s jump shot level may be the highest, which certainly benefited him a lot. According to Second Spectrum, in the past five seasons, his jump shot score exceeded the theoretical prediction value ranked first in the league (among the players who shot at least 1,000 jump shots, weishao’s data ranked the last; Yanis ranked the last). Other MVP candidates will try other scoring methods even when they feel good; But for Durant, this is never an important matter.
Durant this season, like before, could hand over dazzling score data in almost every match until he sprained the medial collateral ligament of his right knee. If you only watch the worst game, yokedge is the only player among the MVP candidates whose shooting efficiency is higher than Durant. In contrast, Durant’s real hit rate in the worst matches has been as high as that of Lillard, Alexander and Mitchell in all matches.
Curry
Data in the worst match: 22.8 points per game, 6.1 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 43-37-89 hit rate for three games, and 58% hit rate for real games
In the worst game, stephen’s assists decreased, the number of mistakes increased, and the number of free throws made was not as good as before. He lost his usual glory in the six games after returning from injury; Five of them were “the worst” and only one was “the best”.
But every time I examine a player’s worst game like this, Stephen’s three-point performance is pleasing to the eye. The three-point hit rate of 37% is really not good compared with stephen’s normal level; Because his three-point hit rate in the best match is 46%, and the current three-point hit rate this season is 42%. However, the three-point hit rate of 37% is almost the same as that of lillard and bill, which is 1% higher than that of harden and booker. The worst Stephen is still as dangerous as any star shooter in this sport.
(Note: the data in this article is as of January 24, US time.)
Original: Zach Kram
Compilation: asteroid falling
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