Monday, December 23, 2013

Why Chris Paul may not want to Play with Melo

It seems there are two conflicting narratives of Carmelo Anthony. One says that he is just a star on the stat line that can't help an organization win. The other contends he simply needs an elite PG--a trade to the Clippers, which would unite him with Chris Paul is often rumored--to complement his offensive talents and consistent winning will follow.

The chart below questions the logic of the 'Melo needing an elite PG' narrative. I pulled data from NBA Stats for Carmelo through last night's games on the % of field goals (FG) that he makes that are assisted and the % that he makes that are unassisted. The chart shows that starting in the 2008-09 season something fundamentally changed in Carmelo's game--he went from being an above 50% shooter on assisted FGs to below 50% and the opposite trend occurred on unassisted FGs.

In what has become especially stark over the last three years, Melo is becoming a much less efficient shooter unless he is in an unassisted scenario. In other words, these numbers suggest that Carmelo needs the ball in his hand and only his hand to be an effective scorer. And, adding a high assist, distributor, like Chris Paul, may not actually benefit his game as his FG% off of assists continues to decline.


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Team FG Attempts and Makes

I collected team data from NBA Stats (as of December 7th's games) on field goal (FG) attempts and makes in five foot increments from the basket out to 29 feet (the NBA three point line is 23 feet 9 inches so outside of end of half, regulation and OT shots, there are likely few, if any, shots beyond 29 feet). The first chart shows the percent of FG attempts by five foot increment.


The second chart shows the percent of FG makes by five foot increment. There isn't a clear relationship between winning and percent of FGs attempted or made by distance from the basket as there are poor teams that attempt a high (Knicks) and low (Jazz) percentage of longer shots and there are better teams that shoot a high (Rockets) and low (Trailblazers) percentage of closer shots. Much of the relationship is likely explained by team personal (i.e., the Rockets shoot a higher percentage of FGs from within 5 feet because they have Dwight Howard).