I've been watching these numbers converge - slowly. Pythagorean has dropped only a little (started off high) and mine has increased steadily (started off low).
G (C) Lin 75 Price 62 Clarkson 55 WING (C-) Kobe 84 Young 63 Clarkson 58 Ellington 53 Price 54 Johnson 50 Kelly 38 BIG (B-) Davis 82 Hill 82 Boozer 72 Sacre 63 Johnson 60 Kelly 46 Randle 21 After the W vs. Indy
Kobe's Last Four 32.3 minutes 17.0 points 8.0 assists 8.5 rebounds 0.5 blocks 2.3 steals 47% FGs 53% 3pts 82% FTs And his Possession Breakdown: Shoot / Get Fouled .56 Possessions (49 FGA, 15 FTA - one a three-point shot) ..67 points produced Techs .1 possessions .2 FTA (I count these as 1/2 possession) ..1 points produced AST/TO .50 possessions ..32 AST ...22 2-pt shots made ...10 3-pt shots made ..18 TO ....74 points produced 107 possessions 142 points produced 1.33 Points Per Possession
Kobe never learned to use screens because he never needed to. Like to see him get some open looks instead of just creating for everyone else all the time.
Sagarin's NBA ratings have the Lakers currently 23rd, but they have played the most difficult schedule according to his rankings. Their 16 games against top 10 teams is the most in the NBA and their 23 against top 16 teams is also the most. Lakers vs. top 10 Sagarin teams: 5-11 It's not a good looking number, but it is better than all these (17) teams: PHI MIN NYK ORL CHA DET MIA UTA SAC BOS BKL IND DEN MIL WAS OKC NO
Interesting stuff, but rough at the same time. That pick is wavering in the distance! But they've been a hell of a lot more fun to watch these last couple of weeks.
G (C) Lin 75 Price 64 Clarkson 53 WING (C-) Kobe 84 Young 63 Clarkson 57 Price 55 Ellington 53 Johnson 50 Kelly 35 BIG (B-) Hill 82 Davis 81 Boozer 71 Sacre 63 Johnson 60 Kelly 38 Randle 21 After Portland
0.16 Despite being dead last in the NBA this season in Solid Screen% at 69.5, the Lakers are 7th in Set Screen Points per Chance at .16. The addition of Tarik Black gives LA an above-average space maker with a Solid Screen% of 75.8 to help create more opportunities to score off screens. 0.092 The Lakers foul on shots they defend more than any team in the league at .092 (NBA average = .08).
Several stats that the Lakers are very poor in and can look to improve on... Midrange Jumpers Lakers are 4th in percentage of points that come from midrange jumpers. Knicks are 1st. Unsurprisingly, both teams are near the bottom of the barrel. Lakers lead the league in pull up shots per game and are only scoring on 37.4% of them. Moving the Ball Lakers are 3rd to last in "touches per game". That's the number of times a player touches and possesses the ball. We all knew that the Lakers don't move the ball. Now, we know how bad they are relative to the rest of the league. Lakers are also 3rd to last in passes per game. This is somewhat similar to the touches per game stat. Somehow, despite the lack of passes per game, we manage to be 19th in assists per game. But that's kind of a superficial look at things since we're also second to last in hockey assists per game. Rebounding We're 6th to last in "% of rebounds per chance". That's basically the # of rebounds we average when there is an opportunity (aka one of our players is in the vicinity). Attacking the Basket Unfortunately, we don't have the personnel to really improve on this. Lakers are 5th to last in drives per game. We are also 6th to last in FG% on drives. Edit: The only player who could possibly help in this aspect is Jeremy Lin. Unfortunately, he's unreliable and sometimes plays way too passive. Kobe and Lin lead the team in drives per game at 6. They're the only two players who even attempt a decent amount. Kobe's shooting 40% on drives while Lin is shooting 50%. After these two, nobody else even really attempts any. Price does try but he sucks at it. Lol.
G (C) Lin 76 Price 64 Clarkson 55 WING (C-) Kobe 83 Young 61 Clarkson 59 Price 55 Ellington 51 Johnson 50 Kelly 38 BIG (B-) Black 109 Davis 82 Hill 82 Boozer 71 Sacre 63 Johnson 60 Kelly 41 Randle 21 After Orlando
Interesting. We'll win against Miami and after January our schedule gets much easier...unfortunately, I think we'll fall out of the top 4 in the 'tank' standings.
G (C) Lin 76 Price 63 Clarkson 55 WING (C-) Kobe 83 Young 61 Clarkson 59 Price 54 Ellington 51 Johnson 50 Kelly 38 BIG (B-) Black 100 Hill 82 Davis 81 Boozer 71 Sacre 63 Johnson 59 Kelly 39 Randle 21 After Cleveland
1st number PPG, 2nd number efficiency Pre Dec.1 Houston x2 - 9th, 17th Phoenix x2 - 4th, 8th Clippers - 5th, 3rd GSW x2 - 1st, 1st Charlotte - 24th, 26th Memphisx2 - 14th, 11th New Orleans - 15th, 12th Spurs - 13th, 7th Atlanta - 7th, 4th Dallas - 2nd, 2nd Denver - 8th, 14th Minnesota - 20th, 23rd Toronto - 3rd, 6th Average opponent PPG rank - 8.1 Average opponent efficiency rank - 10.1 Post Dec. 1 Detroit - 22nd, 22nd Washington - 18th, 9th Boston - 10th, 13th New Orleans - 15th, 12th Sacramento (X2) - 10th, 16th San Antonio - 13th, 7th Minnesota - 20th, 23rd Indiana - 25th, 25th OKC - 19th, 18th GSW - 1st, 1st Chicago - 12th, 10th Dallas - 2nd, 2nd Phoenix - 4th, 8th Denver - 8th, 14th Memphis - 14th, 11th Indiana - 25th, 25th Portland (X2) - 6th, 5th Orlando - 27th, 27th Clipper - 5th, 3rd Miami - 28th, 28th Cleveland - 17th, 19th Average opponent PPG rank - 13.8 Average opponent efficiency rank - 13.1 Playing weaker teams offensively certainly helps.
1st group: Three of those teams were East Conference 2nd group: Nine of the last group (9 of 23) were Eastern Conference. Given that teams play 30 of 82 (36.6%) vs. the opposing conference, it's worth looking at what the schedule was like for these two periods; was it representative of their overall season outlook? 1st group: 3 of 17 (17.6%) vs. East 2nd group: 9 of 23 (39.1%) vs. East So the first group was skewed heavily toward the West. It was also skewed toward more difficult teams; if we remove the East Conference teams (average of 11th, 12th, respectively on those two metrics), that first group was 7.4th in points and 9.7th in offensive rating. This means that that first group was not representative of either a random sampling of teams or of what the Lakers can expect to play in a season. The second group was much closer to what they can expect to play and to a random sampling of teams. So while it's true what Doc suggests, I think the message is really that what we're doing now is more indicative of what we're dealing with for the remainder of the season. If we want to project the Lakers for the rest of the season, disregard the games prior to December 1st.
When did we play Toronto...it was around that time Byron switched to a more conservative defensive scheme to suit our personnel; I also think that contributes to the improvement in our defensive numbers...
G (C) Lin 75 Price 63 Clarkson 56 WING (C-) Kobe 83 Young 61 Clarkson 60 Price 54 Ellington 51 Johnson 49 Kelly 35 BIG (B-) Black 92 Hill 82 Davis 80 Boozer 70 Sacre 63 Johnson 58 Kelly 37 Randle 21
