Season Recap

2017-18 Recap

Point Guard
Scoring Leaders: Clarkson 6.3, Thomas 6.2, Ingram 5.9
Passing Leaders: Ball 4.1, Thomas 3.8, Ennis 3.6
Hustle Leaders: Payton 3.2, Ball 3.0, Ennis 2.6

Overall
Thomas 82
Clarkson 79
Ball 76
Ingram 70
Ennis 68
Payton 62
Caruso 58

Wing
Scoring Leaders: Clarkson 6.3, Ingram 5.9, KCP 5.5
Passing Leaders: Hayes 3.9, Clarkson 3.4, Ingram 3.1
Hustle Leaders: A.Ingram 3.0, Brewer 2.8, Deng 2.6

Overall
Clarkson 80
Ingram 70
A.Ingram 66
KCP 58
Hayes 54
Hart 51
Brewer 48
Deng 35
Blue 19

BIG
Scoring Leaders: Randle 6.5, Lopez 6.2, Kuzma 6.0
Passing Leaders: Randle 2.8, Bryant 2.7, Deng 2.6
Hustle Leaders: Nance 3.8, Bogut 3.7, Zubac 3.5

Overall
Randle 91
Nance 91
Lopez 83
Zubac 83
Kuzma 68
Bogut 66
Bryant 61
Deng 45
Hayes 45
Frye 44
Wear 43
Williams 29

Tops - By Possession Consumed
Name / Possessions / Points Produced / Points Per Possession
Randle 1539 / 1795 / 1.17
Kuzma 1424 / 1559 / 1.09
Ingram 1281 / 1466 / 1.14
KCP 1154 / 1356 / 1.18
Ball 1111 / 1372 / 1.23
Lopez 1096 / 1244 / 1.14
Clarkson 1001 / 1160 / 1.16
Hart 549 / 676 / 1.23
Thomas 397 / 456 / 1.15
Nance 394 / 488 / 1.24
TEAM 11409 / 13242* / 1.16

The Core
PG Ball
-He gets involved enough in scoring that he rated between poor and adequate as a scorer, rated exceptionally as a passer, and just short of good as a hustle player (this was the biggest surprise to me - and really helped his defensive metrics). If he plays defense like he did this season (DPM liked him a lot more than counterpart stats; I think this has to be monitored), then even if he doesn't improve as a shooter, he's still almost worthy of an NBA starting position. I imagine he'll improve his shot and playmaking. It's especially important not to write off a young player after shooting struggles - especially those slighter in build. Ingram moved from 40.2% to 47.0% on FGs in one season. Ball starts off worse, but if he improved to just 40.2% on FGs, even without improving his three-point shooting, he'd already be up to 11 points per game. At the same time, he's just over two Standard Deviations down from the average FG% in the NBA. That has to change.
Now: Rotational / Starter
Potential: I see All-Star potential

SG Hart
Hart is an adequate scorer, adequate passer, and adequate hustle player. Seeing a pattern? He belongs on a roster, but if his defense isn't excellent, then he probably doesn't belong in or around the starting lineup. He's already 23, so it's hard to see what his upside might be, but if he's a rotational player who can occasionally harass opposing wings, that's probably good enough for his draft position to make him a good addition. On the bright side, in limited minutes after the ASB, he was a much improved player: Scoring up to 5.8 (good), Passing midway toward solid (2.3), and hustle up to solid (2.5). That would have bumped his overall score to 60 at his position. For a legit 3-and-D player, that's fine.
Now: NBA Body with some business on the court
Potential: Role Player - 3&D (especially situationally)

SF Ingram
Ingram finished his rookie season below 5.0 scoring, at 2.5 passing, and at 2.3 hustle. He had a 51 overall rating at Wing. The main culprits for him were a very low Points Per Shot (1.08) and a horrific 0.32 Points Per Minute. He was too passive and couldn't maximize his opportunities when he saw them. Then something happened - he adapted his game to his limitations. He scored 1.25 points per shot this season, and he increased his Points Per Minute by 150% to 0.48. That bumped him to 5.9 scoring (good, nearing excellent), 3.1 passing (good), and 2.4 hustle (adequate nearing solid) with a 70 Wing Rating. Defensive metrics tended to hate him as a rookie, but he held opposing SFs to 13.1 PER on the season, thanks to a ridiculously low 3.7 assists allowed per 48 minutes. He outperformed rival PFs by 3.5 PER (and amazingly outscored them 23.7 to 20.0 per 48).
Now: He's a rotational player on his offense, and he's a clear cut starter because of his defense.
Potential: After nearly doubling his PPG and climbing nearly two standard deviations in shooting, Ingram has set himself on a track appropriate to his draft position. He may never be an All-Star, but he'll be a good starter for years to come.

F Kuzma
Kuzma is going to polarize. He showed excellent scoring, adequate to solid passing, and near solid hustle as a rookie. He posted a 68 overall rating (and 63 at Wing), which is promising - making him a rotational player already. Unlike Hart, Kuzma cooled after the break, falling to 5.9 scoring, 2.2 passing, and 2.2 hustle. He'll be 23 at the start of next season, and his defensive numbers were decent to tolerable. He doesn't seem to have much room to improve on D, and he wasn't a better shooter in college. I don't see the upside. But honestly the biggest problem with Kuzma is that he's a PF. Because he's not better than Randle.
Now: NBA rotational player.
Potential: Sixth Man

PF Randle
There's this PF who averaged 16.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, and shot 52% over 13 NBA seasons. He never went to an ASG, but he racked up 80.3 Win Shares in his career. I've said from the beginning that Randle projects a lot like that dude, Carlos Boozer. I stand by it.
Look at Boozer / Randle side-by-side at 23:
JR: 16.1 points, 2.6 assists, 8.0 rebounds, 56% FGs
CB: 17.8 points, 2.8 assists, 9.0 rebounds, 52% FGs
Now, Randle has only 11 Win Shares in his four seasons, compared to Booster's 19 in his first three seasons, but the comparison is legit.

Randle was an excellent scorer (6.5), solid to good passer (2.8), and good hustler (3.0). His 91 rating would be a star rating but for two things - BIGS actually find it easiest to score 80+, so I'd put that 91 in perspective - and his defense is not good (but he's good enough on O now that he can outwork and outscore his counterpart most of the time).
Now: Legit starter.
Potential: Legit starter - like Boozer.

C Zubac
Zubac flashed tons of promise as a rookie - with 5.8 scoring, 2.1 passing, and 3.3 hustle for an 82 overall rating. He languished on the bench for much of his sophomore season, but it wasn't all bad news. He finished at 5.5, 2.3, and 3.5 with 83 overall. Opposing Centers averaged 20.7 points and 18.7 rebounds per 48 against him, while he averaged only 19.4 and 14.8, correspondingly. Unlike some of the other Lakers youngsters, he's only going to be 21 this coming season. He finished the season on a relative tear, with 6.9 points, 5.9 rebounds in just 18 minutes per game over his final eight. Already a solid to good scorer, Zubac has consistently shown more than adequate passing and near excellent hustle. I wouldn't slot him in for 24 minutes a night, but year three could be a huge step forward for him - even as the NBA changes to the detriment of players like him. His ceiling is both difficult to ascertain but possibly much higher than some of the other players on this list.
Now: Role Playing Big
Potential: Good Starter

 

Quick look at some likely leaders for this season:
Scoring: Harden 7.4, Davis 7.1, Durant 7.1
Passing: Westbrook 4.5, James 4.3, Harden 4.2
Hustle: Drummond 4.2, Davis 3.7

Positional Efficiency
PG Harden 113, Westbrook 109, James 109
Wing Harden 112, James 104, Durant 97
Big Davis 112, Drummond 105

Rough Scale
Scoring
3- terrible
4 - poor
5 - adequate
5.5 solid
5.75 good
6 - excellent
7 - exceptional
Wilt posted a 7.56 in 61-62, the highest I've seen.

Passing
1 - terrible
1.5 - poor
2 - adequate
2.5 - solid
3 - good
3.5 - excellent
4 - exceptional
Magic posted a 4.91 in 1985-86. That's the highest I know of offhand, but I haven't charted all the data.

Hustle
1 - terrible
1.5 - poor
2 - adequate
2.5 - solid
3 - good
3.5 - excellent
4 - exceptional
Shaq posted a 4.45 in 1994-95, the highest I've seen.

Positional
20+ potential NBA body
40+ NBA body
60+ rotational
70+ role player
80+ starter
90+ star
100+ superstar
Shaq posted a 133 in 1994-95, the highest I've seen.

 

There isn't really a range, except from zero to...well, I suppose it could get higher than those numbers, but it would be difficult to do so. If Pete Maravich played every minute of every game in his final year in college, then his scoring efficiency would have been 7.57, but if he'd missed even 10% of the minutes (36 MPG), it would have been 7.78. So, 7.4 is ridiculously good.

 

Awesome work. Thanks @trodgers

I need to pour over this to really let it all soak in

 

Scale yes. As an explanation, I’ll say that all these efficiency stats are measures of two variables. Hold on. Let me type thjd on my computer.

 

So, for...

Scoring Efficiency: it's the player's ability to effectively choose effective shots - so it's points per shot and points per minute.
Passing Efficiency: it's the player's ability to effectively pass for scoring - so it's assists per minute and assists / (assists + TO)
Hustle Efficiency: it's the player's ability to effectively hustle - so it's "Good" per minute and "Good"/("Good"+"Bad")
....."Good" is offensive rebounds, steals, and blocks. "Bad" is TO and PF. If I had easy access to the data, I'd add in 50/50 ball stats, too.