Bernucca: Analytics For the Easily Amused

The growth of analytics in the NBA has been nothing short of phenomenal.

It started with a deeper look at numbers that already were available and produced new and useful statistics such as true shooting percentage, defensive rebound percentage, offensive rating and win shares.

With the use of a grid or a matrix, we now have the ability to determine a player’s offensive tendencies and hot spots. For some players, it is quite revealing. For others, such as DeAndre Jordan, it pretty much tells us what we already suspected.

And with the installation of SportVU cameras in all 29 arenas, we now have access to information never before available. We can determine how many miles Kevin Durant runs during a game. We can total the number of times Damian Lillard dribbles. We can find out how many times the Spurs pass before they shoot. We can calculate how many rebounds Blake Griffin grabs that were within three feet of him.

And if we want to, we can learn what LeBron James’ shooting percentage is when he dribbles left and is forced to pull up for a jumper from 15-19 feet while defended by Paul George.

There are dozens of websites that can give you the basketball minutiae you are looking for. At SheridanHoops, however, we are taking analytics a step further.

For example, most students of the game know that players such as Anderson Varejao and Nick Collison are adept at drawing charges. But according to our analytics, which are based purely on random observations, Kyle Korver is the active leader in trying to draw charges but instead getting called for blocking fouls.

This offseason, the Knicks traded for Samuel Dalembert, whom Madison Square Garden regulars will quickly learn is the active leader in offensive goaltending violations on shots that were already going in.

Dalembert will be joining forces with J.R. Smith, who led the league last season in immediately firing and missing a 3-pointer after his team grabbed an offensive rebound.

Smith also was the leader in firing 60-foot shots just after the buzzer so his already awful shooting percentage would not be impacted.

Chicago’s Joakim Noah shot 73.7 percent from the line last season, which led all players who have no bleeping idea how to shoot a free throw.

Speaking of free throws, Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala led all players in misses off the heel.

And Charlotte center Al Jefferson led the NBA in padding his rebounding stats by grabbing missed free throws.

You can’t get this stuff with SportVu cameras, folks.

You may have known that the Thunder were sixth in the league in both shooting percentage and adjusted shooting percentage. That is pretty impressive when you consider that center Kendrick Perkins led the NBA in two-foot shots that didn’t come close to going in.

And teammate Nick Collison led the league in passing to covered teammates instead of taking an open shot.

And teammate Russell Westbrook was the leader in running bank shots that only hit the backboard and didn’t come close to hitting the rim.

Westbrook, by the way, also led the league in goaltending practice shots after the whistle, dethroning Kevin Garnett.

Westbrook wasn’t the only point guard to lead the league in one of the lesser known analytical statistics. We bet you didn’t know that Washington’s John Wall led the league in botching 3-on-1 fast breaks.

Or that Chris Paul of the Clippers topped the NBA in number of times elevating to pass before desperately throwing the ball to a vacant area of the court to avoid a turnover, hoping a teammate would track it down.

Or that Tony Parker was the league leader in ratio of true traveling violations-to-actually called traveling violations. Parker also was tops in whining to officials, a correlation we plan on presenting at next year’s Sloan Sports Conference.

Or that Brandon Jennings, in his first season with the Milwaukee Bucks, was the runaway leader in negative four-point plays.

With Nuggets center JaVale McGee missing all but five games due to injury, Hornets forward Bismack Biyombo was the league leader in using poor low-post footwork to create a worse shot for himself. It should be noted that Dalembert also is annually among the league leaders in this little-known stat.

With his propensity for missing and-one opportunities and splitting the ensuing free throws, Blazers center Robin Lopez led the NBA in turning three-point plays into one-point possessions.

Some were questioning why the Lakers put in an amnesty claim for Carlos Boozer. But GM Mitch Kupchak knew that the veteran forward leads all active players in shouting “And one!” on shots where he missed, was not close to being fouled, or both.

On the defensive end, Pistons center Andre Drummond led the league in using blocked shots to mask his otherwise poor defense.

With 10.1 boards per game, Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph topped all players in rebounds-to-vertical leap ratio. At 1.0, Knicks guard Shannon Brown was dead last.

And your eyes didn’t deceive you: Rockets guard James Harden led the league the last two seasons in failed reach-around steal attempts.

And finally, perhaps the most obscure stat undercovered: Heat guard Dwyane Wade led the league in waiting for a teammate to help him off the floor rather than getting up himself.

While we consider our analytics work to be comprehensive, it is possible we may have missed something. If so, feel free to add your favorite overlooked metric in the comments section.

Chris Bernucca is the managing editor of SheridanHoops.com. His column appears every Monday during the season. You can follow him on Twitter.