And the HabersTrophy goes to ...
Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year again.
As the regular season wraps up Wednesday night, it's time to hand out another batch of 2013-14 statistical superlatives. Yes, I'm talking about Per Diem's second annual HabersTrophy awards.
Last season, in the inaugural edition of the HabersTrophies, I dug deep into the NBA StatsCube, SportVU and Synergy databases to uncover 13 of my favorite statistical nuggets of the season. This time, I'm feeling a little more generous, so we'll add 12 more to the pile.
Here are the HabersTrophies for 2013-14.
Most Inconsistent Scorer
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Stephen Curry
Inconsistency is the only consistency when you launch an NBA-high 7.9 3-point attempts per game. Curry has three single-digit scoring games and three 40-plus scoring infernos on his ledger. Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have zero single-digit scoring games combined. For two weeks in March, Curry couldn't crack 20 points. And now he's scored 31, 24, 30, 47 and 32 in his past five games. Put it all together and he owns the NBA's highest standard deviation of scoring totals (9.2). Wild.
Most Consistent Scorer
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Serge Ibaka
Oh, you thought it would go to another OKC guy? Well, Ibaka is as steady as they come. He doesn't mess around from beyond the arc and he rarely depends on whistles to get points, so he eliminates two areas that can throw off scoring totals. He averaged 15.2 points with 33 games between 13 and 17 points, and never more than 27, giving him the lowest standard deviation of those with at least a 15-point scoring average. Ibaka stays within his lane; Durant can't be contained.
Most Improved Player In-Season
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Russell Westbrook
This HabersTrophy is a little twist on the Most Improved Award, which no one actually understands. For this, I looked at the player who had the greatest jump in PER before and after the All-Star break. And that honor belongs to Westbrook, who went from 20.2 PER before to 28.7 PER after (plus-8.5). It's amazing what some time off and not playing on back-to-backs will do for a player's efficiency. And guess what: no back-to-backs in the postseason. Buckle up, y'all.
Most Precipitous Decline
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Roy Hibbert
Big trees fall hard. The 7-foot-2, nearly 300-pound behemoth shot a ghastly 39.7 percent after the All-Star break, which is hard to believe considering how good he looked early in the season. But it wasn't just scoring; his in-season rebounding numbers could be best illustrated by the backslash on your keyboard. Hibbert posted a 16.1 PER before the break and just 8.9 after the break, which gives him the single biggest drop-off in the league (minus-7.2).
Biggest Loser
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Thaddeus Young
Thursday morning can't come soon enough for this guy. No one suffered a bigger deficit while on the floor this season than Young, which is a shame because he was easily the 76ers' best player. The Sixers were outscored by an NBA-worst 650 points with him on the floor. In fact, Young found himself behind on the scoreboard more this season than Kawhi Leonard has in his entire career (1,800 minutes versus 1,498 minutes). A silver lining for Young: Kemba Walker got this Habbie last season, and now he's in the playoffs.
Best Driver
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Kevin Durant
Just a shooter, right? Wrong. According to SportVU data, the Thunder scored 1.44 points on average on Durant's drives this season, which speaks to his vastly improved playmaking abilities. Whether it was kicking it out to open shooters or getting to the free throw line, no one created more points by putting the ball on the deck and penetrating the paint. Not even LeBron James; the Heat averaged "just" 1.34 points on his drives.
Longest Run
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Jimmy Butler
Who else? Per the SportVU 3D tracking cameras, Butler legged out a season-high 3.97 miles in the triple-overtime win over the Orlando Magic on Jan. 15. He played a season-high 60 minutes in that game, so the measuring-tape reading isn't a total surprise. Keep in mind, this guy suffered from turf toe a month earlier in the season. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau is probably disappointed Butler didn't cross the four-mile plateau.
Highest Block Retention Percentage
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Andrew Bogut
It's a real bummer we probably won't get to see Bogut work his magic in the playoffs now that he's dealing with a fractured rib. Bogut does a remarkable job of turning blocks into steals. Exclusive SportVU data tells us that the 29-year-old Warriors big man registered a league-high 68 percent block retention rate, which matches Tim Duncan's Habbie-winning rate last season. It's just another reason why Bogut deserves some Defensive Player of the Year love. Get better, big guy.
Most Hockey Assists
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Ricky Rubio
If we counted hockey assists, or what SportVU calls "secondary assists," Rubio would have topped John Wall for total assists this season. The hockey assist, for those who don't know, is when a player makes a pass that precedes an assist. Rubio tallied an NBA-high 165 such passes this season. Rubio can thank Kevin Love for not just his heap of assists this season, but the hockey assists as well.
Deadliest Open Shooter
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Jose Calderon
Think of Calderon as a store-brand Steve Nash, which makes sense if Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wanted to recreate the old Dirk Nowitzki-Nash magic on a budget. According to Synergy tracking, Calderon shot 50 percent on unguarded catch-and-shoots this season, giving him a league-leading 74.6 percent effective field goal percentage once you account for the added value of the 3-pointer. Now, if he could just prevent open jump shots on the other end ...
Most Points Per Touch
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Klay Thompson
This season, Thompson scored a point every two times he touched the ball on average. To be more exact, he scored 0.48 points per touch, which was the highest rate in the league, per SportVU data. As an elite spot-up shooter (41.6 percent on 3s), Thompson isn't tasked with ballhandling duties often, and for good reason. (If you're wondering why he doesn't get more touches, stay tuned.)
Fastest Runner
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Patty Mills
There are spark plugs off the bench, and then there is Mills. Per SportVU, the Aussie point guard clocked in at 4.8 miles per hour on average this season, which is by far the fastest pace of any player in the league with at least 1,000 minutes of action. Not bad for a guy whom his coach, Gregg Popovich, characterized as "a little fat ***" last season. A side note: Mills was 33 percent faster on the floor this season than James Harden (3.6 mph).
Biggest Ball Hog
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Russell Westbrook
This isn't a surprise to Per Diem regulars. Back in late November, I identified Westbrook as the league's biggest ball hog, and he hasn't relinquish his throne. After crunching SportVU data, I found that Westbrook holds the ball for a league-high 7.9 seconds between passes on average. That may not sit well with Durant devotees, but at least Westbrook gets results.
Biggest Black Hole
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Klay Thompson
Wanna know why Thompson has the highest points per touch in the league? As soon as he gets the ball, the shot's going up. Thompson passed the ball just 1.2 times for every shot he took, which is the lowest rate in the NBA among players who log 20 minutes or more per game. Unfortunately, Nick Young just missed getting the Habbie this year, checking in with an impressive 1.5 black hole rate. Better luck next year, Swaggy P.
Most Dribble-happy
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... John Wall
Here's a fun little SportVU nugget: John Wall dribbled the ball 38,131 times this season. If for some bizarre reason today (April 16, 2014) you felt inclined to spend one minute of every day dribbling a basketball, how long would it take you to catch up to Wall's total this season? Try Jan. 8 ... of 2016. See you then.
Most Drives Allowed
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Brandon Jennings
Wondering how Detroit ended up with the NBA's 25th-ranked defense despite its massive size up front? You can start with the point of attack. And that starts with Jennings. The frail point guard allowed a whopping 491 drives this season, which was the highest total of any player in SportVU's database. No matter how many big bodies there are out there, that's a lot of mess to clean up.
Most Unselfish
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Josh McRoberts
The Charlotte Bobcats big man was the most charitable of all NBA players this season. McRoberts passed the ball on 87.3 percent of his touches, the highest rate in the league, and it's not really close (Calderon came in second with 82.7). McRoberts' frequent passing made up for his teammate Al Jefferson, who dished the rock on only 57 percent of his touches, one of the lowest rates in the league. In the case of Big Al, no one's complaining.
Most Touchdown Passes
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Kevin Love
Another great SportVU stat: long-distance outlet passes. I call them "touchdown passes." These are defined as passes off of defensive rebounds that travel at least 20 feet and lead to a fast break. As you might have suspected, Love destroys the competition with 76 of these deep bombs, more than the next two highest totals -- Spencer Hawes (33) and DeAndre Jordan (32) -- combined. There were 41 Love-to-Corey Brewer connections alone. Someone get this info to Adrian Peterson.
Most Dependent
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Anthony Tolliver
With an unassisted jumper on Tuesday night, Jared Dudley just missed getting his Habbie. Instead, it goes to Charlotte Bobcats stretch big Anthony Tolliver, who was assisted on a ridiculous 94.6 percent of his buckets this season. Of Tolliver's 129 baskets, all but seven were set up by a teammate. Amazingly, none of his 102 3-point splashes were unassisted. Bravo, Tolliver.
Most Opportunistic Scorer
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Brandon Jennings
Another Jennings appearance. After crunching some numbers in NBA's StatsCube database, I found that Jennings' scoring rate per 36 minutes jumped 8.2 points from when it was a one-possession game (13.6 points per 36 minutes) compared to when the scoreboard showed a double-digit rout (21.8 points per 36 minutes). None of the 150 qualified players padded their scoring totals more in blowouts.
Least Opportunistic Scorer
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Jose Calderon
On the flip side, there's Calderon again. In close games (score within three points), Calderon scored 15.9 points per 36 minutes, which is 4.3 points higher than he put up in routs (11.6 points per 36 minutes). Calderon actually got far more aggressive with his shot in tight games than when it got out of hand. Let's see if that continues in the playoffs, where his track record is limited.
Best 4-point Shooter
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Jamal Crawford
I couldn't resist. Assuming we instituted an imaginary 4-point line at the 28-foot mark, who would have the highest success rate on those shots? Mr. Crawford, of course. Here's the absurd thing: He went 15-for-25 (60 percent) on shots between 28 and 35 feet. More of that, please. Not leading this list is Kyle Lowry, who shot 3-for-22 (13.6 percent) on 4-pointers. Less of that, please.
Best Half-court Heaver
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Tony Wroten
This might be the most Tony Wroten thing ever. A total of 174 players attempted a heave from beyond half court this season and only 11 actually converted. None caught lightning in a bottle twice -- except for Wroten. Amazingly, he shot better on heaves (2-for-7, 28.6 percent) than his overall 3-pointers (21.5 percent).
Worst Case of Basketphobia
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... Steve Novak
On Nov. 26 against the Nets, Novak floated to the rim and missed a tip-in at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime. And that, my friends, was his only shot within 3 feet in 531 minutes of action this season. And he missed it. In fact, he missed all four of his shots inside 10 feet. Never change, Novacaine.
Worst Award Name
And the HabersTrophy goes to ... HabersTrophy.
Let's not kid ourselves.
Him and CP3 co-winners for flopping of the year awards
