sidestep:
How is PPP counted for a PnR possession? If the defender on the screener is supposed to switch to the ballhandler but fails to, or hedges too much, and the ballhandler ends up scoring off of the screen, is that counted against the PG on defense or the other defender? And if the roll man gets the ball from a PnR play and scores, against which defender are those points counted?

Do you have an account?

massive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69bc_OOLIMM

Watch as Kyrie Irving breaks down Team USA’s full court press, and scores over a Westbrook/Melo double team. You sure this guy won’t be a force in the NBA? I think he’ll be an MVP candidate. Steve Nash has never been known for defense, but he won two MVP awards. However, I also think this kid was the best PG prospect to be drafted since CP3. But this kid obviously has a boat-load of talent, and is more athletic than people give him credit for. Was anybody else watching the Knicks/Cavs game? Kyrie was consistently blowing past our entire defense (ranked 5th in the NBA this year). The only thing keeping him from a HOF career is a sever injury IMO.

I think he will be a force to be reckoned with in the NBA. But it is funny all I had heard was positive things about him (rightfully so) and I was kind of taken aback a little to realize how bad the kid is defensively. You can still be a great guard with weak defense which I think he will. Just interesting to know.

sideQuest:
Also, I’m guessing that the offensive stats are much more consistent than the defensive stats.

I don’t know, I’ve spent a fair amount of time on synergy and the only guy I’ve seen who showed a wild defensive variance season to season was Amar’e whose numbers were slightly above average this year and two years ago with Phoenix and awful his first year with the Knicks– maybe because he played a lot more the 5? The database only covers three seasons so you can’t get a real read on what the long-term numbers might look like.

nicos: I agree with this though I’d go even further- if you can break down every possession you should be able to do better than just positional average.For instance, let’s say during a Knicks/Celtics game Shumpert guarded Paul Pierce for x number of possessions, Ray Allen for y, and Rondo for z, plus a few plays where he got switched onto Garnett in the post- you should be able to plug each of those players ppp’s and come up with a number that reflects what Shumpert allowed vs. what those players would be expected to produce.That said, as far as Irving goes, ranking 447 makes him just about the worst defender in the league- especially given that per hoopdata point guards have the lowest TS% and highest TO% (thus the lowest ppp) of any position.

Right, which would make it vastly superior to WS/48

The Honorable Cock Jowles: Did you not read the part where I said that he could be better than average at his position but still be worse than “league average,” far worse?

it would take 15 minutes to find out where he ranks among top 60rotation pgs.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
I don’t see why we should use the Synergy data at all unless we know that each position scores approximately the same PPP. Otherwise there should be an adjusted PPP statistic that accounts for position strength. If the average PG PPP is 1.25 and the average C PPP is 1.00 (which I doubt; this is only an example), would that make Irving a “bad” defender for giving up 1.03 PPP?

I agree with this though I’d go even further- if you can break down every possession you should be able to do better than just positional average. For instance, let’s say during a Knicks/Celtics game Shumpert guarded Paul Pierce for x number of possessions, Ray Allen for y, and Rondo for z, plus a few plays where he got switched onto Garnett in the post- you should be able to plug each of those players ppp’s and come up with a number that reflects what Shumpert allowed vs. what those players would be expected to produce. That said, as far as Irving goes, ranking 447 makes him just about the worst defender in the league- especially given that per hoopdata point guards have the lowest TS% and highest TO% (thus the lowest ppp) of any position.

Watch as Kyrie Irving breaks down Team USA’s full court press, and scores over a Westbrook/Melo double team. You sure this guy won’t be a force in the NBA? I think he’ll be an MVP candidate. Steve Nash has never been known for defense, but he won two MVP awards. However, I also think this kid was the best PG prospect to be drafted since CP3. But this kid obviously has a boat-load of talent, and is more athletic than people give him credit for. Was anybody else watching the Knicks/Cavs game? Kyrie was consistently blowing past our entire defense (ranked 5th in the NBA this year). The only thing keeping him from a HOF career is a sever injury IMO.

The Honorable Cock Jowles: Did you not read the part where I said that he could be better than average at his position but still be worse than “league average,” far worse?

Yes, I also know there are around 450 players in the NBA any given season (30 teams, 15 players). You can probably count the players he’s ranked higher than in one hand (and they’re not necessarily going to be rotation players) . I’m pretty damn sure the bottom 100 is all PG’s, so I’m pretty sure his numbers are terrible for any player, regardless of position. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was ranked dead last for PG’s all things considered