How bad was Chris Duhon’s 2010 season? I first advocated for benching Chris Duhon on November 14th. That’s barely 2 weeks into the season. Of course Knick fans know that D’Antoni stayed with his point guard until February when the Knicks received Sergio Rodriguez in a trade. Duhon would relinquish the starter’s role a few games later to Toney Douglas, but then start the last 7 games of the season. Despite his season long poor play, he managed to find 2072 minutes of court time.
Duhon’s season was so bad, I wondered if I was too kind giving Duhon a B+ last year. But I only had to look at his career stats to see the reason why. Between 2009 and 2010, Duhon’s TS% dropped nearly 70 points to a subterranean 50.1%. He did see a drop in his free throws attempts (2.6 to 1.7), but his poor play was linked directly to his shooting woes.
From the chart above, you can see that his efficiency is closely tied into his shooting and it appears as if Duhon’s first year under D’Antoni (2009) was an outlier. That season was his only one above the league average. For the rest of his career he’s been a wretched scorer.
Shooting percentages fluctuate from year to year, so we don’t expect a smooth line when we look at a player’s shooting per year. However 2010 has dropped the Dukey’s shooting percentages down to a level just above his rookie year. Incidentally, “dropping the dukey” can be used to describe Duhon’s season.
If I had to select one single player to blame the misfortunes of the Knicks 2010 season, I’d have no other choice than to select Duhon. He was 5th on the team in minutes played, an astonishing amount considering how bad he truly was.
Report Card (5 point scale):
Offense: 1
Defense: 3
Teamwork: 3
Rootability: 1
Performance/Expectations: 1
Final Grade: F
Similarity Scores
| z-Sum | FLName | Year | Tm | PER | TS | eFG | PTS | ORB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV |
| .000 | Chris Duhon | 2010 | NYK | 10.7 | 50.1 | 47.2 | 8.6 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 6.6 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.9 |
| .053 | Steve Blake | 2008 | POR | 12.0 | 51.8 | 50.2 | 10.3 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 6.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| .061 | Lee Mayberry | 1998 | VAN | 9.2 | 48.9 | 46.6 | 7.1 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 6.8 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 2.2 |
| .097 | Howard Eisley | 2000 | UTA | 11.5 | 49.2 | 46.2 | 12.2 | 0.4 | 2.9 | 6.0 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 2.3 |
| .115 | Rory Sparrow | 1986 | NYK | 13.0 | 51.1 | 48.1 | 12.2 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 7.2 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 2.4 |
| .118 | Steve Kerr | 1993 | TOT | 9.4 | 50.5 | 45.9 | 10.0 | 0.4 | 3.4 | 5.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 2.0 |
| .130 | Bimbo Coles | 1996 | TOT | 12.4 | 51.3 | 46.6 | 12.3 | 0.7 | 3.6 | 5.8 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 2.4 |
| .130 | Kirk Hinrich | 2008 | CHI | 13.1 | 50.1 | 46.7 | 13.0 | 0.4 | 3.7 | 6.8 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 2.4 |
| .133 | John Bagley | 1988 | NJN | 12.4 | 50.3 | 46.5 | 12.7 | 0.8 | 3.3 | 6.2 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 2.6 |
| .135 | Phil Ford | 1984 | HOU | 10.4 | 54.8 | 50.4 | 10.2 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 7.3 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 2.4 |
| .139 | Doug Overton | 1997 | PHI | 13.2 | 51.4 | 45.3 | 12.3 | 1.0 | 3.9 | 5.7 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 2.2 |
‘Nuff said.