The NBA and Media Are Ignoring Crucial Stats
Why is it that we can feel positive about one player, and incredibly negative about another, when statistically, they are almost identical?
This is the event horizon of current NBA statistics.
Personally, I think it is because a lot of what happens on an NBA court cannot be quantified in traditional stats. While many things can be recorded, one whole fundamental side of the game is currently being ignored.
Stats provide us with the real world outcomes of events, and so act like an accountant’s telling of the events, and less like the story of the events.
Stats tell us what events happened, but not how they happened, and I think this is where we lose a bit of the magic of the sport. If we just wanted to know the outcomes statistically, we would watch the box score and not the game. I think we can agree there is a big difference between watching the full game and watching the live box score.
While I do think traditional statistics (and for that matter, modern day advanced analytics) tell a refined version of one part of the story, I think it can only ever get so far. I think there is a way to tell a much richer story.
The New Statistics:
I believe that one easy way to quantify more of the game is to look at the part that actually creates highlights; the creativity in basketball. This may not seem quantifiable, but I actually totally disagree. Creativity is measured across a variety of other sports (Gymnastics, Skateboarding, DUNK CONTESTS) using a mixture of creativity and technical skill, with a 10.0 being the epitome of both.
I think this could be applied to a variety of NBA skills, and it would help us understand the difference in players that we currently just have a “gut feeling” about. Like other sports, I think at least 2 judges would be acceptable for accurate results, and that would help create fairness.
At a very small scale (aka me), this could initially be done pretty simply by looking at the “top 10” the NBA puts out each day (as these are likely to be the most creative plays that worked on any given day), and then evaluating each highlight on this scale. You then average these out over the season. It would then leave most players with a 0.0 at the end of the season, but it would add some interesting flavour to some other players.
For example: CJ McCollum may end the season on a 1.2 for scoring creativity, even though he is a very useful scorer, and Facundo Compazzo may end up with an Assist Creativity score of 8.3. This doesn’t mean the fiesty Argentinian point guard is better than the NBA All-Star McCollum, it is just an extra statistic to play with and use to evaluate players with.
What also works about this style of statistic is that it highlights consistency, as it should be mentioned how many highlights even qualified. If Markelle Fultz has a perfect half-court behind-the-back shot, and that is his only season creative highlight, his season Scoring Creativity will be listed as 10.0 (1). Steph’s season may look more like 8.2 (41). I could even see this stat only applying to people who meet a minimum requirement to be more fair.
I’d also love to live in a world where you hear “Joel Embiid just had the craziest post-up score. The NBA stats gave it a 9.8 on Scoring Creativity!! You have to check it out!” and get excited to see it.
If there was a bigger team dedicated to these statistics, this could be applied to more than just the Top 10 (and ideally, play-by-play), but for now, that seems just manageable enough for me.
For each section I will provide a “poster child” of each skill, and this is a player or players that exemplify what this skill looks like at its most creative, most consistently. To be sure, many players may be very skilled at this one thing, but I really want to highlight the all time best.
I also want to point out that simply just being creative isn’t what we are looking for here; it must also help your team win. Doing a no-look 360 behind-the-back shot from full court is very unique… if it misses everything, and you get pulled by the coach for being an idiot, that would be a zero on this scale.
Creativity in Scoring
Poster child: Michael Jordan, Steph Curry
What is more fun than a circus shot that goes in? What if a player was constantly looking for unique ways to get to their spots, or create new spots, and finish with moves you’ve never seen, or shoot from ridiculous distances and be accurate?
You would be looking at a very high-level Creative Scorer.
When many of your highlights are finishing in unique ways, making crazy circus shots, or pulling up in ways that leave your defender baffled, it is a good sign you are a creative scorer.
In this case, we aren’t looking for Klay Thompson; consistent and can sometimes go off. We are looking for players whose highlights leave us with our mouths on the floor in disbelief constantly, because we haven’t seen that move before.
The reason I have selected MJ and Steph is because you can go to any game of theirs, and more likely than not, you will see them score at least one basket in a totally unique way.
A perfect 10 could look like anything, so I’m not going to try and whittle it down too much, but here are 2 examples I thought of:
Both of these bleed into other creative categories onto this list, but I think they left both the defence and their own team stunned, and they finished the play. I give both a 10.
Creativity in Assists
Poster Child: Magic Johnson
While there could be many players who qualify for this as the poster child for Creativity in Assists, I think there isn’t anyone who exemplifies this as well as Magic.
Put on any Lakers game from the 80’s and watch your jaw drop. Magic was a savant with style.
Without him in NBA history, the peak of this may have been Jokic and Doncic. But Magic raises the bar with his flash as well.
For a perfect 10, you would be looking for a totally new pass, or a pass that hasn’t been made from one point on the floor to another, right in the slot for an open shot. Bonus points if the defence doesn’t know where the ball is until way after it is too late.
You can search any Magic Johnson mix-tape for some perfect 10’s here is one that I think exemplifies what I am talking about:
I have also included a Luka pass that I would also consider a 10, as it is on point and completely unique.
Creativity in Dribbling
Poster Child: Kyrie Irving, Allen Iverson
Perhaps one of the deadliest skills in basketball, creativity in dribbling is an amazing way to leave defenders baffled. Based on feel, intuition and tactics, expert dribblers can create magic with the basketball.
At their best, creative dribblers force defenders to not only remain disciplined, as to not cause a foul, but also creative, as you have to try and imagine what their next move might be.
It’s an alchemic blend of hand-eye-coordination, balance, agility, misdirection and footwork.
You could consider the Steph dribble move from the Shooting category above as a 10 video, but I thought I could include some more.
In the first video, Kris Dunn (a name I bet you weren’t expecting) unleashes a very unique dribble move that leads to an assist. I’d give it a 10, even though it isn’t as complex as the Kyrie highlight, it definitely requires a lot of skill, and an incredible amount of creativity.
With the Kyrie highlight, I want you to think how often you see someone jump over the leg of a defender while tossing the ball ahead. That part of this move makes this a 10 for me.
Creativity in Defence
Poster Child: Jrue Holiday, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard
Yes, two of these players are Bucks. And yes that should scare the league.
How can someone be creative on the side of the ball that doesn’t have the ball? It’s a reactive science; He goes here, I go there.
Well, it is when it isn’t played creatively.
Most players operate under the rules that “I just have to stay in front of my man.” Some go beyond that.
Being creative on defence is an art in of itself. Knowing people’s tendencies, taking them away, and still knowing what they will do is a powerful skill.
Take a look at some of these highlights that I would award a 10.
The first Jrue Holiday/ Devin Booker Steal Highlight may not be the first steal you think of when it comes to those two, but look at how perfect the defensive play is here. Jrue is being pushed back by Booker’s arm, and realises that the ball is gettable if he reaches as he is in the air. I bet Booker has no idea how that happened, and fair enough.
In the Kawhi one, I suspect no one really knows how he did it. A truely elite defensive play that may not be replicable, Kawhi intuited and stole a bounce pass that bounced 2 feet behind his back. That’s a 1-of-1 play. That’s a 10.0
For me, these are at least the starting point for this type of statistic. I do think many things beyond this could use the same lens, and I will list them below with a short blurb, though it would need a bit more thinking about
Creativity in Rebounding
Some people get rebounds out of nowhere constantly (Giannis/ Moses Malone/ Dennis Rodman). I think there would be an interesting way of looking at rebounding as a creative art, I personally don’t understand rebounding at this level to adjudicate this properly.
Creativity in Athleticism
One part of the game that doesn’t get looked at too much is creativity at an athletic level. People don’t just wake up one morning, and practice constantly laying up the ball with one hand, and then in mid-air changing hands and still finishing. For me, this skill comes down to improvising when you can play basketball in a true 3-D way. Some people like Deandre Jordan were very athletic, but lack creative insights. The way people like Michael Jordan and Giannis make incredible improvised plays that best utilise athleticism is where this skill shines.
Final thoughts
I think that a lot of what we value in the NBA, and especially in its stars are the moments that make us go “wow”. Sometimes they are a pure technical bit of mastery, but often they are totally unique plays that we have our mind blown by.
I think this actually is a quantifiable science to some degree, and think the addition of this would help flesh out some of what we “feel” about players into tangible stats.