The Mountain that Rebounds

By Welch Suggs

If you Google Boban Marjanovic, the main thing you learn is that he is a large human being. At 7 feet 3 inches and 290 pounds, Marjanovic is celebrated on social media for the size of his hands, some surprisingly nimble dance moves, and, well, being a large human being:

https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/983564032723636224

He doesn’t get a ton of playing time; he’s averaging eight minutes per game in 19 games since coming to the Clippers in the Blake Griffin trade. He’s giving the Clippers 5.5 points per game, right about what he’s done over two seasons spent with the Spurs and the Pistons before being traded to the Clips in January.

Digging a little deeper into the stats, Marjanovic is more than just a big body under the basket. His overall plus/minus–the rate at which the team scores when he’s in the game as opposed to when he’s not–leads the team at +2.6. He’s getting 2.3 second-chance points per game and grabbing nearly 29 percent of the team’s rebounds despite his limited minutes. He has the highest player impact estimate on the team and is near the top of many of the team’s other advanced statistics.

In short, Marjanovic seems like a hidden gem for the Clippers. So why is he getting so few minutes?

There are a few obvious reasons for the oversized Serb to stay on the bench, DeAndre Jordan being one of them. And players that big tend to break down quickly, as one might remember from the up-and-down sagas of Yao Ming and, going back farther, Manute Bol.

There’s more, though. FiveThirtyEight.com picked up another reason when Chris Herring profiled Marjanovic back in January before he was traded. Big and slow doesn’t cut it in the modern NBA when most centers can shoot from outside and run the court.

According to Herring, Marjanovic has become the most efficient player in NBA history in points per shot attempt, a stat not tracked by the NBA. At 1.63 points per shot, Marjanovic outranks Adrian Dantley, Charles Barkley, James Harden, and Shaquille O’Neal among players with more than 30 points per 100 possessions and who have played in at least 100 regular-season games.

Marjanovic may be deadly in the paint, but he’s defenseless outside it. So despite being one of the largest players in NBA history, it would appear that his future is limited unless he can improve his footwork and athleticism drastically, perhaps more than could be expected of someone that size. It would take teams playing Jordan or someone else on the court at the same time as Marjanovic to hide his liabilities, and that would be an expensive way to operate an offense.

In short, apart from his cheerfulness, Marjanovic really seems to be the Gregor Clegane of the NBA. Deadly if you’re in range, but easily eluded if you keep your head about you.