Five Net Rating Darlings
There’s a lot that can be viscerally scene on an NBA court. Whether it’s the passing of LeBron James, the scoring of Russell Westbrook, or the defense of Kawhi Leonard, there’s a lot that even casual fans can spot with the naked eye.
Thanks to the beauty of statistics, there’s also a lot to be unearthed from the realm of just beyond what the eye can see.
Net Rating, a metric calculated on NBA.com, is a statistic that: “Measures a team’s point differential per 100 possessions. On player level this statistic is the team’s point differential per 100 possessions while he is on court.” Pretty straight-forward, even for the uninitiated. Basically, hockey’s plus-minus statistic moved over to basketball and set on a scale of 100 possessions to account for the different pace of different teams.
A lot of the names at the top of the Net Rating leaderboard are exactly what we might expect. Six of the top seven Net Ratings this season belong to players on the Warriors? No shit, Sherlock. Chris Paul has the highest non-Warriors Net Rating? I’m truly shocked…
(Is the Borat voice so dated that it’s funny again? Oh well, let’s go with it.)
There are, however, plenty of surprises to be found on the league — as well as team — Net Rating leaderboards. Here are five of those players whose game may not catch the eye but have been plenty valuable to their teams this season.
Dewayne Dedmon, San Antonio Spurs (+12.7 Net Rating)
Here’s a complete list of players with at least 20 games played this season who rank above Dedmon in Net Rating: six of the Supervillains in Oakland, Chris Paul (legendary advanced metrics darling), George Hill (current King of being soooo underrated that he’s actually overrated; except he’s not actually overrated, because he’s dope as hell), Patrick Pattterson (sure), and Spurs teammates Patty Mills. That’s some pretty elite company for a 27-year-old who went undrafted out of college and has never averaged more than 5.0 points per game in any of his four seasons in the league. Dedmon has found his niche with the Spurs, though, and despite playing just 16 minutes a night, has proven himself an incredibly valuable commodity for literal wizard Gregg Popovich and the automated win machine named the San Antonio Spurs. Dedmon has achieved this success by combining incredibly efficient offense (61.7 percent from the field), an ability to hit the glass hard (13.5 rebounds per 36 minutes), and strong rim protection (top 12 Defensive Field Goal Percentage, per NBA.com). Add that all together and you have yet another diamond in the rough for San Antonio. It would be infuriating if it weren’t so impressive.
Kevin Love, Cleveland Cavaliers (+9.2)
Love’s name has been in the news a lot lately, thanks in large part to his supposed role in a potential Carmelo Anthony trade. Well if the Knicks are hoping to pry Love from the Cavs, they better hope Dan Gilbert and the front office don’t take Net Rating too seriously. Love is the top-rated player on the Cavs roster in 2016–17 by Net Rating. Yes, higher than that one guy they have, Leborn Jones or something. Now that is not to say Love has been a better player than LeBron — there are definitely a few factors that can skew Net Rating such as how often a player takes the court with the bench units — but it does go to show that Love has been an immense part of the Cavs success this season. Somewhat amazingly, the defensive half of Love’s Net Rating has been even more impressive than the offensive half, as only Mike Dunleavy Jr. (in just 23 games) has a better Defensive Rating than Love on the Cavaliers this season. Good luck on that Melo trade, Phil.
Cody Zeller, Charlotte Hornets (+7.8)
Those who like to read the likes of Zach Lowe and the crew over at The Ringer may not actually be too shocked to see Zeller on this list, but for the rest of you, I assure you this is not a joke. Zeller has actually developed into an elite roll-man for Kemba Walker in the Hornets offense, as his 10.8 points per game on 59 percent shooting can attest to. A quick trip over to Zeller’s Basketball-Reference page shows the impressive and consistent progress the seven-footer out of Indiana University has made throughout his career. In his four seasons, Zeller has seen increases each and every season in: minutes, field goal percentage, as well as rebounds, blocks, and points per game. Zeller has turned himself into quite the valuable commodity in Charlotte.
Tim Hardaway Jr., Atlanta Hawks (+5.7)
Of all the names on this list, Hardaway Jr. surprised me the most, personally. As a Knicks fan, I remember the THJ who would get red hot once every two months, but otherwise chucked a lot of ill-advised deep twos and played non-existent defense. He was one of the worst Knicks players by the advanced metrics, and the informed Knicks fans hated seeing him on the court for that very reason. Hawks fans — at least the ones in the know — have a much different reaction when THJ takes the court this season. His +5.7 Net Rating ranks first on the team among players with at least ten games played, and the Hawks offense is absolute fire when Timmy takes the court. With Hardaway’s Offensive Rating of 108.8 (remember, that’s points scored per 100 possessions with THJ on the court this season), the Hawks offense basically runs at a 2015–16 San Antonio Spurs-level (108.4 O Rating) when the Michigan product has been on the court this season. The biggest improvement for Hardaway Jr. this season has been his production near the basket. On 3–10 foot shots this season, he is shooting 40 percent, up from a career rate of 28.7 percent. This production inside the three-point line helps to open up the rest of the Hawks offense and is a big reason the fourth-year guard is having a breakout season.
Rudy Gay, Sacramento Kings (+1.7)
Gay has taken a lot of shit from the NBA advanced metrics community over his career so it’s only fair to give him credit where credit is due this season. Gay has long had the (deserved) reputation of being a “star” whose teams performed better when he was on the bench (or traded out of town). For seven of his 10 seasons prior to this season, Gay posted a negative Net Rating, despite playing on some decent teams. This season, however, Gay has flipped the script. He owns the highest Net Rating of any player on the Kings with more than seven games played. In fact, he’s the only King (min. eight games played) with a positive Net Rating. Despite his 27.8 points per game this season, the Kings are still being outscored by 2.4 points per 100 possessions when Boogie Cousins is on the court. Gay, on the other hand, has the second-best Defensive Rating on the team, and the team is still productive on the offensive end when he’s on the court. Gay is in more of a secondary role at this point of his career, but he’s still averaging 18.7 points per game and is shooting a career-high 37.2 percent from the land of three. A Net Rating of +1.7 isn’t going to win over all the critics Gay has had throughout his career, but it is certainly a nice number to put in his ledger.
We’ll be back next week to take a look at some of the players Net Rating doesn’t love quite as much.
