With the Celtics finishing off a 4 day layoff, it seems to be the right time to introduce a fun new little feature here as Celtics Hub, we’ll call Crunching The Numbers. In it, I will go through some statistics for both the team and individual players and make note of interesting numbers I see and speculate on what they could mean for this squad.
Whether it be an absurd FG percentage from downtown or a disturbing look at exactly how many 3′s Rasheed Wallace has had the propensity to throw up this year, it will make for a brief and entertaining look at this team. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some numbers through the teams’ first 8 games:
1. Paul Pierce is shooting 51.6 % from 3 point range, better than his 51% overall percentage from the field.
Now before you go seeing this is an complete aberration, let me point out nearly a third of Pierce’s shots have been 3 point attempts (31 of 93). Many Celtics fans have pointed out that Pierce looks reenergized this year. These numbers would tend to agree with that assessment.
2. Rasheed Wallace leads the team in 3 point attempts by with 50, averaging 6.3 attempts in just 21 minutes a game.
Those 50 attempts are good enough to rank Sheed as 3rd in the league for 3 point attempts, behind Dario Gallinari and Danny Granger. Number 30 also leads the Celtics in attempts by a comfortable margin as sharpshooter Ray Allen comes in next with 34 tries from downtown. This will be a constant point of emphasis for Sheed detractors, perhaps very rightfully so.
The guy may spread the floor but there is no way he should be leading this team in 3 point attempts, not by that margin, and not with the supporting cast he has around him. Much more to come on Sheed’s shooting ways at Celtics Hub later this week.
3. Shelden Williams is 2nd on the team in free throw attempts, behind Paul Pierce.
This is kind of a good news/bad news situation when you look at this stat. First the good news: As Brendan Jackson pointed out earlier this week, the returns on Shelden have been much better than expected through 8 games. He has been providing some toughness and offensive rebounding down low, along with a decent jumper much to our surprise here at Celtics Hub.
Williams has also taken 29 attempts from the line so far, helping to fill Powe’s propensity to get to the line off the bench. He also has made 26 of those attempts, giving him a terrific 86.2 shooting percentage from the charity stripe, also good enough for 2nd on the team, just behind Ray Allen at 87%. For some bad news about all of this, check out some more numbers, after the jump.
4. Shelden Williams has shot more free throws than Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace COMBINED through 8 games (29 to 23)
I don’t care who you are, that is just flatout disturbing. Even more concerning when you consider that Garnett and Sheed have been on the floor more than three times as many minutes combined as Williams has (417 to 129). The C’s may be able to spread the floor, but they definitely lack a post presence that can get to the line consistently with The Big Ticket and Sheed in there. If I’m Doc, I make an attempt to try to establish these guys in the post more, to give the team more scoring options when they go cold from the outside.
5. Rajon Rondo leads the league in steals per game (3.1) and Kendrick Perkins is 2nd in the league with 19 blocks.
Both of these guys, under the radar just keep improving at their strengths. Their offensive efficiency has also improved with both players posting 59 and 62 percent shooting percentages respectively in 8 games. With those numbers, I wonder if it’d be better to see Perk’s defense on the floor down the stretch in games, as opposed to Wallace’s lack of a conscience shooting from deep, on the offensive end.
That’s it for this week. Take a look at these numbers. Which ones surprised you the most? Which ones are an aberration through 8 games as opposed to a trend? Curious to hear everyone’s take on this.
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How many of Shelden’s FTs have been in garbage time?
Good question Mr. Lowe. Upon inspection, it has been revealed 15 of Shelden’s 29 free throws came during the 4th quarters of the home blowouts against Charlotte and Chicago. That makes the stat a bit less daunting but even without those garbage time free throws, Williams still matches Garnett’s FT attempts for the season at 14 and beats Wallace’s easily (9). Thus I am still disturbed by those numbers.
I’ve made a point this year to track these stats myself, updating my own spreadsheet after every game. I completely glossed over most of the individual stats as I’ve been more interested in trying to get a lot of numbers that I feel useful to track.
It’s interesting to note some of the things you’ve mentioned, including Sheed’s horrible accuracy from deep. If we take out his attempts from deep (17-50), the team is shooting just under 43.3% from three. As it is, we’re still over 40%. And it’s only a matter of time before those start falling for him again.
As for Sheldon’s FTs… I don’t have numbers for garbage time, but if you want to count all of the Charlotte game as garbage time (cause it really was), that removes an 8-11 game from his totals. All of the close games or difficult games to win? He’s perfect from the stripe at 10-10 (Cavs, T’Wolves, and Nets, actually).
At least the turtle shoots better than Rondo and Perk at the line!
On raw +/- at NBA.com you can see that Boston plays best when Perk is on the court – he plays the least minutes of starters (which is not so good, something to do with over-zealous defence I think) but team performs best when he is on-court, perhaps because no-one else can do the grunt work like he does.
Question for Brian / Zac: Dean Oliver is not a big fan of running up the score, do you think this is what Boston has been doing so far? And do you agree with him – I don’t know, because points differential is one of best indicators we have of success …
I agree that Rasheed’s shot selection has been poor, and I’m disappointed by it. The only thing I’d say is that that stats, in and of themselves, are not necessarily a problem. I don’t care if he takes 7 threes a game, if they’re open threes. And, given the Cs other options, it’s conceivable they could be. In fact, it’s conceivable he *would* get that many open threes, if he’d rotate the ball and let it come back to him. Instead he’s just firing away. I’m not too thrilled with his interior defense, either.
I don’t care if he never posts up on offense, and I certainly don’t want him having Scal/Rondo/Marbury-like hesitation to take open jumpers. I just think he needs to scale back the highly contested threes.