The Stat Nerds’ Top Scorers – December 6th
Orlando Magic guard Arron Afflalo has been one of the league’s most efficient scorers (4). Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Last week I posted a list of the top 25 scorers in basketball based on the true shooting percentage statistic. The statistic accurately estimates the amount of points a player scores on any particular scoring try and because of this is probably the most telling scoring efficiency stat around. There are a couple of sample size shortcomings but these are quite easy to handle with the proper filters. That is, these are the top 25 true shooting percentage players that have played in at least half of the most games played this season, play at least 20 minutes per game, and have usage rate over 20 percent (I explained all of this in much more depth in last week’s article and in this article from my Rethinking Basketball Statistics series). But for now here are the top scorers in basketball going into last night’s games, nerd style:
| Rk | Player | TS% | USG% | G | MPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LeBron James | 0.690 | 29.8 | 18 | 35.56 |
| 2 | Jeremy Lin | 0.641 | 21.8 | 16 | 30.13 |
| 3 | Boris Diaw | 0.625 | 19.9 | 17 | 22.94 |
| 4 | Chris Bosh | 0.618 | 21.7 | 17 | 28.59 |
| 5 | Arron Afflalo | 0.617 | 24.8 | 18 | 37.17 |
| 6 | Klay Thompson | 0.613 | 22.7 | 19 | 37.79 |
| 7 | Brook Lopez | 0.610 | 27.4 | 11 | 28.91 |
| 8 | Trevor Ariza | 0.604 | 19.7 | 13 | 35.23 |
| 9 | Spencer Hawes | 0.604 | 19.7 | 17 | 33.29 |
| 10 | Kevin Durant | 0.602 | 30.5 | 17 | 39.12 |
| 11 | Dirk Nowitzki | 0.600 | 26.1 | 20 | 32.45 |
| 12 | J.J. Redick | 0.598 | 22.2 | 17 | 28.18 |
| 13 | Eric Bledsoe | 0.597 | 25.6 | 13 | 34.00 |
| 14 | James Harden | 0.595 | 27.4 | 16 | 38.69 |
| 15 | Stephen Curry | 0.594 | 28.2 | 16 | 36.06 |
| 16 | Andrew Nicholson | 0.589 | 20.0 | 18 | 20.56 |
| 17 | Paul George | 0.586 | 29.4 | 19 | 36.53 |
| 18 | Isaiah Thomas | 0.586 | 28.7 | 16 | 27.56 |
| 19 | Goran Dragic | 0.583 | 23.6 | 16 | 34.56 |
| 20 | Tony Allen | 0.581 | 20.1 | 16 | 25.31 |
| 21 | Marcus Morris | 0.578 | 20.9 | 19 | 22.79 |
| 22 | Nikola Vucevic | 0.577 | 20.8 | 17 | 33.24 |
| 23 | Dwyane Wade | 0.576 | 27.5 | 14 | 33.71 |
| 24 | Blake Griffin | 0.575 | 25.5 | 19 | 36.89 |
| 25 | Dwight Howard | 0.575 | 23.2 | 20 | 33.25 |
Others Noteworthy: Again Ryan Anderson would rank towards the top of the list (2nd) if he had logged enough games.
Other Notes: We can already see the list skewing towards regular expectations and we should expect some of the more surprising names (Tony Allen?) to find their way off the list soon. Also, I am going to try to trot out another stats piece with some more meat on it this weekend. For now, enjoy.