Five Thirty Eight: The Hidden Value of the NBA Steal

[scher215]

Mods feel free to move this to off-topic as the title/subject is NBA related, but I have my reasons for posting it here.

Not because it talks about Ricky Rubio or the Minnesota Timberwolves, but because of the emphasis our own Gophers coach Richard Pitino places on deflections/steals. This also helps explane why little Dre and Austin are SO important to this team.

Dre (1.571 steals per game) ranks 7th in the Big 10 in Steals per game while Austin Hollins (1.943) is 3rd.

The article argues that 1 steal per game (in the NBA) is the equivilent of 9 (!!!!!) points.

Scoring in professional basketball is one of the most beautiful things in sports. With only moments to set up his shot, a player tosses a ball into a soaring arc, and it drops through a hoop only slightly larger than the ball. That or he flies to the hoop and deposits the ball directly.

It’s no wonder, then, that individual players’ scoring abilities get the most attention. But basketball is a complex and dynamic sport, and this skill is only one of many that determine what kind of impact a particular player has on the bottom line.

In fact, if you had to pick one statistic from the common box score to tell you as much as possible about whether a player helps or hurts his team, it isn’t how many points he scores. Nor how many rebounds he grabs. Nor how many assists he dishes out.

It’s how many steals he gets.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-hidden-value-of-the-nba-steal/

 

[mcal24]

Very interesting article if you're into stats like me. Really does show how valuable Austin Hollins is, even when he was in his "slump." I still think he'll be really tough to replace next year.

 

[chri1673]

Agree that Austin was/is underrated, we saw what life was like without our leading scorer and big shot taker (pre injury Dre) and you cant argue that that wasn't pretty

 

[jaymil]

Saw this article today and really enjoyed it. I really like Rubio as a player despite his shooting woes, and this shows he's still a valuable player.