In the offseason, we predicted that the drive would be our bread and butter with 3 guys capable of taking the ball to the hoop on any given possession and some even predicted an improved Austin Rivers being able to get to the rim quite often with the second unit. So, How do our guys rank with the rest of the NBA?

All of the following rankings are based on a minimum of 10 total drives. 185 players qualified under this criteria. Fast breaks are not included as a drive. Stats are per nba.com/stats.

Total number of Drives(doesn't include fast breaks) [League Leader: Monta Ellis 128]:
Tyreke Evans 82 (15th most in NBA)
Jrue Holliday 77 (18th)
Eric Gordon 61 (31st)
Brian Roberts 15 (138th)
Austin Rivers 12 (t156th)
Anthony Davis 11 (t161st)

FG% on drives [League Leader: Klay Thompson 85.7%]:
Brian Roberts 55.6% (43rd in NBA)
Eric Gordon 43.9% (100th) [consistant with many of the games top drivers so far. CP3(47%, 81st), Carmelo Anthony (45%, 95th), Kevin Durant (43.5%, 102nd) are within range of his numbers]
Jrue Holliday 40% (t111th) [tied with Wade and Paul George]
Tyreke Evans 37.5% (t124th)
Austin Rivers 37.5% (t124th)
Anthony Davis 25% (t176th) [John Wall is the only drive-first player with a worse % with 20.8% although Kevin Martin, Rudy Gay, and Russel Westbrook are all below 30%]

Points per game off drives [League Leader: Monta Ellis 7.9 ppg]:
Eric Gordon 4.3 ppg (21st in NBA)
Tyreke Evans 4.1 (24th)
Jrue Holliday 3.9 (25th)
Brian Roberts 1.2 (115th)
Austin Rivers 0.9 (143rd)
Anthony Davis 0.8 (149th)

Team Points per game off of an individuals drives (basically points+assisted points) [League Leader: Ty Lawson 15.5 tppg]:
Tyreke Evans 8.6 tppg (11th in NBA)
Jrue Holliday 7.1 (23rd)
Eric Gordon 6.6 (25th)
Austin Rivers 1.5 (t143rd)
Brian Roberts 1.5 (t143rd)
Anthony Davis 0.8 (t178th)

Now, I do expect our drives to be more successful now that Anderson is back in the lineup. Also, Tyreke has certainly been more aggressive the last few games now that he is healthy again.

This post was edited on 11/21/13 at 2:25 pm

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Posted by chesty

Flap City C.C.

Member since Oct 2012

12731 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 2:39 pm to saintsfan92612

Great stats. I won't lie at first glance I thought title said something about how are they doing on dives.

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Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 2:43 pm to saintsfan92612

Nice. Where did you get these numbers?

Those drive numbers should go up as finishing at the rim gets better for Gordon (still in the 40% range).

Last night there were 38 shots at the rim and 33 FTAs. Not all are drives, but that is what we expect from the talent on this team.

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Posted by saintsfan92612

Taiwan

Member since Oct 2008

28878 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 2:45 pm to corndeaux

quote:
33 FTAs

Don't remind me. I love getting to the line as much as the next guy but 20-33 is

and here is the link: NBA.com Player Tracking - Drives

ETA: There are all kinds of neat stats on NBA.com now that they added the player tracker. Drives were just the thing I decided to focus on, but you can look at catch and shoot numbers, pull up shot numbers, defensive impact, rebounding analytics, passes, usage, etc.

This post was edited on 11/21/13 at 2:50 pm

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Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 2:49 pm to saintsfan92612

I thought it was the SportVU stuff. Thanks for pulling these numbers.

Other than the filters, did you sort it yourself and count it out?

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Posted by saintsfan92612

Taiwan

Member since Oct 2008

28878 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 2:51 pm to corndeaux

yea, I just filtered it out to 10 drives to get rid of all the 100% shooters and 0% shooters. And yeah, sort by category, set it to only pull 25 at a time so counting was real quick.

This post was edited on 11/21/13 at 2:52 pm

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Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 2:53 pm to saintsfan92612

quote:
There are all kinds of neat stats on NBA.com now that they added the player tracker. Drives were just the thing I decided to focus on, but you can look at catch and shoot numbers, pull up shot numbers, defensive impact, rebounding analytics, passes, usage, etc.

Yes. Really cool stuff. The rebounding numbers and defensive impact are fascinating. The possession stuff is very neat. Crazy how little some guys actually have the ball.

I actually posted earlier today that I was going to bump a thread on it from when they released the stats. Guess I'll have to get cracking on that.

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Posted by saintsfan92612

Taiwan

Member since Oct 2008

28878 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 2:56 pm to corndeaux

yeah, I saw about 10 threads today already about stats, so said, what about our drives?

I would love to see more broken down. This was enough for me today.

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Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 11/21/13 at 9:03 pm to saintsfan92612

That I would drop this here instead of a new thread.

The Bird Writes has a new post about the offense and what's making it tick this year.

Some interesting stuff on TOs (the team has cut them down by a full TO so far this season despite averaging 5 more possessions so far) and then goes on to talk about a few other areas the team has improved.

I'm only listing half of them. Go read the article for the rest.

quote:
1) Fastbreak points per game. Currently tied for 5th, 17.5 points per game. Last year, 28th with a measly 9.7 points per game. You know the name of the game: easy points make the game simpler

quote:
3) Floor % [Estimates the percentage of possessions on which a team scores at least one point.] Currently 4th at 50.7%. Last year, 12th at 48.9%. I'm a little surprised by last season's ranking, with the numerous lulls we remember all too well, but our ORtg was smack dab in the middle of the league.

quote:
6) Freethrows attempted per offensive play. Currently 12th, at 22.0%. Last year, 24th at 19.2%. We may be shooting too much from the deadzone, and not enough from 3-point range, but at least we've got an uptick in freebies.

For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth- and I am guilty of it just as much as anyone- the offense is doing some really nice things.

LINK

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Posted by The Estimator

New Orleans

Member since Jul 2012

1648 posts

Posted on 11/22/13 at 10:00 am to corndeaux

quote:
6) Freethrows attempted per offensive play. Currently 12th, at 22.0%. Last year, 24th at 19.2%. We may be shooting too much from the deadzone, and not enough from 3-point range, but at least we've got an uptick in freebies.

Wonder where c on z's ol' Miami Heat rank on this list?

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