re: General NBA Links

More shot data from Nylon Calculus. This is an archive of Expected Points Per Shot and Opponents Expected Points Per Shot going all the way back to 2001 (there's even a Seattle SuperSonics label).

Here is an explanation from Ian Levy

Here and Here are Team XPPS and Opponent XPPS.

What's neat about this is you set the data to see how the team performed each year, so you can look at every year Monty/Demps have been in town. Or how the team fared when Paul was running the show with West and Peja.

Nothing that hasn't been discussed for the Demps/Williams teams using this metric. But still interesting to see it put out this way.

They get to the rim at a great rate yet are terrible at finishing there post Paul. They take more non RA paint and mid range shots compared to the league (mid range has dropped the past 4 years while non RA paint has been fairly consistent) and they take less corner 3s than just about anyone and are healthy above the break only when Anderson is playing.

The defense the past couple of years has been a grease fire (2 of the 4 worst defense in XPPS). Basically teams get the best shots (rim and corner 3) whenever they want them and make them well above league average. Oh and the Pelicans foul a lot.

Omer Asik just might be the most important player on this team.