People wonder why I'm all fired up about these new kinds of basketball statistics. Who cares about all those numbers, they say?
And in truth, I'm not a real numbers guy, as is probably clear to anyone who reads closely.
But we use numbers all the time, and we use them stupidly, which offends my sense of what's right and decent in this world. Let's either not use numbers at all, or let's use them in a smart way.
You think we don't use numbers? Let me ask you this: who was the star of the Dallas Mavericks last night?
A quick and fairly mindless scan of the box score will reveal ... Jason Terry, who according to this headline "powered the Mavericks" past the Warriors. I mean, Terry had the most points. He must be the biggest star, right?
Check out the box score and you tell me who you think was the biggest star:
| DALLAS MAVERICKS |
| STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
| Josh Howard, GF | 41 | 8-13 | 0-3 | 6-7 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 22 |
| Dirk Nowitzki, PF | 36 | 7-15 | 0-2 | 9-11 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 23 |
| Erick Dampier, C | 14 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Jason Terry, G | 41 | 12-23 | 1-7 | 3-3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 28 |
| Devin Harris, PG | 19 | 5-7 | 0-0 | 5-5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 15 |
| BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
| Jerry Stackhouse, GF | 30 | 3-9 | 0-2 | 11-13 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 17 |
| DeSagana Diop, FC | 27 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Devean George, GF | 20 | 0-5 | 0-2 | 3-4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Greg Buckner, SG | 10 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Maurice Ager, G | 2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jose Juan Barea, G | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Austin Croshere, PF | DNP COACH'S DECISION |
I'm no stat expert, but I am here to tell you: I think that box score is lying to you.
Admittedly, I am someone with Josh Howard on the brain, but I look at that box score and think, wow. Was Jason Terry really more important than Josh Howard? For starters, Howard was may more efficient, with six fewer misses, 10 more rebounds, and two more steals. That's Howard getting Dallas many more opportunities to score, without wasting many possessions. That's efficient.
And there are various ways of measuring that efficiency. One is to add up all the good stats and then subtract the bad ones. Explained more by mousing over the EFF column here. By that efficiency rating, Howard led Dallas with a 34, while Terry came in third behind Nowitzki (with a 21).
Now, that measure is super crude, but quite probably more valuable than our current system which is "whoever scores the most points is the most important!"
Here's the real head-scratcher, though. Here's the one to make you think "hmm ... maybe we really do need to invent some new statistics." Look at that box score above, and guess for me which player made the Mavericks unbelievably good, compared to the Warriors, when he was on the floor. Because there was one Maverick who was clearly the best in terms of plus/minus, as in how many points Dallas scored when he played, subtracted by how many Golden State scored during the same period. Dallas outscored Golden State by an average of one point for every minute this guy was on the floor. With a +27, he was the clear king of plus/minus.
Ahis name is DeSagana Diop. He of the super ugly stat line above.
Yes, it helped that he played backup minutes against Golden State's bench (the second-best Maverick in terms of +/- was Stackhouse) and late in the game when Golden State had melted.
But consider that by a traditional, knee-jerk statistical examination, Diop had pretty much the worst stat line of anyone on the team. Yet Dallas just killed Golden State when he was on the floor. Which is why I say, of you pioneers of new basketball statitics, bring on your big new ideas.
