Stats, commentary, analysis.
NBA summer league is back.
Again.
Highlights of my night included eating a Reuben sandwich (5 out of 10), a few wings (3 out of 10), and part of a chocolate chip cookie (1 out of 10). Also, I think I fell asleep during the second half.
At very least, I had the sensation of waking up abruptly and feeling like I’d missed something. I rewound to the last thing I remembered, and a few minutes later had the sensation of waking up abruptly and feeling like I’d missed something.
This time, I didn’t rewind, and I’m reasonably confident I stayed awake to the end. I did see 18-year-old Bub Carrington hit a three late to maintain a lead…and then foul Hawks guard Nikola Djurisic taking a three, who missed the first free throw.
At this point, I feel like I should back up and give the big picture: The Washington Wizards took on the Atlanta Hawks — a matchup that included the number one overall pick in the 2024 draft, and the number two overall pick. Both guys (Zaccharie Risacher for the Hawks, and Alexandre Sarr for the Wizards) played okay and had a few nice moments.
Both are from France, so vive France, I guess.
Washington’s second first round pick, Carlton “Bub” Carrington played well — 19 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists. Justin Champagnie shot 8-10 from the floor, and collected 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Good work outta him.
Jules Bernard made a few shots, which was nice.
Sarr’s game included a sequence in which he blocked three shots in two possessions, a sidestep off-the-dribble three, some wild (and inaccurate) shots, and some “cut that nonsense out” fouls.
Washington’s final first round pick of 2024, Kyshawn George, had a crummy game — 7 points on 3-8 shooting, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals (all that’s not bad), but also 4 turnovers and 5 fouls in just 22 minutes.
Wizards general manager Will Dawkins got interviewed during the second half by the game’s broadcasters, Mark Jones and Doris Burke. I don’t think I slept through any of that conversation, though I don’t recall anything substantive being said.
In fairness to Dawkins, his Hawks counterpart Landry Fields got interviewed in the first half, and the only thing I remember from that was Fields repeatedly using the words “small sample size” as if it was something smart to say.
For the Hawks, number one pick Risacher was kinda-sorta okay. He shot okay on twos and not-so okay from three (just 3-9). Overall, he looked smooth and confident, which might even translate into becoming a good NBA player.
Keaton Wallace and Miles Norris were decent. Dylan Windler was okay too.
Oh yeah, the Wizards won, 94-88.
Telling stat: the Hawks’ effective field goal percentage was an atrocious 45.3%, and they lost by six.
Four Factors
Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).
Stats & Metrics
Below are a few performance metrics, including the Player Production Average (PPA) Game Score. PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).
Game Score (GmSC) converts individual production into points on the scoreboard. The scale is the same as points and reflects each player’s total contributions for the game. The lowest possible GmSC is zero.
PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. In PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples sometimes producing weird results.
POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.
ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average last season was 114.8. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.
USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.
ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.
+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in this game compared to league average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 114, the league — on average — would produced 22.8 points in the same 20 possessions. So, the player in this hypothetical would have a +PTS score of -2.8.