Daniels has become the Sonics starting point guard. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

“We’re very excited that a player of Antonio’s caliber has decided to join the Sonics,” Sonics GM Rick Sund said in the prepared statement. “He’s a very efficient player who will add veteran leadership and depth to our backcourt. He can play both ends of the floor and, having been a member of an NBA Championship team, brings a tremendous level of experience with him to Seattle.”

Efficient? That’s not a word that pops up in press releases very often.

There wasn’t anything obvious in Daniels’ 2002-03 stat line to justify the verbiage. Playing limited minutes for the deep Portland Trail Blazers, Daniels averaged just 3.7 points and 1.3 assists per game. His shooting percentage – the statistic most closely connected with efficiency – was 45.2%; good, but not great.

A quarter of the way through his first season in Seattle, however, Daniels has demonstrated why Sund and the Sonics wanted him. Despite his consecutive 18-point efforts earlier this week against Phoenix and Denver and a pair of recent double-doubles, Daniels’ overall statistics – 7.1 points and 3.0 assists per game, both, oddly, right on his career marks – don’t show quite how effective he has been.

In particular, Daniels’ 42.0% shooting from the field underrates him. It fails to take into account his 44% shooting from three-point range or his 80% shooting from the line. To do this, his shooting efficiency has to be taken into account. Shooting efficiency is found by points divided by the sum of two times a player’s field-goal attempts plus .88 times his free-throw attempts. (Why .88? Because free throws often are in addition to a shot on the same possession, like technical fouls or three-point plays.)

Sonics Efficiency
Player	Eff	A/TO
Frahm	.748	5.00
Barry	.660	2.22
James	.566	0.25
Daniels	.553	3.56
Lewis	.533	1.16
Murray	.527	1.26
Booth	.493	0.67
Evans	.492	0.18
Sesay	.486	0.91
Radmanovic	.486	1.39
Ridnour	.465	1.57
Potapenko	.400	0.75
Team	.529	1.68

Daniels’ shooting efficiency is 55.3%. Even on a team of efficient shooters – at 52.9%, the Sonics, as a team, rank tied for fourth in the NBA behind the L.A. Lakers, the Sacramento Kings, and the Boston Celtics – Daniels is one of the best. Only three-point specialists Brent Barry and Richie Frahm and center Jerome James have better shooting efficiencies (see table), even though Daniels’ field-goal percentage is seventh on the team.

Another statistic tied to efficiency in the NBA is assist/turnover ratio. Daniels is even more impressive in this regard. He has committed just 16 turnovers in 363 minutes, including none in his first three starts this season over 71 minutes. Daniels’ 3.65 assist/turnover ratio is easily the best amongst Sonics regulars, and is good for fifth in the NBA so far this season.

Don’t discount the value of assist/turnover ratio. The Sonics don’t. When Kevin Ollie, whom Daniels essentially replaced this summer, was acquired from the Milwaukee Bucks in last February’s blockbuster trade, his high assist/turnover ratio was a big part of the reason why the Sonics wanted him. Ollie ended up leading the league with a 4.04 mark.

“I think it’s always important that your assist/turnover ratio is very high, very good, as a point guard,” said Sonics Coach Nate McMillan shortly after Ollie’s arrival. It should come as no surprise that McMillan’s assist/turnover ratios as a Sonics guard were consistently excellent, or that he helped champion the acquisition of Daniels.

“You really don’t focus on it,” Daniels said before a recent game of avoiding turnovers. “Playing the point guard position, you’re trying to not turn the ball over at all. But we’re all human, we all make mistakes sometimes. The difference is you want to cut down on those mistakes and not continue to make them over and over again.”

The other key part of Sund’s statement also has proven itself out. On a young team, Daniels has begun to take a leadership role. Daniels has pulled his teammates aside at times, and is a vocal presence on and off the court.

“I was telling (rookie) Luke (Ridnour) the other day, he’s in a great situation here, because here everybody wants to see Luke succeed,” Daniels recalled of some advice he had provided. “In some situations that you go to, that’s not the case with everybody.”

Daniels should know. Unlike Ridnour, who has had the luxury of earning his minutes in a deep Sonics backcourt with several veterans, Daniels was thrown, as he said, “right out there”, after the Vancouver Grizzlies selected him with the fourth pick of the 1997 Draft. It was an unpleasant experience, with both Daniels and the team struggling, but he saw the other side of things a year later. After a trade to the San Antonio Spurs, Daniels got to learn from veteran point guard Avery Johnson and helped the Spurs win the championship that season.

Daniels drives the lane against Denver. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

After another bad off-the-court experience in Portland, Daniels knew he wanted to go somewhere he could enjoy himself. When he signed with the Sonics as a free agent, Daniels cited the team’s strong reputation for character as one of the main reasons he chose the Sonics.

“Actually, it’s even more,” Daniels said when asked whether his teammates had lived up to his expectations. “This is a great group of guys. I had no idea that there were some of the personalities on this team that they have, which makes it a lot easier to play with on the floor. Off the floor, it’s enjoyable. Being on the bus, on the plane, laughing and joking, makes it even more fun.”

That was especially true early in the season. After entering the season as the third guard, Daniels saw a back injury sideline him and allow Ronald “Flip” Murray to claim a starting role that would have been Daniels’ when Ray Allen was injured. With Ridnour also playing well, Daniels did not play in the first three games of the season even though he was healthy enough to play. At that point, Daniels leaned on his teammates for support.

“Everybody in this locker room wants to see everybody else succeed,” he explained. “So when things aren’t going your way, you always have somebody here that’s patting you on the back and telling you to keep your head up. Because, like I said, we all want the same thing, which is to win.”

“One thing you learn in this league is that patience pays off,” Daniels added.

Indeed it did. By the end of the month – even though McMillan had chosen to keep Ridnour in the rotation instead of him – Daniels was promoted to the starting lineup. While the media portrayed the move as a demotion for Murray, who was struggling with turnovers and his defense, it was more a validation of Daniels’ play – in particular his efficiency, his leadership and his defensive ability.

Daniels has taken the starting lineup by storm. The Sonics, coming off of consecutive losses, won his first two starts. After taking some time to settle in, Daniels has begun putting up numbers so big it doesn’t take complicated statistics to see their value. In many respects, his performance against the Boston Celtics, when he handed out a season-high ten assists playing alongside several reserves and helped spark a fourth-quarter comeback, was a turning point. Over his last five games, including that one, Daniels has averaged 11.4 points and 7.2 assists per game.

Despite the performance, Daniels may not be long for the starting lineup, with Allen nearing his return. Still, he has proven that even on a team loaded with backcourt contributors, he deserves regular minutes.

Just like Rick Sund said.