To give another perspective on some of the top prospects as the 2004 NBA Draft approaches, SUPERSONICS.COM has collected the statistics for 25 of these players, evaluating them using some statistics you might not be familiar with, but provide a better perspective on how well they performed in college than merely traditional points, rebounds and assists.
Reading this chart:
TS% - true shooting percentage, the best measure of total shooting efficiency. This is found by PTS/(2*(FGA + (.44*FTA)))
R48 - rebounds per 48 minutes
Pass - combines assist/turnover ratio and assists/minute. This is found by 50 * ((AST/MIN)^2) * (AST/TO)
EFF48 - WNBA.com's Efficiency rating per 48 minutes. This is found by 40*((PTS + REB + AST + STL + BLK - TO - (FGA-FGM) - (FTA-FTM))/MIN)
Player Pos Col MPG PPG RPG APG TS% R48 Pass EFF48
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Jameer Nelson PG JOES 33.9 20.6 4.7 5.3 .590 6.6 2.29 30.7
Devin Harris PG WIS 36.3 19.5 4.3 4.4 .615 5.7 1.57 26.0
Ben Gordon PG CON 34.5 18.5 4.7 4.5 .578 6.6 1.39 24.7
Antonio Burks PG MEM 34.3 16.0 3.2 5.5 .571 4.5 2.86 23.7
Chris Duhon PG DUKE 35.4 10.0 4.1 6.1 .532 5.5 3.19 19.5
Marcus Moore PG WSU 33.7 13.5 3.1 3.7 .458 4.5 0.77 14.4
Player Pos Col MPG PPG RPG APG TS% R48 Pass EFF48
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Delonte West SG JOES 33.5 18.9 5.4 4.7 .633 7.7 1.82 30.7
Andre Iguodala SG ARI 32.1 12.9 8.4 4.9 .548 12.6 2.07 28.6
Tony Allen SG OSU 31.6 16.0 5.5 3.1 .572 8.4 0.54 26.1
Kirk Snyder SG NEV 31.7 18.8 5.7 3.4 .545 8.7 0.58 24.5
Romain Sato SG XAV 36.9 16.3 8.0 2.3 .565 10.4 0.25 23.7
Rickey Paulding SG MIZ 35.0 15.1 4.3 2.8 .533 5.9 0.34 17.4
Player Pos Col MPG PPG RPG APG TS% R48 Pass EFF48
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Luke Jackson SF ORE 34.6 21.2 7.2 4.5 .639 10.0 1.26 32.4
Josh Childress SF STA 29.8 15.7 7.5 2.7 .609 12.1 0.47 31.7
Ryan Gomes SF PROV 34.8 18.9 9.4 2.3 .612 13.0 0.19 31.2
Bryant Matthews SF VT 35.4 22.1 8.9 1.5 .555 12.1 0.04 29.0
Luol Deng SF DUKE 31.1 15.1 6.9 1.8 .555 10.7 0.14 25.7
Trevor Ariza SF UCLA 31.6 11.6 6.5 2.1 .481 9.9 0.14 16.7
Player Pos Col MPG PPG RPG APG TS% R48 Pass EFF48
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Emeka Okafor PF CON 32.4 17.6 11.5 1.0 .597 17.1 0.02 37.3
Lawrence Roberts PF MSU 32.7 16.9 10.1 1.2 .579 14.8 0.04 28.8
Kris Humphries PF MIN 34.1 21.7 10.1 0.7 .525 14.2 0.00 28.3
Jaime Lloreda PF LSU 34.5 16.9 11.6 1.4 .589 16.2 0.03 28.2
Arthur Johnson PF MIZ 31.7 16.4 7.5 1.1 .579 11.3 0.03 27.6
Player Pos Col MPG PPG RPG APG TS% R48 Pass EFF48
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Rafael Araujo C BYU 29.8 18.4 10.1 1.2 .624 16.3 0.04 35.9
David Harrison C COL 31.6 17.1 8.8 0.9 .626 13.3 0.01 30.6
When looking at the Efficiency per 48 minutes, which is a natural tendency, keep in mind that this statistic tends to be biased towards inside players, which is how the fifth highest-rated power forward (Arthur Johnson) can rate better than the second-best point guard. Posts get more rebounds and blocks than perimeter players get assists and steals, and their field-goal percentages are also generally higher.
Even within position groups, EFF48 is biased towards players who grab a lot of rebounds, like Andre Iguodala, as opposed to better scorers like Tony Allen and Kirk Snyder. Strength of schedule is also an important consideration.
It should also be noted that these statistics reflect only the player's 2003-04 performance and nothing about their previous career or their age. Rickey Paulding, for one, was much better in 2002-03, when he averaged 22.3 efficiency points per 48 minutes. Freshmen like Luol Deng and Kris Humphries should receive extra credit for performing as well as they did early in their NCAA careers.
