On Monday night, the NBA held their first annual Awards Show, honoring some of the best all-around players in the league for their on court accomplishments. But there are many impactful players whose contributions tend to be a bit more specialized. To that end, this week we’re taking a look at the final 2016-17 leaderboards for a statistical categories you might not hear about as often as points per game or field goal percentage.
Clutch Scoring (Clutch TS%, minimum 50 FGA)
- (1) LeBron James — 67.3 percent
- (2) CJ McCollum — 66.7 percent
- (3) Isaiah Thomas — 65.4 percent
The incredible clutch scoring of Isaiah Thomas was one of the dominant storylines this season, so it’s no surprise to find him in the top three. LeBron has also long been one of the most efficient clutch scorers. McCollum is interesting as he’s often thought of as a complementary scorer to Damian Lillard. However, McCollum’s ability to shoot efficiently off the dribble means he can almost always get a good look against a set defense in late-game situations.
Catch-and-shoot 3PT% (minimum 100 C&S 3PTA)
- (1) Pau Gasol — 54.4 percent
- (2) Kyrie Irving — 47.9 percent
- (3) Kemba Walker — 47.7 percent
Irving and Walker both have reputations as good 3-point shooters but, as primary ball-handlers, their catch-and-shoot prowess is slightly less well known as they get fewer of those opportunities. Seeing Gasol at the top of the list is a huge surprise. Gasol attempted 104 3-pointers last season, more than he had in either of his seven-season stints in either Memphis or Los Angeles. Chalk it up to more Spurs magic?
Pull-up 3PT% (minimum 100 PU 3PTA)
- (1) CJ McCollum — 43.1 percent
- (2) Patty Mills — 42.7 percent
- (3) Goran Dragic — 42.3 percent
Both Dragic and Mills had strong seasons last year, and it shouldn’t be a surprise to find either player among the league-leaders in pull-up 3-point percentage. McCollum has also become one of the best pull-up 3-point shooters in the league and, as we mentioned above, this helps drive his efficiency in clutch scoring situations.
Isolation Scoring (Isolation PPP, minimum 100 total possessions)
- (1) Isaiah Thomas — 1.12 PPP
- (2) Kyrie Irving — 1.12 PPP
- (3) Chris Paul — 1.09 PPP
No dark horse candidates here — Isaiah’s first step, Irving’s incredible handle, and Paul’s deadly mid-range jumper all make them some of the hardest scorers in the league to stop one-on-one.
Post-up Scoring (Post-up PPP, minimum 100 total possessions)
- (1) Danilo Gallinari — 1.20 PPP
- (2) DeMar DeRozan — 1.13 PPP
- (3) Nikola Jokic — 1.12 PPP
The prevalence of the post-up game may be declining across the NBA, but having a player who can take a mismatch in the post and score efficiently is still a hugely important weapon. Jokic had a fantastic season in several areas and was tops on this list for traditional big men. DeRozan is a wing and Gallinari plays both forward positions but they were sensational at picking their spots and getting easy buckets for their teams.
Total Distance Traveled
- (1) CJ McCollum — 206.9 miles
- (2) Karl Anthony-Towns — 205.3 miles
- (3) Andrew Wiggins — 200.1 miles
This statistic is somewhat esoteric and largely a function of role and minutes played, but the leaderboard is interesting nonetheless. McCollum also led the league in this category last season, and his teammate, Damian Lillard led the league in 2014-15. Towns and Wiggins are interesting in that they both play for the Timberwolves, albeit at different positions and in different roles. This is likely a reflection of how important they were to Minnesota’s offensive and defensive schemes last season.
Average top speed (minimum 1000 minutes played)
- (1) Sergio Rodriguez — 4.78 mph
- (2) Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot — 4.71 mph
- (3) TJ McConnell — 4.70 mph
This is another esoteric category but it’s interesting to find that the top three players all happened to play for the same team — the Philadelphia 76ers. Here we can assume this has more to do with the scheme of the 76ers and how they ask their point guards to play, rather than elite sprinting ability by any of those three players.
Most total touches
- (1) Russell Westbrook — 8061
- (2) James Harden — 8036
- (3) Kemba Walker — 6961
This truly was the season of Westbrook and Harden. They finished first and second in the NBA MVP voting and the offensive load each player carried was enormous. While there is a negligible difference in their touch totals, these two touched the ball more than a thousand times more than any other NBA player did last season.
Lowest Defensive FG% (inside 6ft., minimum 200 DFGA)
- (1) Draymond Green — 48.3 percent
- (2) Rudy Gobert — 48.9 percent
- (3) LaMarcus Aldridge — 49.3 percent
Defensive impact can be notoriously hard to measure but defensive field goal percentage around the basket is one of the few statistics we have that seems to reliably reflect player skill. Green and Gobert finished first and second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting, and it’s interesting to see that the 6-foot-7 Green had a bigger rim-protection impact than the 7-foot-1 Gobert this season. It’s also nice to see LaMarcus Aldridge make an appearance. He doesn’t have the strongest defensive reputation but did well trying to guard the rim in the absence of Tim Duncan for the Spurs this season.
