| Is Brandon Roy The NBA's Best Offensive Wing? Authored by Christopher Reina - April 30, 2009 - 7:20 pm
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Despite not having a single player on the roster other than Roy who can create his own shot off the dribble, no dominant offensive big man in the post and no superb point guard facilitator, Portland led the NBA in points scored per 100 possessions this season. Their supremacy in offensive efficiency is striking, especially considering their pace (slowest in the NBA) and the historical company they now keep, plainly suggested by the below list:
Top-Ranked Offensive Teams
2009: Blazers (113.9)
2008: Jazz (113.8)
2007: Suns (113.9)
2006: Mavericks (111.8)
2005: Suns (114.5)
2004: Mavericks (112.1)
2003: Mavericks (110.7)
2002: Mavericks (112.2)
2001: Bucks (108.8)
2000: Pacers (108.5)
1999: Pacers (108.7)
1998: Jazz (112.7)
1997: Bulls (114.4)
1996: Bulls (115.2)
1995: Magic (115.1)
1994: Suns (111.7)
1993: Suns (113.3)
1992: Bulls (115.5)
1991: Bulls (114.6)
1990: Lakers (114.0)
1989: Lakers (113.8)
In this list, you have four Jordan/Pippen Bulls teams, two Magic Lakers teams, two Barkley/KJ Suns teams, a Shaq/Penny team, a Malone/Stockton team, the Smits/Reggie/Rose Pacers, the under-appreciated Allen/Big Dog/Cassell Bucks team, the Nash/Dirk/Finley Mavs and also the Dirk/Terry/Howard Mavs, a couple of Nash/D'Antoni Suns teams and finally the Deron/Boozer heavily assisted Jazz team of last year.
Portland stands out as the Ringo Starr of this list.
How were they so efficient this season?
Portland is extremely patient offensively and that goes hand in hand with better than average shot selection; Roy is on the Kim Ung-Yong of superstar scorers in being especially intelligent with his shot selection.
Out of the eight Blazers that averaged at least five points per game, the lowest eFG% belonged to LaMarcus Aldridge, who shot 48.6% as a face-up four. The other seven players are all over 50%, with Roy towards the bottom at a still excellent 51.2%. Portland scores 117.4 points per 100 possessions with Roy on the floor and they come down to 108.1 without him (+9.3 differential).
As a benchmark comparison, Michael Jordan's career mark is 50.9%, but he consistently was in the mid 50's during the prime of his career.
Kobe Bryant's career eFG% is 48.8% and he finally started just barely eclipsing the 50% mark in the 06-07 season. The Lakers offense was 13.3 points better with Bryant this season.
Dwyane Wade had a career best in this category in 2008-09, coming in at 51.6%, ahead of his career mark of 49.6%. Miami's offense was 11.2 points better with Wade, though they scored only 111.3 points per 100 possessions with him.
LeBron James' had an eFG% of 53.0% this season and 51.8% last season, but is more of a power game than Roy and the other three utilize. Cleveland's offense was 12.7 points better with LeBron than without him.
According to 82games.com, just 33% of Roy's points were assisted and that number drops to a truly remarkable 10% during the final five minutes of the game when the point differential is within five points. Kobe was assisted in 37% of his points, 34% for LeBron and 26% for Wade, who had a strikingly bad supporting cast this season. During those clutch situations, Kobe comes down to 15%, LeBron is marginally less at 20% and Wade is at 12%.
Roy's greatness shows up statistically as evidenced above, but the varied way he can score, particularly by getting into the paint for those high percentage shots without needing to get all the way to rim to challenge bigs is probably the single thing he does better than those other three shot creators. It is the common element that has also turned Paul Pierce and Manu Ginobili into playmakers on the biggest postseason stages, a class Roy has now joined at the very least.
Whether or not Roy is a better pure scorer or tougher cover than Kobe or LeBron is too subjective thing to determine; but I'll take Roy over Kobe at this point in 2011 and for one possession with a collapsing defense that takes away the rim, I like Roy's chances to score better than LeBron's. |
