Friday, June 1, 2012

NBA Draft 2012: Analysis

So I've scouted this draft extensively, and created three different working models: one that accounts for NBA-translatable skills, such as rebounding, defensive plays (steals+blocks), mutual exclusion properties (my term for the rate of threes and free throw attempts a player takes), college strength of schedule (a player who comes from a division I obviously is stronger than one at a division III), and free throw shooting (a factor that generally stays constant regardless of league; also to make sure the player can shoot). Most of all, it's a model that rewards younger players: obviously, a college freshman is going to have far weaker stats than a college senior, so there's a weighting factor based on age and years in college that actually helps freshman a lot. Again, the younger the player, the more "potential" they have, since they have more mileage and athleticism when they come into the league, generally speaking.

It's a model that I consider one of my more reliable ones, although there have been quite a few misses in the past. But, it has predicted bad college-to-NBA players before (Adam Morrison, Antoine Wright, John Gilchrist, Marcus Williams (UConn), Josh Boone, Joey Graham, Dajuan Wagner, Acie Law) but also has its misses (Javaris Crittenton, Patrick O'Bryant, Brandon Roy, Deron Williams, JaVale McGee, Ramon Sessions). Notice how most of the predictions were for college juniors or seniors--many of those busted out. But the same logic couldn't be applied for Roy, DWill, or Sessions. More often than not, players who don't put athletic numbers really start to suffer, and upperclassmen are really fighting a tide to overcome--Adam Morrison was a junior when he declared for the draft, and put up very poor athletic markers--that's why he didn't rank well, even though he averaged 30 points a game when he declared. You'll see how this model applies for the draft below:

*Also, I'm going to highlight the ones that are sleepers in red, and the ones that are predicted to be not as good as expected in yellow. Inevitably, like in past cases above, there's going to be stuff that's wrong--that's the nature of prognostications--and in fact, I've noticed that undersized big men who rebound (Paul Millsap, David Lee) tend to really stink in this model. That bodes well for Thomas Robinson, who doesn't rank well in my model but reminds of the two above. Andre Miller-type savvy PGs also rank poorly (Andre Miller/Darius Morris/Ramon Sessions). Then you have your Afflalos and Mbahs a Moutes, so a UCLA factor needs to be added to this equation (kidding!). But here it goes:


1 Anthony Davis 15.57574 H: 6' 10" W: 220 lbs PF
2 Bradley Beal 11.59605 H: 6' 4" W: 201 lbs SG
3 Michael Gilchrist 10.74574 H: 6' 7" W: 228 lbs SF
4 Jared Sullinger 10.26104 H: 6' 8" W: 250 lbs PF
5 Dion Waiters 10.14996 H: 6' 4" W: 210 lbs SG
6 Terrence Jones 10.1483 H: 6' 9" W: 249 lbs PF
7 Moe Harkless 9.954131 H: 6' 8" W: 208 lbs SF
8 Damian Lillard 9.861204 H: 6' 2" W: 190 lbs PG
9 Quincy Miller 9.849808 H: 6' 9" W: 200 lbs SF
10 Jae Crowder 9.84287 H: 6' 6" W: 235 lbs SF/PF
11 Chris Johnson 9.721309 H: 6' 5" W: 194 lbs SG
12 John Jenkins 9.649118 H: 6' 4" W: 215 lbs SG
13 Jared Cunningham 9.490336 H: 6' 4" W: 175 lbs SG
14 John Henson 9.431282 H: 6' 10" W: 200 lbs PF
15 Jeremy Lamb 9.307692 H: 6' 5" W: 185 lbs SG
16 Tony Wroten 9.24607 H: 6' 5" W: 180 lbs PG/SG
17 Will Barton 9.115389 H: 6' 6" W: 175 lbs SG
18 Furkan Aldemir 9.063212 H: 6' 9" W: 220 lbs PF
19 Harrison Barnes 8.91779 H: 6' 8" W: 210 lbs SG/SF
20 Robbie Hummel 8.895305 H: 6' 8" W: 208 lbs SF/PF
21 J'Covan Brown 8.873118 H: 6' 1" W: 195 lbs PG/SG
22 John Shurna 8.782238 H: 6' 8" W: 210 lbs PF
23 Evan Fournier 8.724022 H: 6' 6" W: 200 lbs SG/SF
24 Austin Rivers 8.650197 H: 6' 4" W: 203 lbs SG
25 Terrence Ross 8.760871 H: 6' 6" W: 180 lbs SG/SF
26 Marcus Denmon 8.606438 H: 6' 3" W: 185 lbs SG
27 Royce White 8.521847 H: 6' 8" W: 270 lbs PF
28 Tu Holloway 8.471719 H: 6' 0" W: 185 lbs PG
29 Maalik Wayns 8.365132 H: 6' 1" W: 190 lbs PG
30 Draymond Green 8.361776 H: 6' 6" W: 235 lbs SF/PF
31 Erving Walker 8.348145 H: 5' 8" W: 140 lbs PG
32 Thomas Robinson 8.329721 H: 6' 9" W: 240 lbs PF
33 Kyle Fogg 8.269712 H: 6' 3" W: 190 lbs SG
34 Andre Drummond 8.221813 H: 6' 11" W: 251 lbs C
35 Kris Joseph 8.208969 H: 6' 7" W: 207 lbs SF
36 Doron Lamb 8.177513 H: 6' 4" W: 170 lbs SG
37 Kendall Marshall 8.103971 H: 6' 4" W: 197 lbs PG
38 Jeff Taylor 8.073585 H: 6' 6" W: 200 lbs SF
39 Dee Bost 8.051971 H: 6' 2" W: 180 lbs PG
40 Scott Machado 7.980539 H: 6' 1" W: 180 lbs PG
41 Wesley Witherspoon 7.978512 H: 6' 8" W: 185 lbs SF
42 Renardo Sidney 7.967909 H: 6' 9" W: 250 lbs PF
43 Tyler Zeller 7.956867 H: 6' 11" W: 220 lbs PF/C
44 Kim English 7.946477 H: 6' 6" W: 200 lbs SG/SF
45 Andrew Nicholson 7.896275 H: 6' 9" W: 220 lbs PF
46 JaMychal Green 7.875893 H: 6' 8" W: 225 lbs PF
47 Quincy Acy 7.76331 H: 6' 6" W: 230 lbs PF
48 Meyers Leonard 7.722437 H: 7' 0" W: 240 lbs C
49 Hollis Thompson 7.673202 H: 6' 7" W: 205 lbs SF
50 Khris Middleton 7.671997 H: 6' 7" W: 220 lbs SF
51 Andrew Albicy 7.600403 H: 5' 10" W: 165 lbs PG
52 Fab Melo 7.568965 H: 7' 0" W: 250 lbs C
53 Darius Johnson-Odom 7.556117 H: 6' 2" W: 215 lbs SG
54 Alex Young 7.509354 H: 6' 6" W: 200 lbs SG/SF
55 Perry Jones 7.472861 H: 6' 11" W: 220 lbs PF
56 Orlando Johnson 7.472131 H: 6' 5" W: 205 lbs SG
57 Arnett Moultrie 7.394033 H: 6' 11" W: 220 lbs PF/C
58 Marquis Teague 7.365365 H: 6' 2" W: 179 lbs PG
59 Bradford Burgess 7.231874 H: 6' 6" W: 216 lbs SG/SF
60 Laurence Bowers 7.218628 H: 6' 8" W: 210 lbs SF

Wow, so your first impression is...this model is all over the place. That's true: if you notice, considering this is an "athletic markers" type algorithm, almost all the big men rank in the bottom of the list, even the ones that are projected as lottery picks. Look at: Thomas Robinson, Andre Drummond, Tyler Zeller, Andrew Nicholson, Meyers Leonard, Fab Melo, Perry Jones, and Arnett Moultrie. All predicted to be first rounders, all but Nicholson projected as top 20 types. Invariably a few will prove me wrong, but this goes to show you that some can't overcome their senior status with great defensive attributes (Zeller/Nicholson/Moultrie) and the younger ones just are too raw (Leonard/Melo/Drummond) or just can easily be mistaken as a 6'8" 220 lb small forward from their stats (Jones). In sum, none seem like surefire things: only Jared Sullinger and Anthony Davis have proven NBA-translatable skills to the next level, and Furkan Aldemir, a European big, even outranks all of these guys in my algorithm. Things that make you go hmm....as I said, Thomas Robinson can go the Millsap/Lee route and succeed, but I'm definitely predicting about half of this big men crop will bust out.

Kendall Marshall is another case that might be predicted incorrectly in the model...he reminds many of Andre Miller/Ramon Sessions, etc, and those pure PG/passive scoring types are exactly the thing the model tends to get wrong. I'll have a corrective measure that ranks Marshall high later in this article (spoiler alert). But it's clear he doesn't rank well, he isn't particularly athletic and his non-passing stats are meager. Marquis Teague and Orlando Johnson appear to be projects from here as well, although Orlando's threes-D quality bodes well, and again, like Marshall, he benefits from my corrective measure.

Sleepers on this list include Dion Waiters, whose slashing/threes game is something that helps him immensely, Moe Harkless/Quincy Miller, both of whom are rebounding athletic freshmen, which are all marks for them, and my personal favorites are jack of all trades types like Jae Crowder, and tall shooters who can do a little bit of everything like John Shurna and Robbie Hummel. Mutual exclusion scorers like Chris Johnson, J'Covan Brown, Tu Holloway, Maalik Wayns and John Jenkins rank well, and athletic imposer Jared Cunningham also ranks well in this list. But obviously, with so many bad shooting combo guards who use mutual exclusion to their advantage, surely we've got to have a corrective factor...right?

Thankfully, I've developed a second model...this one now accounts for height/weight relative to position, and  determines whether a player can actually PLAY their assumed position based on what I determine is a ballhandling ability marker (this is based off the players assist/possession and assist/turnover ratio in college, and scaled against what the average assist/possession and assist/turnover per position is in the NBA). So it's a really strict marker. It's actually what I call a "tweener" model: players who are tweeners are easily determined through this model. I have a scaling factor, called a basketball build relative to skills matrix,which determines whether the player is fit for their position. A positive value means they do cleanly fit into that position, a negative value means they don't really, but it's their best position, so they're forced into that position. The more positive means that they can be a matchup nightmare: the more negative means that the more that they are frankly, positionless, and might be out of the league soon because of it. We'll get into the list soon, but before that:

So let's determine who are the tweeners of this year's draft:

Not point guards, are more shooting guards:

Tony Wroten (SG) 0.8583


Kyle Fogg (SG) -0.6717


Dee Bost (SG) -1.3767
Damian Lillard (SG) -1.55503
Maalik Wayns (SG) -2.6117
J'Covan Brown (SG) -2.70503

Tu Holloway (SG) -3.3767


Wroten is a special case here: #1, he's 6'5" and strong, so he can clearly play the SG position, and #2, his ballhandling skills show that he can play it well: in fact, he's #15 of all the 60 draftable players in terms of playing their position well, so he should have no problems fitting in seamlessly in as a SG. A very good ballhandling SG. The others are all in the neagtive, and are a mishmash of players that probably don't belong in the league anyway, with the exception of Damian Lillard, who surprisingly wasn't rated as a PG (passing/ballhandling wasn't deemed good enough) and doesn't appear to quite fit that well as a SG either (rated #47 out of 60 in terms of fit). At the end of the day, he's really a combo--can't really play either position that well at all, and that could be a bit worrisome. He ranks awfully well above, in terms of pure talent/athletic markers, so one would think he could grow into his role. J'Covan Brown, Maalik Wayns and Tu Holloway are three of the worst rankers as SGs, but so far off as PGs as well, so it's hard to see any of them staying in the league (which is why it's surprising all three ranked well as talents in the above draft, but I think we can override it in their cases).

Really, really bad ballhandlers (Or, are they even shooting guards?)


John Jenkins(SF)                         -2.5697
Austin Rivers (SF) -2.6297
Jared Cunningham (PF) -4.3089

I wanted to isolate these three guys because they're all below 6'5", but their ballhandling ability isn't even that of SGs. Jenkins is lucky he can shoot, but he should never be allowed to drive or create for others: just really, spot up in the corner. It's a limited role, but one can excel in. Unfortunately, as a SF, he's woefully overmatched obviously, so really, he's very positionless. Rivers is the same way, but he's a gunner guard: not sure if he can succeed in that role, given that he's a bit sloppy with the ball and has excessive tunnel vision, and again he's a bit overmatched as a SF, so he's positionless as well. Finally, Jared Cunningham carries the
horrible reputation of being a 6'4" guard with PF ballhandling ability. Think Shannon Brown--don't ever want to handle the ball, like ever, but he's overmatched as PF, so he's just super positionless, and will need to be crossmatched.

Smallball PF types (rather than full fledged SF):



Quincy Miller (PF)                        0.7911
   
Harrison Barnes (PF)                   -0.1739
Moe Harkless (PF)-0.3789
Wesley Witherspoon (PF)-0.3964
Alex Young (PF)-2.4014

Miller's the only guy who looks like a matchup nightmare at PF, which he very well could be. The others are slightly overmatched, but Alex Young is the one who is super overmatched, and again, might be out of the league because of that. A 20 ppg scorer in college, he could face the same problems as another Young, Sam Young, in the NBA. Of note is that Barnes is better as a spot-up jumpshooting PF rather than a SF--he can't handle the ball well enough. GMs, take note. Might be an Al Harrington/ Marvin Williams type. Harkless, who ranked well on sheer athletic factors and youth in the first algorithm, also looks like a PF, and might be a project, but one worth investing in.

Undersized Center types 


Renardo Sidney (C ) -1.3381


Andrew Nicholson (C ) -1.7081
Quincy Acy (C ) -3.5431


These three guys don't have the requisite ballhandling of most NBA PFs and thus might be relegated to centers in the league, but even then they don't play it that well. They're really tweeners. Quincy Acy is another Reggie Evans type, appears to be, but a worse rebounding version, which means he's not even worth it to begin with. Nicholson is a guy who's touted, but man, that passing ability is atrocious, and even though he can score a point every two minutes, if he can't pass, he won't last long (see Mike Sweetney for details). Sidney is a black hole, Eddy Curry type.

Here's the top 15 of the basketball matrix list:


1 Kendall Marshall 4.5853
2 John Shurna 2.9028
3 John Henson 2.867767
4 Perry Jones 2.7861
5 Arnett Moultrie 2.627767
6 Robbie Hummel 2.5228
7 Anthony Davis 2.3911
8 Fab Melo 1.7719
9 Tyler Zeller 1.7069
10 Meyers Leonard 1.6619
11 Hollis Thompson 1.5103
12 Orlando Johnson 0.9783
13 Terrence Jones 0.9661
14 Jeremy Lamb 0.9133
15 Tony Wroten (SG) 0.8583


And here's the bottom 15:


45 Renardo Sidney (C ) -1.3381
46 Dee Bost (SG) -1.3767
47 Damian Lillard (SG) -1.55503
48 Chris Johnson -1.6597
49 Andrew Nichol (C ) -1.7081
50 Darius Johnson-Odom -1.91503
51 Alex Young (PF) -2.4014
52 John Jenkins (SF) -2.5697
53 Maalik Wayns (SG) -2.6117
54 Austin Rivers (SF) -2.6297
55 J'Covan Brown (SG) -2.70503
56 Andrew Albicy -3.0897
57 Tu Holloway (SG) -3.3767
58 Quincy Acy (C ) -3.5431
59 Jared Cunning (PF) -4.3089
60 Erving Walker -5.6372


As you can see the bottom list is littered with a bunch of tweeners, and midgets (Albicy/Walker) for their position. The top list helps the big men recover from the first algorithm list, as height is such a premium in the league that many GMs draft based on physical tools. In other words, I liken this algorithm to the "potential" algorithm factor, in which GMs get enamored by ballhandling by height above anything in way of skills.

So in helping the big men recover, and accounting for this ballhandling/position playing factor, adding it to the original algorithm, here's my new revised mock:


1 Anthony Davis 17.96684
2 Kendall Marshall 12.68927
3 John Henson 12.29905
4 John Shurna 11.68504
5 Bradley Beal 11.68435
6 Robbie Hummel 11.4181
7 Terrence Jones 11.1144
8 Michael Gilchrist 11.04604
9 Dion Waiters 10.96326
10 Quincy Miller (PF) 10.64091
11 Perry Jones 10.25896
12 Jeremy Lamb 10.22099
13 Tony Wroten (SG) 10.10437
14 Arnett Moultrie 10.0218
15 Jae Crowder 9.99317
16 Furkan Aldemir 9.804312
17 Tyler Zeller 9.663767
18 Moe Harkless (PF) 9.575231
19 Meyers Leonard 9.384337
20 Fab Melo 9.340865
21 Terrence Ross 9.186171
22 Hollis Thompson 9.183502
23 Evan Fournier (SF) 9.124322
24 Thomas Robinson 9.060821
25 Royce White 9.002947
26 Jared Sullinger 9.002943
27 Harrison Barnes (PF) 8.74389
28 Kris Joseph 8.631769
29 Will Barton 8.590689
30 Orlando Johnson 8.450431
31 Jeff Taylor 8.318885
32 Damian Lillard (SG) 8.30617
33 Khris Middleton 8.248964
34 Doron Lamb 8.190813
35 Marcus Denmon 8.187238
36 Marquis Teague 8.160665
37 Scott Machado 8.085839
38 Chris Johnson 8.061609
39 Andre Drummond 7.818713
40 Kyle Fogg (SG) 7.598012
41 Wesley Wither (PF) 7.582112
42 JaMychal Green 7.564493
43 Laurence Bowers 7.473061
44 Kim English (SF) 7.399277
45 Draymond Green 7.372876
46 John Jenkins (SF) 7.079418
47 Bradford Burgess 6.797174
48 Dee Bost (SG) 6.675271
49 Renardo Sidney (C ) 6.629809
50 Andrew Nichol (C ) 6.188175
51 J'Covan Brown (SG) 6.168085
52 Austin Rivers (SF) 6.020497
53 Maalik Wayns (SG) 5.753432
54 Darius Johnson-Odom 5.641083
55 Jared Cunning (PF) 5.181436
56 Alex Young (PF) 5.107954
57 Tu Holloway (SG) 5.095019
58 Andrew Albicy 4.510703
59 Quincy Acy (C ) 4.22021
60 Erving Walker 2.710945


There's a ton of slips now--as I said about Lillard, he's not who we think he is, and so he slips into the second round. All the bigs get a push now--Perry Jones, Moultrie, etc all get pushed into the first round. With a few exceptions, such as Austin Rivers/Marquis Teague/Drummond/Robinson being too low, and Shurna/Hummel too high this looks like the draft we've come to expect. Of course, this is a prediction of how to accurately match the mock, and not to accurately predict the player's careers--for that, I think my first mock has more value. Again, GMs overvalue big men, and the second factor helps scale for bigs. So this is more of a representation of the mocks.

To get accurate value of how a player would do, here's what I would suggest--see which players find themselves in the first round in BOTH of the drafts for sleepers, and see which players expected in the first round fall in the second round for BOTH of the drafts as busts. And, I'll have my steals list:

Surefire top 10 types (=<20 total): Anthony Davis (#1-1), Bradley Beal (#2-5), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (#3-8), Terrence Jones (#6-7), Dion Waiters (#5-9), John Henson (#3-14), Quincy Miller (#9-10)

10-20 types (=<40 total): Moe Harkless (#7-18), Jae Crowder (#10-15), John Shurna (#4-22), Robbie Hummel (#6-20), Jeremy Lamb (#12-15), Tony Wroten (#13-16), Jared Sullinger (#4-26), Furkan Aldemir (#16-18), Kendall Marshall (#2-37), Damian Lillard (#8-32)

20-30 types (=<60 total): Will Barton (#17-29), Harrison Barnes (#19-27), Terrence Ross (#21-25), Evan Fournier (#23 both), Chris Johnson (#11-38), Royce White (#25-27), Thomas Robinson (#24-32), John Jenkins (#12-46), Tyler Zeller (#17-43)

30-40 types (=<80 total): Marcus Denmon (#26-35), Kris Joseph (#28-35), Perry Jones (#11-55), Meyers Leonard (#19-48), Jared Cunningham (#13-55), Jeff Taylor (#31-38), Doron Lamb (#34-36), Arnett Moultrie (#14-57), Hollis Thompson (#22-49), J'Covan Brown (#21-51), Fab Melo (#20-52), Kyle Fogg (#33-40), Andre Drummond (#34-39),  Draymond Green (#30-45), Austin Rivers (#24-52), Scott Machado (#37-40)

40-50 types (=<100 total): Maalik Wayns (#29-52), Wesley Witherspoon (#41 each), Khris Middleton (#33-50),. Tu Holloway (#28-57), Orlando Johnson (#30-56), Dee Bost (#39-48), JaMychal Green (#42-46), Kim English (#44 each), Erving Walker (#31-60), Renardo Sidney (#42-49), Marquis Teague (#36-58), Andrew Nicholson (#45-50)

50-60 types: Laurence Bowers (#43-60), Quincy Acy/Bradford Burgess (#47-59), Darius Johnson-Odom (#53-54), Andrew Albicy (#51-58), Alex Young (#54-56)

So here's how it looks, and my opinion of the players:

LOTTO:
1) Anthony Davis
2) Bradley Beal
3) Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
4) Terrence Jones
5) Dion Waiters
6) John Henson
7) Quincy Miller
8) Moe Harkless
9) Jae Crowder
10) John Shurna
11) Robbie Hummel
12) Jeremy Lamb
13) Tony Wroten
14) Jared Sullinger
15) Furkan Aldemir
----------------------
REST OF FIRST ROUND:
16) Kendall Marshall
17) Damian Lillard
18) Will Barton
19) Harrison Barnes
20) Terrence Ross
21) Evan Fournier
22) Chris Johnson
23) Royce White
24) Thomas Robinson
25) John Jenkins
26) Tyler Zeller
27) Marcus Denmon
28) Kris Joseph
29) Perry Jones
30) Meyers Leonard
-------------------------
FILLING OUT THE 2ND ROUND:
31) Jared Cunningham
32) Jeff Taylor
33) Doron Lamb
34) Arnett Moultrie
35) Hollis Thompson
36) J'Covan Brown
37) Fab Melo
38) Kyle Fogg
39) Andre Drummond
40) Draymond Green
41) Austin Rivers
42) Scott Machado
43) Maalik Wayns
44) Wesley Witherspoon
45) Khris Middleton
46) Tu Holloway
47) Orlando Johnson
48) Dee Bost
49) JaMychal Green
50) Kim English
51) Erving Walker
52) Renardo Sidney
53) Marquis Teague
54) Andrew Nicholson
55) Laurence Bowers
56) Quincy Acy or Bradford Burgess
57) Quincy Acy or Bradford Burgess
58) Darius Johnson-Odom
59) Andrew Albicy
60) Alex Young

Steals and busts listed above. (Red and yellow) respectively. So that would be in my final list for this draft.

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