OKC Thunder: Stats media need to consider before voting on bubble awards
Individual player stats of key categories:
Following up on the schedule note above entering gameplay on Friday only seven teams won five or more games with another two capable of joining that group with wins today (Rockets and either the Thunder or Clippers).
Analysts and media frequently preface their seasonal All-NBA picks based on overall records which should mean the same standards are applied in the bubble. Given that fact, players from the teams with five or more wins should take precedent.
That would include the 8-0 Suns, 6-2 Blazers, 6-1 Raptors (who could improve to 7-1), 5-3 trio of Celtics | Nets | Spurs, 5-2 Pacers (who could improve to 6-2 Friday), and potentially the Rockets | Thunder or Clippers if they win on Friday.
Diving into the key categories here’s some bubble stats to ponder:
Top 5 points per game
- Damian Lillard: 37.6
- James Harden: 35.1
- T.J. Warren 31.0
- Kristaps Porzingis/Devin Booker : 30.5
- Luka Doncic: 30.0
Top 5 assists per game:
- Ja Morant – 9.9
- Luka Doncic – 9.7
- Damian Lillard -9.6
- Nikola Jokic – 9.1
- James Harden – 8.7
Of note: Chris Paul is 12th with 6.6 while Rockets, Raptors, Nuggets and Suns are the only teams with two players in the top 20.
Top 6 rebounds per game:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo – 12.2
- Joel Embiid – 11.2
- Ivica Zubac 11.1
- Jarrett Allen | Rudy Gobert: 11.0
NOTES: Luka Doncic did rank in the top five even with Allen and Gobert up until the final game when he played limited minutes without Porzingis. He fell to eighth because of that decision but up until that point, he was the only player who ranked in the top five for all three main categories.
Steven Adams ranks 14th with 9.0 rebound average for the four seeding games he played
Top steals per game:
- James Harden: 3.0
- Robert Covington: 2.6
- Marcus Smart – 2.1
- Kyle Lowry | Paul George: 2.0
- Chris Paul: 1.9
NOTES: caveat of six games played used – Jimmy Butler misses the cut because of that but did average 2.8 steals in the four games he played.
Also of note, three teams featured four players in the top 40:
OKC Thunder: CP3, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Hamidou Diallo, Luguentz Dort,
Raptors: Lowry, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam
Celtics: Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Brad Wanamaker
Top 5 blocks per game:
- Brook Lopez: 2.2
- Jusuf Nurkic | Thomas Bryant: 2.0
- Rudy Gobert: 1.8
- Myles Turner: 1.7
- Nerlens Noel | Robert Covington: 1.6
3-point efficiency:
To ensure this list isolated on constancy the caveats of at least four seeding games played, two attempts taken on average with an efficiency of 50 percent or greater 16 players meet those distinctions.
- Keldon Johnson: 64.7%
- Jae Crowder: 56.4%
- Chris Boucher: 56.3%
- Jevon Carter: 55.2%
- Alec Burks/Mike Scott: 54.5%
Of those some teams featured multiple players in that range:
- Suns and 76ers have three players
- Clippers, Raptors, and have two players
- OKC Thunder sniper Mike Muscala is in this group of 16