See the Ball, Be the Ball

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: May 31st, 2007

Before getting to the percentages – some housekeeping. With the ink dry on the 2007 regular season, I’ve done one final update to the GMTR fantasy basketball player rater. It now contains the full and final rankings for the season, for what that’s worth to you. Dwyane Wade finished as the top rated player on a per game basis, or, if you take into account the number of games played, the best player in the league was Mr. radio interview himself… Kobe Bryant.

Kobe’s game is louder than his shoes, if that’s possible

(As an aside, I’ve realized I’ve been linking to Google docs and the GMTR player rater incorrectly this entire time by proving a link directly to the spreadsheet, which requires one to have and be signed into a Google account, rather than publishing the sheet and linking to that, which is much faster and allows anyone to view it. My bad. That should now be fixed, but I’m expecting my Google referral check in the mail any day now.)

Who were the most effective shooters from a fantasy perspective in 2007? As explained in this post, to really gauge the effectiveness of a player’s percentages, it’s important to not only look at their actual free throw and field goal percentages, but also look at how many shots they take compared to the “league” average. This mimics how percentages are calculated in fantasy leagues. Basically, high percentages are nice, but it’s also important find players that take a lot shots and can still do it effectively (i.e. Dirk Nowitzki). So, onto the list of most effective free throw shooters for 2007.

Dirk, last year’s free throw champion and current NBA MVP finished as the second best free throw shooter in 2007, with an EFT% of 95.7. But the best free throw shooter, as well as your 2007 fantasy MVP and on-again-off again trade demander, goes to Kobe Bryant at a cool 96%. While he “only” shot 86% from the line, he attempted 10 free throws a game which gave him plenty of quantity over Dirk’s quality.

If you’re wondering who the worst free throw shooter is… Surprise! The award goes to Shaq, who will likely be the worst free throw shooter in the league until he hangs it up to pursue his dream of restoring law and order to southern Florida. Shaq shot 42% from the line, averaging 7.4 attempts a game, for an EFT% of 25%. Twenty. Five. Percent. For some perspective, Sam Cassell is 25% handsome. Tim Duncan is 25% interesting. The Grizzlies had a 25% chance to win the lottery. A-Rod is 25% clutch. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is 25% good. I was 25% cool in high school… I could go on.

As far as other bad free throw shooters go – way, way back in Shaq’s rear view mirror are Dwight Howard (47%), Eddy Curry (51%), and Ben Wallace (52%). All bad, but not fantasy team ruining bad.

Alright, enough of that wussy charity stripe stuff, big men have the spotlight when looking at effective field goal percentage: For 2007:

Free throws aren’t in his vocabulary – like much of the English language – but Shaq is still the man from four feet and in. His EFG% of 57.8 paced the league in 2007. Dwight Howard shot a gaudy looking 60% from the field, but he only averaged 10.7 shots a game, so his EFG% clocked in slightly behind Shaq at 57.6.

And the worst shooter? Adam Morrision and Rafer Alston both ended the year with a field goal percentage of 37.6, but Alston averaged 12.4 shots a game to Morrison’s 12.1, so Alston slightly edges out the rookie for the league’s worst shooter, finishing with an EFG% of 38.4. Watch out for Morrison next year, though. He’s on a quest that even Antoine Walker can’t stop.

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