Now that the San Antonio Spurs’ regular season will be winding down on Wednesday with the Spurs’ finale coming against the Dallas Mavericks, let’s look at how some of the Spurs’ core players have been elite in certain statistical categories.
For this examination, I am using the stats from CleaningTheGlass.com and defining being elite in a stat by whether a player ranks in the 90th percentile or above, based on their position. I’ve grouped the findings into three groups: Shooting, Play-Making, and Defense.
Shooting
Points Per Shot Attempt
Bryn Forbes – Forbes has scored 119.2 points per 100 shot attempts, placing him in the 91st percentile among combo guards. A combo guard is a player who plays the 1 and 2 position. This makes Forbes a very efficient shooter all over the floor.
Accuracy from the Short Mid-Range
Derrick White – White is making 48% of his short mid-range shots, which is the area between 4 and 14 feet. Think of this as the floater area. White is the 94th percentile among point guards from this area.
Overall Mid-Range Accuracy
Rudy Gay – Gay is making 50% of his overall mid-range shots, placing him in the 95th percentile among forwards. A forward is a player who plays the 3 and 4 position. Gay and Kevin Durant are the only two forwards who have logged over 1,000 minutes to rank in the 95th percentile or above as forwards in this statistic.
White – White is making 47% of his overall mid-range shots, placing him in the 90th percentile among point guards.
Accuracy from Corner Three
Forbes – Forbes is making 55% of his corner threes, placing him in the 100th percentile among combo guards. Among those who have logged over 1,000 minutes, Forbes is the only combo guard in the league who ranks in the 100th percentile in this statistic.
Davis Bertans – Bertans is making 59% of his corner threes, placing him in the 98th percentile among bigs. A big is a player who plays the 4 and 5 position. Among bigs who have logged over 1,000 minutes, Bertans is the only one in the 98th percentile or above in this category.
Gay – Gay is making 48% of his corner threes, placing him in the 94th percentile among forwards.
Accuracy from the Non-Corner Three
Forbes – Forbes is the only Spur to meet the criteria in this category, making 42% of his non-corner threes, placing him in the 93rd percentile among combo guards.
Overall Three-Point Accuracy
Bertans – Bertans is shooting 44% from deep, placing him in the 96th percentile among bigs.
Forbes – Forbes meanwhile is shooting 43% overall from three, placing him in the 95th percentile among combo guards. From an accuracy standpoint from long range, these are the Spurs’ two deadliest shooters.
Play Making
Assist Percentage
DeMar DeRozan – DeRozan is assisting on 27.7% of the Spurs’ made baskets, placing him in the 99th percentile among wing players. Wing players are those players who play at the 2 and 3 position. Other players with an assist percentage at the 99th percentile or above who have logged over 1,000 minutes: Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James, Luka Doncic.
Assist to Usage Ratio
DeRozan – Despite having a high usage rate (30.7%), DeRozan has an assist to usage rate of 0.90, placing him in the 90th percentile among wing players.
Shooting Fouled Percentage
DeRozan – DeRozan has been fouled on 14.4% of his shot attempts, placing him in the 94th percentile among wing players in shooting fouled percentage.
Floor Fouled Percentage
DeRozan – 2.4% of DeRozan’s drawn fouls have been non-shooting fouls, placing him in the 95th percentile among wing players.
LaMarcus Aldridge – 3.3% of Aldridge’s drawn fouls have been non-shooting fouls, placing him in the 92nd percentile among bigs.
And-1 Percentage
Forbes – 47.4% of Forbes’ shots he was fouled on resulted in an and-1 opportunity, placing him in the 98th percentile among combo guards. Forbes and Al Horford are the only two players who have logged over 1,000 minutes to rank in the 98th percentile or above in this statistic.
Bertans – 33.3% of Bertans’ shots he was fouled on resulted in an and-1 opportunity, placing him in the 90th percentile among bigs.
Turnover Percentage
Bertans – Bertans is only turning the ball over on 8.8% of his possessions, placing him in the 91st percentile among bigs.
Offensive Rebounding Percentage
Jakob Poeltl – Poeltl has collected 14.2% of his team’s missed shots, placing him in the 96th percentile among big men.
Defense
Block Percentage
White – White has blocked 1.4% of opponents shot attempts, placing him in the 100th percentile among point guards. White is the only player with over 1,000 minutes logged to rank in the 100th percentile in this statistic.
To give a preview of how good White and Dejounte Murray are at blocking shots for being point guards, last season Murray blocked 0.9% of opponents shots, placing him in the 96th percentile among point guards. Next season, they could be on the floor at the same time.
Foul Percentage
Aldridge – Aldridge has committed defensive fouls on just 2.3% of the Spurs’ defensive plays this season, placing him in the 98th percentile among big men. Aldridge and Al-Farouq Aminu are the only two bigs who have played over 1,000 minutes and are in the 98th percentile or above in this category.
Defensive Rebounding Percentage
Gay – Gay has collected 20.4% of the Spurs’ defensive rebounds, placing him in the 98th percentile among forwards. Gay and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the only two forwards in this category who logged over 1,000 minutes in the 98th percentile or above.
DeRozan – DeRozan has rebounded 14.4% of the Spurs’ defensive rebounds, placing him in the 91st percentile among wing players. DeRozan is currently averaging 21.3 points, 6 rebounds, and 6.2 assists. The only other players to average better than 20-6-6 this season are James Harden, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Nikola Jokic.
Of the Spurs’ nine-core players, only Patty Mills and Marco Belinelli didn’t rank in the 90th percentile or above in any of the examined stats. With different players having elite numbers in different categories on both ends, the organization will see just how far this group can go this coming weekend when round one of the playoffs begin.
Statistics were gathered prior to the Spurs’ Sunday win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
