OK folks, it's that time of the season. Time for the midway stat wrap. The goodies are below the fold.
Let's start with the downloadable excel stats: 1/2 way stats.Now let's make our way through 82Games' stats. First up, here's how the Wolves were shooting the ball after 20 games:
Shooting Details
| 68% | .404 | 54% | 46.1 | 67% | .454 | 66% | 49.8 | ||
| 26% | .514 | 43% | 22.5 | 25% | .590 | 56% | 24.1 | ||
| 4% | .909 | 70% | 6.3 | 6% | .926 | 88% | 9.3 | ||
| 2% | .594 | 0% | 2.0 | 2% | .633 | 0% | 2.0 | ||
| 100% | .457 | 51% | 76.9 | 100% | .521 | 64% | 85.2 | ||
Here's how things look at the 1/2 way mark:
Shooting Details
|
|
|||||||||
| 66% | .405 | 54% | 45.7 | 68% | .459 | 67% | 52.4 | ||
| 27% | .532 | 44% | 24.2 | 24% | .579 | 57% | 23.7 | ||
| 4% | .915 | 71% | 6.7 | 6% | .925 | 84% | 8.9 | ||
| 3% | .494 | 0% | 2.1 | 2% | .565 | 0% | 2.0 | ||
| 100% | .463 | 51% | 78.7 | 100% | .517 | 64% |
87.1 |
||
Not a whole lot to write home about here. The only thing of note on the offensive side is that they are shooting slightly better from the floor and not very well on tip ins. Defensively, they give up an obscene eFG on jump shots. They are giving up over 52 ppg on jump shots. To put that in perspective, Atlanta gives up about 45 ppg, Boston gives up 46.7, Charlotte lets loose with 43.5, and...well, you get the picture. The Wolves straight up suck at defending jump shots and they give up as many as 12 ppg game more than some of their closest peers (see Thunder, Oklahoma).
Moving on to shot clock usage, here's how the team fared after 20 games:
Shot Clock Usage
| 40% | .516 | 45% | 34.7 | 37% | .588 | 59% | 35.5 | ||
| 26% | .431 | 54% | 18.7 | 25% | .506 | 65% | 20.8 | ||
| 24% | .416 | 57% | 16.6 | 24% | .480 | 73% | 19.1 | ||
| 10% | .395 | 57% | 6.9 | 14% | .437 | 63% | 9.8 | ||
And after the midway point:
Shot Clock Usage
|
|
|||||||||
| 41% | .514 | 45% | 35.7 | 38% | .574 | 59% | 37.2 | ||
| 25% | .441 | 55% | 19.0 | 25% | .505 | 67% | 21.4 | ||
| 23% | .445 | 57% | 17.4 | 24% | .475 | 70% | 18.9 | ||
| 11% | .361 | 58% | 6.6 | 13% | .447 | 64% | 9.5 | ||
No big changes here. On to shot blocking. Here's the damage after 20:
Shot Blocking
1555
63
4.1
194
0.32
1598
120
7.5
174
0.69
And after 41:
Shot Blocking
| 3284 | 134 | 4.1 | 396 | 0.34 | |
| 3313 | 236 | 7.1 | 414 | 0.57 |
As you can see, even with Kevin Love back in the lineup the Wolves are a pitiful shot blocking outfit. They have also started to see a decline in their blocks/foul ratio, meaning they are fouling more per shot block. Baring a huge change in personnel, there's really nothing to see here other than yet another affirmation that the Wolves are in desperate need of a very specific type of player in the frontcourt to pair along with Big Al and the Big Piranha....or, they need to pick which player gets to stay and trade the other for a real center or a wing.
Anywho, moving on to turnovers, here's the after 20 numbers:
Turnovers/Fouls
| 38 | 137 | 133 | 5 | 194 | 154 | 29 | 37 | ||
| 36 | 136 | 121 | 15 | 174 | 124 | 18 | 36 | ||
And after 41:
Turnovers/Fouls
|
|
|||||||||
| 77 | 263 | 280 | 17 | 396 | 295 | 60 | 76 | ||
| 72 | 257 | 227 | 23 | 414 | 274 | 43 | 71 | ||
As you can see the Wolves have more than doubled several of these categories while seeing less-than-half drop offs in forcing bad passes and ball handling mistakes. They have started to draw more fouls, which is a very good thing and one of the reasons why their FTAs have really started to climb to what we thought we'd see after the preseason.
OK, let's take a peak at how the Wolves were doing at each position after 20 games:
Team Production by Position
17.5
.473
5.4
31%
5.5
6.6
4.8
0.1
2.7
20.7
14.6
17.4
.411
3.5
30%
6.2
3.5
3.4
0.5
3.4
16.4
9.9
15.3
.433
2.6
27%
8.9
3.2
2.2
0.5
4.4
15.3
11.9
17.3
.485
3.4
30%
10.5
2.8
2.6
1.2
5.1
19.3
15.9
16.6
.484
4.9
39%
10.7
2.3
2.8
1.2
6.3
19.7
14.9
Opponent Production by Position
16.2
.495
4.2
20%
5.1
9.5
4.4
0.5
3.5
19.5
16.7
17.2
.532
4.5
26%
5.4
5.7
3.2
0.3
2.6
21.4
17.4
17.6
.487
4.7
28%
7.0
3.9
2.3
0.6
2.6
21.1
16.4
16.3
.503
5.1
37%
12.3
3.3
2.7
1.6
4.1
20.8
19.2
14.6
.596
5.7
54%
14.8
2.4
2.8
3.3
5.6
21.2
22.3
Net Production by Position
1.4
-.022
1.3
11%
0.4
-2.8
-0.4
-0.4
0.8
1.2
-2.0
0.2
-.122
-1.0
4%
0.8
-2.2
-0.3
0.2
-0.7
-5.0
-7.5
-2.3
-.054
-2.1
-1%
1.9
-0.7
0.1
-0.2
-1.7
-5.8
-4.5
0.9
-.018
-1.7
-7%
-1.7
-0.5
0.1
-0.5
-0.9
-1.5
-3.3
2.1
-.111
-0.8
-15%
-4.1
-0.1
0.0
-2.2
-0.7
-1.5
-7.3
And after 41:
Team Production by Position
17.5
.461
6.2
30%
5.0
6.9
4.4
0.1
3.0
20.7
14.5
17.4
.443
3.6
30%
6.1
3.0
3.2
0.4
3.3
17.9
10.6
14.1
.435
3.2
23%
7.6
3.6
2.5
0.5
4.2
14.7
11.0
17.7
.490
5.4
40%
13.1
3.2
2.6
1.0
5.0
21.6
19.4
18.3
.480
5.2
41%
12.4
2.5
3.0
1.4
5.8
21.2
16.4
Opponent Production by Position
16.8
.477
5.2
18%
4.9
10.6
3.9
0.4
3.4
20.3
17.9
17.5
.551
4.2
28%
5.3
5.1
2.6
0.3
3.1
22.2
17.3
17.6
.485
5.2
28%
7.2
3.7
2.1
0.6
3.1
21.4
16.3
17.0
.514
4.7
36%
12.4
3.0
2.7
1.8
5.1
21.1
18.5
15.3
.562
5.4
50%
13.6
3.0
3.0
2.9
5.9
20.8
19.9
Net Production by Position
0.6
-.016
1.1
12%
0.1
-3.7
-0.4
-0.3
0.4
0.5
-3.4
-0.1
-.107
-0.5
2%
0.8
-2.1
-0.6
0.1
-0.2
-4.3
-6.8
-3.5
-.050
-2.0
-5%
0.4
-0.2
-0.4
-0.1
-1.1
-6.7
-5.3
0.7
-.024
0.7
4%
0.7
0.3
0.1
-0.8
0.2
0.5
+0.9
3.1
-.082
-0.2
-9%
-1.2
-0.5
0.0
-1.5
0.1
0.4
-3.5
This is the part of the post where we start to go ga-ga over Kevin Love. Take a look at what has happened at the 4 since the 20th game of the season (which pretty much lines up with Love's return). Points are up, rebounds are up, eFG is up, assists are up, FTAs are up, turnovers have remained level, and it is now the only position on the floor where the Wolves out perform their opponents pretty much across the board. All of this can essentially be traced back to a single player.
In part ii we'll move on to the players.