NBA Ball Hog Statistical Rankings: November Update

My task was simple enough – I wanted to figure out, statistically, who the biggest ball hog/black hole/teammate from hell/etc. was in the NBA.  With the plethora of stats available today, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure that out, I surmised.  While I was researching what stats I should use – Usage %, Assist % – I stumbled across a now defunct site – Basketball-Statistics – that had already done this back in 2009.  Perfect!

After giving their formula some thought and test drives, it seems to pass muster.  You can check out the formula here, but in summary it takes into account how much a player uses up his team’s possessions (Usage %), how well he shoots (True Shooting %) and how often he sets up his teammates (Assist %).  It also takes into account what position on the court the player plays and adjusts the formula based on the average numbers players playing the same position puts on the board.  So, for a true ball hog, we are looking for a guy with an above average Usage Rate (above 20%) who shoots poorly and doesn’t pass.

In the early going, a surprise name shows up on top – Dewayne Dedmon. Having a True Shooting % of 0.472 as a big man will do that to you.  At the other end of the spectrum, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James are as anti-ball hog as you can get.

 

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 NBA Ball Hog Statistical Ranking

(only players with a qualifying amount of minutes played included, stats up to and including Nov 20th)

Rank	Last			Ball Hog Score
1	NR	Dewayne Dedmon	Big	93.9
2	NR	Kyle Kuzma	Big	93.7
3	NR	T.J. Warren	Wing	86.6
4	3	Collin Sexton	Point Guard	86.0
5	15	Terrence Ross	Wing	85.6
6	NR	Dwayne Bacon	Wing	85.0
7	NR	Kristaps Porziņģis	Big	80.6
8	NR	E’Twaun Moore	Point Guard	79.4
9	NR	Coby White	Point Guard	79.3
10	NR	Buddy Hield	Wing	76.6
11	NR	Malik Beasley	Wing	76.4
12	16	Marcus Morris	Wing	74.0
13	NR	Frank Jackson	Point Guard	72.8
14	5	Kelly Oubre	Wing	65.4
15	NR	Darius Garland	Point Guard	61.3
16	10	Jaren Jackson	Big	61.0
17	NR	Bojan Bogdanović	Wing	60.9
18	NR	Lauri Markkanen	Big	60.6
19	NR	Tim Hardaway	Wing	59.4
20	7	Jaylen Brown	Wing	59.2
20	NR	Dillon Brooks	Wing	59.2

 

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