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.
New #1! Pelicans point guard Frank Jackson takes over the dubious honor as the league’s biggest black hole. At the other end of the spectrum, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo are as anti-ball hog as you can get.
NBA Ball Hog Statistical Ranking
(only players with a qualifying amount of minutes played included)
| Rank | Last | Ball Hog Score | ||
| 1 | 2 | Frank Jackson | Point Guard | 84.3 |
| 2 | 1 | Terrence Ross | Wing | 77.7 |
| 3 | 7 | Dillon Brooks | Wing | 75.4 |
| 4 | 4 | Kelly Oubre | Wing | 74.5 |
| 5 | 6 | T.J. Warren | Wing | 68.6 |
| 6 | 9 | Kyle Kuzma | Big | 68.5 |
| 7 | 3 | Kristaps Porziņģis | Big | 67.6 |
| 8 | 5 | Carmelo Anthony | Big | 65.9 |
| 9 | 8 | Marcus Morris | Big | 62.8 |
| 10 | 10 | RJ Barrett | Wing | 62.2 |
| 11 | 14 | Bojan Bogdanović | Wing | 60.8 |
| 12 | 13 | Malik Beasley | Wing | 60.0 |
| 13 | 15 | Patty Mills | Point Guard | 59.9 |
| 14 | 17 | Jaylen Brown | Wing | 58.8 |
| 15 | 11 | Jaren Jackson | Big | 58.4 |
| 16 | 12 | Kendrick Nunn | Point Guard | 56.3 |
| 17 | NR | Tyler Herro | Wing | 53.9 |
| 18 | 16 | Darius Garland | Point Guard | 53.1 |
| 19 | 19 | Dennis Schröder | Point Guard | 52.6 |
| 20 | 20 | Lauri Markkanen | Big | 51.8 |
(The Hoops Manifesto is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
