NBA Ball Hog Statistical Ranking: March 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.

So far this season, the rookies have not been shy about chucking, with New York’s Kevin Knox and the Bulls’ Antonio Blakeney leading the way.  At the other end of the spectrum, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James & Giannis Antetokounmpo are as anti-ball hog as you can get.

 

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Here’s our top 20 at this point.

 NBA Ball Hog Statistical Ranking

(updated after Mar 16th games, only players with a qualifying amount of minutes played included)

Rank	Last			Ball Hog Score
1	2	Kevin Knox	Big	89.9
2	1	Antonio Blakeney	Wing	89.5
3	5	Hassan Whiteside	Big	77.6
4	3	Collin Sexton	Point Guard	75.9
5	4	Andre Drummond	Big	75.7
6	8	Marvin Bagley	Big	73.6
7	6	Kelly Oubre	Wing	73.0
8	9	Andrew Wiggins	Wing	70.8
9	7	Harrison Barnes	Wing	68.1
10	10	Jaylen Brown	Wing	67.2
11	11	Mario Hezonja	Wing	66.1
12	16	Jaren Jackson	Big	60.6
13	14	Terrence Ross	Wing	60.2
14	20	Serge Ibaka	Big	56.1
15	NR	Dennis Schroder	Point Guard	55.9
16	15	Jayson Tatum	Wing	55.4
17	19	Alex Len	Big	55.1
17	12	Klay Thompson	Wing	55.1
19	17	Rondae Hollis-Jefferson	Wing	53.3
20	13	Eric Gordon	Wing	52.3

 

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