NBA Ball Hog Statistical Rankings: Final Standings

 

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.

The rookies were not shy about chucking this season, with Kevin Knox, Marvin Bagley and Collin Sexton leading the way.  At the other end of the spectrum, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Devin Booker 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)

Rank	Last			Ball Hog Score
1	1	Kevin Knox	Big	86.4
2	6	Marvin Bagley	Big	79.3
3	4	Collin Sexton	Point Guard	75.4
4	3	Hassan Whiteside	Big	75.2
5	7	Kelly Oubre	Wing	73.2
6	5	Andre Drummond	Big	66.6
7	10	Jaylen Brown	Wing	64.3
8	8	Andrew Wiggins	Wing	63.7
9	9	Harrison Barnes	Big	62.6
10	12	Jaren Jackson	Big	60.0
11	14	Serge Ibaka	Big	58.4
11	NR	JaVale McGee	Big	58.4
13	15	Dennis Schroder	Point Guard	57.2
14	17	Klay Thompson	Wing	55.7
15	13	Terrence Ross	Wing	55.6
16	NR	Marcus Morris	Big	53.9
17	19	Rondae Hollis-Jefferson	Wing	53.7
18	20	Eric Gordon	Wing	53.5
19	16	Jayson Tatum	Wing	50.7
20	17	Alex Len	Big	50.1

 

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