AK at power forward 03/04 stats

[jozef]

I picked 2003/04 season games after Matt Harpring's injury and looked into boxscores to find how many minutes AK got at PF position. I choosed Ostertag, Collins, Ruffin, Gugliotta, Moore and Grant as primary PF/C players and I found 19 games when AK played 15+ minutes at PF.

Comparing those games with the rest of 27 games there is an improvement in FT Attempts and Rebounds.

In recent seasons the opponents learned how to neutralize AK by sending his man into corner. Starting AK at PF and Boozer at C (with an exception of Shaq and Yao mismatch) would keep shotblocking presence near around the paint. Generally there are not many PF's who could bully AK without losing track of team concept. AK at PF would be an around-the-rim (which is great for his teammates' vision) finisher anytime his man would leave him for help defense. He also can knock down standstill jumpers to stretch the defense. He would be a beast in transition game.

[kerplunk]

Nice stat. But I'm not particularly impressed with AK's FG percentage.

[Jefff]

AK playing the 4 wll be also a good B-plan for 2009-2010 season (if there isn't enough cap pace to re-sign Booz and Memo).

[erudite23]

Nice.

Interesting to think about.

[ColdBlue]

42% FG wont cut it at the 4.

[schneiderjazz]

42% FG wont cut it at the 4.

That's what I was thinking, but there's no way AK would be taking that many shots with guys like Okur, Boozer and Deron on the team. He'd probably score less, but with more efficiency. Although only shooting 42%, AK still averaged 1.41 points per shot. Boozer, in comparison, averaged 1.31 pps last season.
What I find interesting about those stats is that we forget how good AK is at drawing fouls. 8.4 FTs per game would be top 10 in the league today. Boozer, who's considered a force in the paint, goes to the line only 5 times per game.

[nghedman]

interesting, I like it.

I've gone in circles many times about a three way rotation at PF/C; and sixth man etc. I'm sure Sloan has considered the idea, but he doesn't think it's worth it. We need to push harder

Hey Jozef will you do another analyzis on Boozer now and see how much of a difference Boozer brings at the PF above AK?

Look at those blocks!! And those steals are a great too.

[ColdBlue]

42% FG wont cut it at the 4.

That's what I was thinking, but there's no way AK would be taking that many shots with guys like Okur, Boozer and Deron on the team. He'd probably score less, but with more efficiency. Although only shooting 42%, AK still averaged 1.41 points per shot. Boozer, in comparison, averaged 1.31 pps last season.
What I find interesting about those stats is that we forget how good AK is at drawing fouls. 8.4 FTs per game would be top 10 in the league today. Boozer, who's considered a force in the paint, goes to the line only 5 times per game.

Interesting stats, but something is missing. I'm not sure what it is. With rebounding being even, a missed shot is equal to a turnover.

[fivas14]

IMO a missed rebound = more a turnover then missing a shot

[jozef]

His FG% is not important cause 2003/04 team played 2-3 offense with different roles for wings.
Now he would play complementary center role and the offense would still rotate around Carlos.
So if on his way to the basket Deron, Carlos or any other player meets a big help defender then they do not need to make a 180-mid-air turn to find Memo on perimeter - they just drop the ball to AK on baseline who lays it in or throws it down or draws the foul.

[ColdBlue]

^ But that is what Brew does now.

[bsutefan]

Just to compare those numbers you provided to Boozer, Memo and Millsap last year, I have some more stats for you (impressive work btw, but the conclusion needs work).

*All stats were taken from http://thesaltpalace.blogspot.com/, there are more interesting stats there, but I won't share them here.

Mins:
AK = 39.9
Boozer = 34.9
Okur = 33.2
Millsap = 20.8
*So right away, you've got to take the stats down to per minute to have equality in comparison.

Points per Minute:
AK = .478
Boozer = .600
Okur = .444 (down from .500+ the last two season)
Millsap = .390
*Boozer is FAR AND AWAY the most productive offensive player, while AK in 03/04 comes in second...unless you give Okur one of his previous two seasons, then AK comes in third behind Okur.

FG%:
AK = 42%
Boozer = 55%
Okur = 50%
Millsap = 45%
*AK comes in a DISTANT 4th place. In fact, NONE of the other players have ever had a FG% below 43% in their careers...that should raise some question marks.

Free Throws Attempted per Minute:
AK = .210
Boozer = .600
Okur = .444
Millsap = .390
*Again, AK comes in a DISTANT 4th place, with none of the other mentioned players EVER having a season with a FTA/min average below .360.

One could argue that the real truth to the "AK is a PF" rumor, is that AK is very inefficient at PF. The one improvement I'll give in any argument, is that AK is a better shot blocker/defender than Boozer, although if you look at who really hurt the Jazz in the paint, you'll find guys that AK can't guard. (Tim Duncan in '07, Pau Gasol in '08, Yao Ming in '07). If all you are looking for is a defensive upgrade, you can find that for much cheaper elsewhere.

I'd keep going, but you can just go to the website and check out the rest of the stats on your own. It's actually pretty interesting.

[schneiderjazz]

I have no idea where you got your FT attempted per minute stats, but they're just wrong.
Boozer averaging 0.6 FTs per minute, playing 34.9 minutes per game? He would be shooting 21 FTs per game! How about 4.9 FT/34.9 minutes = 0.14 FTs per minute? I haven't calculated the others, but my guess is AK is a far better at drawing fouls than either Boozer or Memo.

[bsutefan]

You're right, my FT stats were wrong...the others look right though.

Boozer in '07 averaged .11 FT/Min
AK averaged .17 FT/Min in the stats provided
Memo averaged .05 FT/Min in '07
Millsap averaged .09 FT/Min in '07

So AK did get to the line more frequently than the other players. I'll give credit there where it is due.

[schneiderjazz]

You're right, my FT stats were wrong...the others look right though.

Boozer in '07 averaged .11 FT/Min
AK averaged .17 FT/Min in the stats provided
Memo averaged .05 FT/Min in '07
Millsap averaged .09 FT/Min in '07

So AK did get to the line more frequently than the other players. I'll give credit there where it is due.

I actually believe AK is better at getting to the line than Booz, Memo and Sap (judging by watching them play, not only based on the stats) but I have to say that although those stats from the 03/04 season are nice, they're too smalll of a sample to tell us exactly how AK would do at the PF spot. For example, Boozer shot a terrible FG% in the playoffs, but we all know he's a much better scorer than the stats show. I don't believe AK would shoot 43% for a whole season playing PF.
I believe his defense would be better than Boozer's as would be his passing, and his ability to get to the line. But there's no way we can deny Boozer is a much better scorer, rebounder and offensive threat. Which one would be better overall? Tough to say, but probably Boozer.

[hoops4life]

You would expect Boozer to go to the line more than Milsap and Okur per minute because he also gets more touches per minute. It would be nice but nearly impossible to know how many times a player goes to the line per touch.

When Booz touches the ball 50 times a game and Milsap only touches it 25, what do you expect? (the numbers are only examples thrown out there)

[schneiderjazz]

FTs attempted per minute:


Millsap 2007-2008 = 0.135
Memo 2007-2008 = 0.096
Booz 2007-2008 = 0.139
AK 2007-2008= 0.116

AK from the stats shown in this thread = 0.21
Memo 2005-2006 = 0.154

Funny thing is Memo and AK are considered soft and Boozer is considered a banger. Yet when they have more touches (still not as many as Boozer normally has), they get to the line more than him.
If we did what you suggested, hoops, we probably would see that Boozer is nowhere near as aggresive as some people make him out to be. Although we can't deny he's one of the most efficient scorers in the league.

[Soul Patch]

Aggressive isn't a word that comes to my mind when I think of Boozer. I like his game a lot more when he takes it inside instead of relying on his jumper but it seems like he's taking it strong less and less.