John Wall and "passer rating"

[WallToWall]

Came across this article and found it interesting: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2179 ... ng-maestro

The "passer rating" uses this formula to compute a value: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1qcL ... 0THvE/edit

The end result shows John Wall in the top 3 passers: https://infogr.am/apg-vs-passer-rating?src=web

[stevemcqueen1]

In the Tony Parker section, the article points out but doesn't really explore the problem of scheme diversity for the metric. Some of these players are playing in very different offensive systems, and this metric can't account for that.

And as an extension of that, the metric doesn't really account for the player's role. To me there is something very different about a high minute, high usage point guard that's the primary playmaker and also the primary scorer for a team like Steph Curry, Ty Lawson, and John Wall, and what Rondo/Paul/Lowry are.

We're still not getting at the types of passes the players are making (and their degree of difficulty) in this metric. I'm not really sure how you could though.

But that was a good article though, and definitely worth a read. I like what they're trying to do and I'm going to have to look out for that author's articles in the future.

[Higga]

I don't need a bunch of fancy stats to tell me John Wall is one of the best passers in the league.

[stevemcqueen1]

John's usage rating and minutes were sky high compared to other point guards last season. He was the lead ball handler on more possessions than any other player in the NBA.

I think that John is something different from the other PGs in the league, except maybe Curry. He fares well in this passer rating metric, which is an attempt to rank the performances in a very traditional PG job--passing to set up teammates to score. This is a very important part of John's game no doubt.

But he does a lot of other non-traditional PG stuff that separates him. Being the go-to scorer and go-to playmaker like Curry (and doing both at a top level) puts them in a tier of their own. But John's defensive role is also a lot bigger and more impactful than Curry's. Curry is just a guy on D, and against a lot of match ups, you have to hide him. John has a pretty big role where he's this sort of roaming disruptor and key transition defender, much like LeBron was.

His overall role this year was enormous: primary playmaker & scorer on offense, primary ball handler on almost all plays, key defender, big minutes. The other players with that kind of role were LeBron, Durant (before Westbrook's return), and Paul George and not really other PGs.