The Bobcats MVP of 2007-08

04/17/2008

When John Hollinger was breaking down the Mike Bibby trade for ESPN a couple of months ago, he made a remark that caught my eye:

A basic rule of thumb is that every additional point of PER is worth one additional win over 2,000 minutes.
While PER is not a perfect measurement, due to its inability to properly guage defensive contributions, it still serves a role in analyzing player performance. So, when I started thinking about how to guage which Bobcat was most valuable this year, an easy way to do so jumped out me: Calculate the wins each player's performance (and mintues) added to the team over the course of the season (relative to an "average" player, which in PER corresponds to a PER of 15). Given that one player led the team in both minutes and PER for the season, it is not hard to tell where this first list is going to lead us. But here it is any.

PlayerMinsPERWins Added
Jason Richardson314918.45.35
Emeka Okafor261817.43.14
Gerald Wallace237617.63.09
Nazr Mohammed142216.20.85
Walter Herrmann17412.1-0.25
Othella Harrington1665.8-0.76
Jermareo Davidson3229.7-0.85
Ryan Hollins53211.4-0.95
Jared Dudley138413.6-0.97
Derek Anderson39610.0-0.99
Earl Boykins57710.0-1.44
Raymond Felton297213.8-1.78
Primoz Brezec2671.5-1.80
Matt Carroll201610.7-4.33
Jeff McInnis14106.5-5.99

You may have noticed that only 4 Bobcats actually contributed "wins" on the season - and certainly not enough to outweight the "contributions" (I would use air-quotes if I were talking to someone face to face) of everyone else. By this measure, Jason Richardson is the clear MVP of the team (and Jeff McInnis...I can not even do it, I have reached a point where I do not even feel like pointing out his negative impact this season). But like I mentioned previously, PER does not measure defense...but if you had the PER put up by the man each Bobcats was guarding? That might be useful...and 82games.com has just that. So, now how about a look at Defensive Wins Created (using the same basic setup as for a player's own PER).

PlayerMinsOpponent
PER
Wins Added
Othella Harrington16613.50.11
Raymond Felton297215.00.04
Earl Boykins57715.3-0.09
Jeff McInnis141015.2-0.13
Walter Herrmann17419.5-0.39
Derek Anderson39618.5-0.69
Matt Carroll201615.7-0.69
Primoz Brezec26721.9-0.92
Jermareo Davidson32221.9-1.10
Ryan Hollins53220.7-1.52
Nazr Mohammed142218.4-2.40
Jared Dudley138418.7-2.55
Jason Richardson314917.5-3.91
Gerald Wallace237620.6-6.70
Emeka Okafor261820.4-7.04

Surprised? I was too - though, part of that was the players who did not get many minutes were spared greater embarassment in both of these tables (do not worry, I will fix that). Another part? Quality of the opponent faced - something tells me Jason, Gerald, and Emeka were getting their minutes against better opposition than say, Ryan Hollins and Othella - so, these results need to be taken with a grain of salt. With that said - I would have to say the clear defensive MVP is...Raymond Felton. After commenting about his defense in the links the other day, I guess I cannot be too shocked, at least not by his performance. But I was stunned by where Gerald and Emeka placed. Two of supposed better defenders...and they are getting pretty well abused by the guys they guard? Not sure I want to think about that more right now.

So, time for one more table. In this one, I look at the difference between a player's PER and the man he was guarding to get the Net Per, and then I used that to calculate out the impact to a full-season's worth of minutes. No more hiding behind only 267 minutes played Primoz - your ineptitude will be demonstrated. And here it is:

PlayerMinsNet PERWins Added
Jason Richardson31490.91.80
Raymond Felton2972-1.2-2.30
Nazr Mohammed1422-2.2-4.29
Emeka Okafor2618-3.0-5.86
Gerald Wallace2376-3.0-5.98
Matt Carroll2016-5.0-9.80
Jared Dudley1384-5.1-10.01
Earl Boykins577-5.3-10.44
Walter Herrmann174-7.4-14.48
Othella Harrington166-7.7-15.41
Derek Anderson396-8.5-16.70
Jeff McInnis1410-8.7-17.08
Ryan Hollins532-9.3-18.27
Jermareo Davidson322-12.2-23.84
Primoz Brezec267-20.4-40.10

What do we have? One Bobcat player who (by the measure of PER) was better than their opposition over the course of the season. I guess that makes Jason Richardson the Bobcats MVP, along with Raymond Felton as the Bobcats Defensive MVP. As for the LVP, I am having a hard time decided between Primoz and Jeff - Primoz was far worse in the time he actually player - but Jeff hurt the team a great deal more due to number of minutes he go (not his fault the coaches continue to see Felton as a SG, who cannot shoot). I think I have to go with Jeff though - basically he was the difference between where the team finished and the playoffs (his -6 wins created on the season, with the Bobcats finishing 5 games back of the 8th spot) - not sure if you can get much less valuable than that. Unless you start talking about the people who signed/played him...
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