Slang Editorial :: Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holla'

Sunday, February 01, 2009
Oden Who? Joel What.

Greg Oden has played ok this season, but the Trailblazers don't care because Joel Przybilla continues to play like a madman. Last night's line against Utah:

MIN FG FT O-D-REB PTS
33 4-5 6-9 6-11-17 14

Przybilla is only averaging PPG, but at in making 94 of 131 baskets, is now shooting an astonishing .718 percent. Only four times in NBA history has a player even shot above 65% for a season--twice by Artis Gilmore, who shot .652 in '81-'82 and .670 in '80-'81, and twice by Wilt Chamblerlain, with .683 in '66-'67 and then the alltime record of .727 in his last season of '72-'73**.

Like Przybilla, obviously these two were both centers--you'd pretty much have be a big man shooting next to the basket to be that successful--but additionally, they each led their league in FG% six and seven times each, making them top-class company for comparison. However... as Przybilla seems to have miraculously learned how to make free throws and is now making them at a rate of 63% (and 68% last year, after never previously cracking 53%), he is currently on pace to have the greatest "true shooting percentage"*** of all time at 72.4.

It's true that both Gilmore and Chamberlain shot as significantly higher volumes than Przybilla, so I am not suggesting that his achievement "bests" theirs; however, he has played all 46 games this year and he is averaging a solid 5.5 ppg, so it's not like this is a tiny blip of activity. Therefore, Przybilla's TS% this year is astonishing, both in how statistically anomalous it is, and also in the fact that Przybilla has been a bench player his entire life who suddenly started shooting better at the age of 28 last year and now at age 29 seems to have learned how to shoot without missing. And all of this, coupled with his fantastic defense and a 7.9 reb/gm average (which in his mere 22 mpg works out to 14.6 per 40 min), means that Przybilla has turned into a player who is currently as valuable as Greg Oden, and among the better centers in the league.

Weird, for a dude who just two years ago out up one of the worst seasons of his life and was deemed to be on his way out of the NBA. He's still got a half season to come back down to earth, but for 46 games he's been flying high among the giants.

** While Wilt Chamberlain's career accomplishments in general are statistically significant from pretty much anyone else's, the fact that he set a far and away record in FG% at age 36, during the last year of his career, is stunning. He also lead the league in rebounding, as well as playing all 82 games and finishing second in total minutes played. A true and crazy monster--basically non-human.
*** TS% True Shooting Percentage calculates what a player's shooting percentage would be if also accounting for free throws and 3-pointers. True Shooting Percentage = (Total points x 50) divided by [(FGA + (FTA x 0.44)]

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/01/2009 01:20:00 PM 0 comments

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