Individual Stats Tracker 2025-26 Season

[Q-is-here]

Here is the 33-game update. I was traveling and didn't have time to update after 30 games, as I usually like to do these in 10-game increments.

PER - Very much individual box-score driven and rewards volume more than efficiency. Doesn't really account for defense. This tends to reward higher usage offensive players and guys that get lots of counting stats.
WS/48 - Combines individual box-score stats with team performance; tends to reward efficiency as much as volume; tries to apportion team performance to individual players, so a great team defense for example tends to lift all boats (or weight them down if the defense is poor).
VORP - Value over Replacement Player. This extrapolates from box score stats and takes into account actual minutes played, so it helps recognize that starters have to carry a bigger load.
Net Rating - Team points per 100 possessions minus opponent points per 100 possessions while player is on the floor, per NBA.com.

Player (in order of total minutes played) - PER/WS48/VORP/Net Rating
Randle - 20.5/.176/1.5/+5.8
Rudy - 17.5/.184/.8/+8.2
DDV - 13.9/.129/1.0/+7.8
Jaden - 13.6/.105/.3/+6.6
Ant - 22.6/.162/1.7/+2.8
Naz - 15.9/.117/0.8/+1.7
Conley - 10.4/.114/.2/+1.3
Clark - 10.2/.093/0.0/+5.0
Bones - 15.5/.148/.3/+10.9

[Q-is-here]

- Randle and Jaden have taken a step back since a hot start. Their 3-point shooting especially has cooled off.

- Rudy has taken his game up a notch over the past 10-15 games. He now has the best Net Rating among the starters and continues to be effective on both sides of the court. You could argue that he is once again on track to be the regular season MVP for this team.

- Not much to say about Ant that we don't already discuss ad nauseum. His defense and/or play making need to improve for him to be in the MVP conversation despite marked improvement as a pure scorer.

- Bones! I will continue to apologize to Tim for scoffing at his desire for Bones dating back a couple years now. He really has been a difference maker off the bench. Is he starting PG material? I don't think so, but he's a damn good backup with a clear identity of what his role is.

- Clark continues to be the only "young guy" (he's 24) to distinguish himself. I took Shannon and Dillingham off the tracker because they are no longer in the regular rotation.

[60WinTim]

"Even the sun shines on a dog's ass some days..."

I agree that Bones might struggle in a starting role, but I always thought he had something. His inability to grab a role on other teams was partly due to inexperience, and partly due to the team he was on and their situation. I'm kind of surprised Finch has given him more rope lately, but maybe more rope would not be productive. A team best net rating is pretty dang good!

[Q-is-here]

Here is the latest Estimated Plus/Minus Data in terms of League Percentile. I will also list a couple of players from other teams in a similar tier:

Name - Off %/ Def %/ Overall % - Other Similar Players
Ant - 96th%/41st%/94th% - Anthony Davis, Jalen Brunson
Julius - 94/60/92 - De'Aaron Fox, Norman Powell
Rudy - 57/98/89 - Stephon Castle, Alperen Sengun
DDV - 86/63/86 - Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker
Jaden - 58/94/80 - Moses Moody, Kon Knueppel
Bones - 75/42/65 - Davion Mitchell, Isaiah Joe
Naz - 64/62/65 - Isaiah Stewart, Kelly Olynyk
Clark - 18/85/37 - Jevon Carter, Jaden Hardy
Conley - 41/17/26 - Will Richard, Caleb Love

[AussieWolf3]

Hadn't heard of Net Rating before, but interesting insights
https://espnanalytics.com/nba-net-pts

Here's the players net ratings and overall rank

Ant - 74 - 11th
Julius - 49 - 30th
Rudy - 28 - 52nd
Donte - 27 - 57th
Jaden - 7 - 135th

Here's an explainer:
"Net Points is a single-game performance analysis metric developed by ESPN Analytics Team to evaluate players more deeply and accurately than traditional stats. It uses play-by-play data to assign credit and blame for every play, considering the difficulty and context of each player’s actions. Net Points quantifies individual contributions like shots, assists, rebounds, turnovers, defensive plays, and their direct impact on team success or failure. This allows for a nuanced assessment of player effectiveness in single games, as well as across multiple games or seasons."

https://www.nbastuffer.com/analytics101 ... ints-espn/

Interesting, didn't know ESPN developed a new stat. Ant is top 10 after last night.

I still think it's really hard to isolate the defensive stuff, whether it's D-EPM or Net Points. Shai is a good defender, but he's never assigned to a #1 or #2 scoring option, so I think he gets overrated on that side of the ball because the team as a whole is so damn good defensively.

Yeah I think it's a really cool and useful tool but I'm not sure how well it paints the whole picture, especially over a whole season as I'm guessing it more vulnerable to compiling stats.

There are also no adjustments for quality of opponents, which is true of most basketball metrics, and yeah I also wonder about how well it accounts for defensive assignment. Jaden is the lowest ranking Timberwolf of the top 7- Bones and Naz are both ahead of him. I'll look into it later, but I'm curious how many primary perimeter defenders score highly in net points. Off hand I know that Amen Thompson isn't that highly ranked here.

There is also a discrepancy in net rating and net points. For example Ant is the clear leader in net points but what, 9th on the team in net rating? I'm curious what brings about that discrepancy and what it tells about the team and player.

Either way, it's a really cool tool that ESPN has put together