(The original article was published on January 28, the author is The Ringer's special writer Zach Kram, the data in the article as of January 26, US time, the content of the article does not represent the views of the translator.) ）
Introduction: In the past five seasons, the players who have done their best on our "create scoring points" indicator have won MVP a total of four times. Let's find out who has come out on top of this statistic so far this season.
Every year, voters have many factors to consider when choosing an MVP. They can look at a player's stats for each game and the number of games he's played. They can analyze high-order data, presence/absence class data, and defensive impact. They can also focus on the team's record and award the award to any candidate from the East and West.
But voters seem to be most concerned about which player has created the most goals in the sport, preferably both for themselves and teammates. Last season, Jokic averaged 59.6 points per 36 minutes, ranking first in the NBA. (As we outlined two years ago, our "create scores" metric includes a player's score, his assists create, and his "screen assists" create points.) And he ended up justifiably getting the MVP. (See below for the definition of "cover assist.") ）
In the 2019-20 season, Alphabet Brother was proud in creating scoring points; he won the MVP. In the 2018-19 season, Alphabet Brother ranked second in this statistic, averaging only 1.5 points less than Harden in every 36 minutes and earning the MVP. In the 2017-18 season, Harden led the charge and won the MVP. In the 2016-17 season, Westbrook was the king of that stats — and, guess what, he also got the MVP.
That's the earliest time this metric can be calculated, because the 2016-17 season was the first season for the NBA to publish statistics on cover assists. But it was also at a time when it coincided with today's big-core offensive system with the ball, when four of the five MVPs were the most point-generating players of the season, and the remaining one was also in second place.
So as we cross the midpoint of the 2021-22 season,—— get better, Durant! And you, Curry's jumper! What will the data list that creates the score look like? Which players are at the top, and which players are catching up in the back in a way that surprises us?
The statistic of creating scores consists of three parts. The first part is the simplest: a player's own score. The second part is the points he creates with assists, which are more telling than traditional assist stats, because assists on three-pointers are more valuable than assists on two-pointers. The third part is the score he created through "cover assists" — "cover assists" defined by the NBA's official high-level statistics as "an offensive player or a team directly causing the latter to hit a shot by covering for a teammate" — based on the same logic.
(For those who don't like "cover assists," they just need to understand that every argument critical of the statistic — it has to do with a player's team role; it can be counted to anyone; its definition implies what a teammate must shoot — and it applies to ordinary assist data.) They are all data that, despite their flaws, reveal useful information. ）
Add these three parts together, and then do a proportional conversion according to the corresponding value of every 36 minutes, and you get a creation score value. Here's a list of the top ten for this statistic this season (only for players who played at least 500 minutes), and there are a number of names that we're familiar with:
Given that we already know the correlation between the top score-generating players and MVP winners in recent years, it's not surprising to see Jokic and Giannis separately rank first and second on the current betball-reference network's MVP real-time tracking list – and that Jokic has a considerable lead in both the creation of scores and MVP odds.
The previous MVP winner Jokic has also dominated the offensive end this season, essentially single-handedly propping up the injured Nuggets. Jokic is not only one of the league's top scorers. When it comes to creating points for his teammates, considering assists and cover assists together, he can also be in second place. Only the Warriors' Green can create more points for his teammates, but unlike Jokic, Green only averaged 9.5 points per 36 minutes, one of the lowest of all players.
Creating scoring points also helps us track how players change in their roles and influences. When Harden was still at Houston and his singles ability was still at its peak for three years, his creative scoring ranked second, first and first in the league. In his two seasons in Brooklyn, his statistic slipped to seventh and eighth. For comparison, Embiid finished fourth in creative scoring this season, the first time in his career to break into the top five. He's always been a tough defender and unstoppable under-the-basket attacker, but now he's creating more points for his teammates than ever before – and as a result, he's approaching MVP.
Most of the people in the top ten are mainstays of the league; Harden has firmly held one of them despite his slump in form, as have Jokic and Giannis in the past season or two. It's too hard for up-and-coming score creators to squeeze into first gear: Last season, the top ten score creators were all players who had been selected in the top ten at least once in the past; this season, there was only one new face in the top ten. That exception was Morant. He was still at number 30 last season, but his path to super growth has become one of the main highlights of the first half of the season.
The data tells us other stories as well. The list below lists the players who have not made the top 10 overall charts this season but have created the most points on their respective teams:
Suns: Paul (League 11th, averaging 45.2 points per 36 minutes)
Spurs: Desontes Murray (League 12th, 44.3)
Trail Blazers: Yusuf Nurkic (13th in the league, 43.9 points)
Timberwolves: Towns (14th in the league, 43.8 points)
Hornets: Lamelo Ball (16th in the league, 43.6 points)
Cavaliers: Darius Garland (18th in the league, 42.9 points)
Heat: Butler (league 19th, 42.8 points)
Jazz: Mitchell (League 20th, 42.5 points)
Wizards: Beal (league 22nd, 41.1 points)
Bulls: DeRozan (23rd in the league, 41.0 points)
Clippers: George (League 25th, 40.6th)
Rockets: Alpiran Sague (League 27th, 40.3 points)
Knicks: Randle (30th in the league, 40.1 points)
Thunder: Shay Kyrgyz Alexander (League 32nd, 39.6 points)
Pelicans: Ingram (42nd in the league, 38.6 points)
Kings: Alex Lane (League 44th, 38.1th)
Raptors: Fred VanVleet (league 45th, 37.9 points)
Celtic: Tatum (52nd in the league, 36.7 points)
Magic: Cole Anthony (League 53rd, 36.6 points)
Pistons: Cade Cunningham (League 66, 34.4 points)
Be amazed at how far back the Celtics are in the first row of the team; Tatum's ranking is a direct reflection of the challenges the Boston star faces in creating opportunities for his teammates. Or, look adoringly at rookie Alpine Sagu, who can contribute to the team's attack in a variety of ways.
The next table shows the five players who have improved the most and regressed the most from last season in terms of creating points (only those who are eligible to participate in the competition, i.e. who have played at least 500 minutes):
Hey, look at the Grizzlies! Not only did Morant soar to the top ten, Brandon Clark and Desmond Bain also showed a lot of improvement this season. And all three are not yet 25 years old. They gave Memphis a great young core lineup now and for years to come.
Anfinni Simmons has also seen a huge improvement in scoring and assist output, which may make one of Portland's past starting guards no longer for sale before the trade deadline. And PJ Tucker, who played only a pure defender for most of last season , has topped the league with 47% three-point shooting this season! - Also regained a new life on the offensive end. On top of that, Murray made an outbreak in San Antonio, taking on more of the offensive responsibility and taking advantage of it: He's one of only seven in the league this season — along with four of the top ten in the score-setting list, Ball and Garland — to average more than 20 points per game and create more than 20 for his teammates.
In the bottom half of the table, two prominent examples are a pair of players who joined a new team in the offseason but fell far short of expectations. Evan Fournier scored less efficiently and created points for his teammates by half compared to last season — his first year on a three-year contract with the Knicks (the fourth year was the team option) was disappointing. Westbrook is at the bottom of the table, struggling to adapt to life alongside LeBron in an offensive system not specifically designed for the way he dominates the ball.
For the past five seasons, Westbrook has ranked in the top 10 of the creation score list each year. Among them, he ranked first in the league in the 2016-17 season, and continued to have a good momentum in the following year. Now he's slipped to twenty-ninth, largely against rising star Morant.
(Asteroid Fall)