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The NBA is unveiling a new statistical tool. Deron Williams might wish they had kept it on the shelf. No matter how badly you think he's been playing at the point, STATS LLC's SportVU makes it look worse. On the other hand, Brook Lopez might want it to be spotlighted.
SportVU tracking cameras record every on-court movement in three dimensions in a sample of games. From those views emerge the numbers. As AP writes of the results, "Brook Lopez has made the leap from serviceable big man to All-Star. And teammate Deron Williams is playing nothing like a two-time Olympian."
Here's the worst of it...
Williams has averaged 0.39 points per drive in 12 SportVU games, which puts him 150th in the league - ahead of only John Lucas III and Mario Chalmers among point guards. As a team, the Nets average 1.04 points when Williams heads to the hole, a quarter-point less than the Spurs get on Tony Parker's drives and nearly a half-point less than the Lakers get from Steve Nash's. Williams' drives aren't just leading to missed shots. He's also turned it over an eye-popping 17 percent of the time - worse than any floor general but Chalmers.
And here's the best...
Oddly enough, Lopez hasn't suffered from Williams' season to forget. He's the fourth-most efficient player in the league (PER) behind James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul, and he's actually ahead of James and Paul - and sixth in the NBA - in points per touch (0.434).