We like to use it as part of the formula for ball hogs in the NBA because it showcases a stat that does not get enough respect, wins. In other words, was he on bad teams or good teams? It is not perfect but it does help get an understanding about where a player has been and the team's he has played for.
It basically measures the number of wins a player produces for his team by using various statistics such as 2-point field goals, free throws, team assists, offensive rebounds, and a bunch of other offensive statistics. He rarely passes the ball, choosing to take the open shot just about every single time he touches the ball.īefore we jump right into the numbers, or explain our reasons behind putting Rudy Gay on the list of the NBA's most notorious ball hogs, we wanted to explain what the metric, Win Shares, is all about. The assists per game average has reached 3.5 in one season but that was the highest it ever got. His usage rate is in the above average range, at 26.8%, and he has shot 22,600 field goals, making 47.3% of them, while only averaging 2.5 assists. When we looked at his career numbers, there is no way that a 7'0" power forward with his range could average 21.7 points per game over 1,394 games without hogging it. How do you say that in German? Ball hog? Black Hole." He was kidding and the video was not mean by any standards, but to make the joke and then mention the black hole moniker is just something that the fans probably never even noticed.
After the game, in celebration of his accomplishment, the Mavericks played a bunch of pre-recorded messages from former teammates and Steve Nash said, "Dirky, congratulations man.
Even Steve Nash made a joke about it last month when Dirk Nowitzki reached the 30,000 point milestone for his career. Why is nobody mentioning Dirk Nowitzki's name when asked to rate the NBA's most notorius ball hogs? Is it because he won so many games and brought them a championship? If so, then they are sadly missing all of the alarming numbers that point us in the opposite direction.
Here are the NBA's 15 Biggest and Most Notorious Ball Hogs. We came up with a way of doing it that would be fair and encompass assists, field goals attempted, free throws attempted, shooting percentages, minutes played, usage rate, winning percentage, and a couple of other stats we felt would help us measure what a ball hog is while also differentiating us from all of the other sites that try to do the same thing each year. The biggest issue with that measurement is that it does not factor in each shot's degree of difficulty, how many seconds per game they possess the ball, wins, and the number of passes made. Then how do you measure a ball hog? What advanced statistical numbers should we use to construct a formula that would clearly give us the answer? There are several different methods out there today but one of the most popular ones is usage rate % (This measures several factors including minutes played, field goals attempted, free throws attempted, and turnovers in proportion to their team's numbers). Now, Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, turned into a ball hog later on in his career so his overall numbers do not suggest that he belongs in this list either. Stephon Marbury is another popular name that keeps coming up when it comes to the term ball hog but he averaged 7.65 assists per game over his career, 18th all time. But how can he be considered a ball hog when he averaged 6.2 assists per game throughout his career, as a shooting guard, which ranks second on the all time shooting guard assists per game averages list making him anything but selfish. If you ask anyone to name the biggest ball hogs in NBA history, there is a great chance his name comes up. But it is not very easy to judge what defines a ball hog since the entire concept of a ball hog is subjective.įor example, one of the most infamous NBA ball hogs ever is Allen Iverson. The idea behind a ball hog is a player that would rather take the toughest shots on the court, forcing the ball up many of the times, rather than passing it to a teammate in a better position for a jump shot. That would be easy to gameplan against and 99.9% of the NBA would be able to figure out a way of stopping him, forcing him to make bad decisions and take bad shots.īut over the past 25 years, the term ball hog has become a major debate among NBA fans. In the history of the NBA, there has never been a single team that has been able to win it all with only one superstar who hogs the ball and takes all of the shots. In basketball, if you want to win a championship, you have to be able to pass the ball around.