Harden averages nine drives per game, which is fifth among players whose teams have the cameras...
...Houston is scoring 1.51 points per possession on trips in which he drives at any time in the shot clock. That is easily the highest mark among all players in the 15-team database with more than a token number of drives. It is a mammoth number; keep in mind, teams average just about one point per possession overall. Harden has drawn a foul on one-third of his drives, which is among the highest numbers in the data set, and sort of amazing when you think about it....
...He has turned over the ball on just 4 percent of his drives, one of the lowest numbers in the data set. The dude is scary. These numbers paint him as even more valuable than we might think.
1.51 is beyond ridiculous. And when you couple that with a much lower turnover number than I was expecting (I'm used to thinking of his drives as somewhat risky because he occasionally gets the ball slapped out of his hands when he extends them out in front of him), it's just deadly.
Lin's numbers were also pretty good, by the way - 1.32 ppp when he drives to the basket. That's apparently about the same as Tony Parker, which is pleasing company to be in. Highly recommend the article, by the way, as there's lots of good insight about quite a few different players around the league. One can only imagine how much interesting information teams with full access to the database must have.
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