 Iguoadala As Playmaker We've spent so much time talking about the things Andre Iguodala cannot do this season, we've overlooked exactly what he brings to this team. The argument has played out in the comments time and time again, so in this post we'll take a look at Iguodala's play-making statistics, and hold them up to his peers. I looked through the league leaders and found the top 10 shooting guards/small forwards based on assists per game. First, we'll take a look at the assist breakdown for each, thoughts below the chart:  All stats were grabbed from 82games.com. High % Assists is close assists plus dunk assists. (Close means any shot in the lane, besides a dunk). For me, the key stat here is the pass rating. Here's a brief description of the stat from 82games (the best I could find). ...the gist is to reward passes leading to successful shots from close range at a higher rate than assisted outside shots, while including the rate of passing turnovers. There's quite a bit of logic to this simple formula. Generally speaking, assists on jumpers and threes are high-percentage passes. Usually the risk of a turnover is dramatically lower than a pass into the lane for a layup or a dunk. The difficulty of a pass would go from 3s, to jumpers, to close to dunks, for the most part. Now, with that in mind, take a look at the chart above. Over half of Iguodala's assists have come on what I've dubbed "High % Assists." Only Stephen Jackson has a higher percentage. This explains why Iguodala has the third-highest passer rating, and only the 7th-highest assist/turnover ratio. Now, this has quite a bit to do with the type of team Iguodala has around him. If the Sixers had legitimate three-point threats, I'm sure his assists on 3's would go up accordingly, but what this also shows us is that calling Iguodala "turnover prone," may not be a fair assessment, when he's judged against his peers. By the raw numbers, he has the 6th most turnovers on bad passes out of the 10 players listed, but he attempts the tough interior passes at a much higher rate than just about everyone on the list. There's a risk/reward aspect that's often overlooked when you look only at pure assists/turnover numbers. Iguodala makes more risky passes than his peers, and the reward is a much higher rate of "easy" shots for his teammates. Not to mention the Dalembert factor. How many of Iguodala's "bad passes" were actually good passes that Sam coughed up? No way to tell, but I guess you could penalize Iggy for having the bad judgment to throw a pass to Sam in the first place. The second part of the equation is ballhandling. Same group of players, new stats to look at in this chart:  From an Iguodala fan's perspective, this one is disappointing, but not terribly so. As compared to these 10 players, Iguodala's hands rating ranks 9th (I can't find the methodology for Hands Rating, so I'm assuming it's some derivative of possessions/turnover). Only Paul Pierce has a worse rating. The bulk of iguodala's turnovers come on ball handling errors and offensive fouls.The offensive fouls you can live with. We all know Iggy loves to go to the hoop. The line between aggression and out-of-control can blur easily. The two players on the list with more offensive fouls are LeBron James and Paul Pierce, so that's good company. The ball handling turnovers are problematic. Only Dwyane Wade has more and he dominates the ball for the Heat. If you want to criticize Iguodala, criticize the ball handling turnovers. He commits too many, and that's on him. Too many, though, may be a relative term. We're talking about the 10 best shooting guards and small forwards in the game in these samples, by assists or just about any other metric as well. The fact that his numbers hold up with these guys should tell us all we need to know. As a playmaker, Iguodala is a special player. 
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"Special player" is a stretch for me, but I do think he is a good play maker. I'd love to see what these numbers are in the 4th quarter and the last say 5 minutes of games and if they are different.
My thought: yes the passes are higher risk and therefore have a higher payoff since the shot would be easier if the pass is completed (in theory) and do reflect on his turnovers. But I think judgment plays a bigger role than discussed in this in post. Not only that I think precision, ability to actually make the risky passes he attempts plays a bigger role as well. All subject to interpretation of course.
Also, I haven't really looked into the parameters for passing turnovers and who gets them, the passer or the receiver. For example, if the pass is made to Sammy and its in his hands, he fumbles it and someone steals it, I would assume that is a Sam turnover. Where it gets cloudy for me is when a pass is made that should be caught as you say but isn't, is that without question a passer turnover?
Passer always gets the turnover if the pass isn't caught. Doesn't matter if it hits him in the hands, hits off his chest or he never touches, turnover goes to the passer.
Which is one of the problems with the standard TO stat - especially when you pass to guys like Sam Dalembert or Reggie Evans who have problems with catching.
Yup. I don't think there's a stat out there that measures bad catches/bad passes.
Bet you harvey has one :)
I've never really faulted his passing, I'm just saying, the guy's turnover-prone. Not bad-pass-prone, turnover-prone. And that he has a so-so handle, which this bears out. He has more handling turnovers than all of those guys but Wade, and most of them have the ball in their hands more than he does.
The only stat I can think of that would measure how much a player dominates the ball is Usage %, but it's flawed for these purposes. Basically, it takes FGA and turnovers into account, only. Doesn't take assists into account. Here are the numbers anyway.
Iggy - 21.4%
Joe Johnson - 27.4%
Wade - 36.9%
LeBron - 32.8%
Kobe - 32.2%
Stephen Jackson - 24.4%
Pierce - 24.2%
Roy - 28.1%
McGrady - 23.5%
Carter - 27.5%
Usage doesn't take assists into account, so I thought I'd make up my own usage stat for the purpose of this argument. We're going to use (Turnovers/Minute + Assists/Minute + FGA/Minute + (0.44*FTA/Minute)) * 36. This number will be the average number of offensive sets that were ended by the player, via field goals attempted, free throws shot, turnovers per 36 minutes.
Iggy - 22.08
Johnson - 26.39
Wade - 35.31
Lebron - 31.86
Kobe - 30.75
Jackson - 26.18
Pierce - 22.55
Roy - 26.48
McGrady - 23.57
Carter - 25.87
As you can see, he's dead last in both categories. If you break it down further, he's the best in assists per possessions ended (0.22). Conversely, he's third-worst in turnovers per possessions ended (0.12), Pierce is worst, followed by Jackson.
This was way too much math to pretty much wind up agreeing with you, but I do. His ball handling is at or near the bottom of this group of 10, his passing puts him at the top.
Just from watching it seems to me that he too often tries to make the 'spectacular' pass when the simple pass would be more advisable (or keeping the ball and finishing on his own - which just doesn't seem to be his mentality) - again - this could be corrected with coaching and work - don't try the behind the back if you have the shot - or if the simple pass will do - things like that - the sixers coaches, for a while now, seem unable to correct a players flaws even a little.
The stupid behind the back passes on the break piss me off, but his interior passing really is good. It goes unnoticed because so many of the passes get coughed up, and a lot of the times guys don't finish, but he gets the ball into some tight spaces.
I really hope we still see this Iguodala when Brand comes back, because they should be able to play off each other very well.
Brian,
Thank you for an excellent, balanced approach at the playing of a sixer. I am so tired of people complaining w/out honest facts. Great blog!
Iguodala is grossly underrated because his style is just plain ugly. Many fans won't ever get over this.
An unrelated comment: The nonguaranteed contracts are about to be fully guaranteed pretty soon. Not sure of the exact date.
One casualty? Fred Jones. I can't say I am the biggest fan, but given a choice between him, Willie, and Rush I am going with Fred. Personally, I doubt the Sixers bite on anyone in free agency. Mostly just a thought.
When we played the Clips the other night and they were talking about Fred Jones was just signed by them, I thought why wouldn't we sign him and get rid of Rush since they obviously aren't going to give him any time. He seems to be more athletic than Kareem which would be a plus on the defensive end and he can knock down the 3 from time to time. Good thought, Joe.
You could be right, maybe I hate him just because his style is ugly. Watching him dribble the ball always bothers the hell out of me.
They do have a roster spot, and he shot 38.5% from three last year. Worth a shot, I suppose.
1. Iggy
2. Lou
3. Thad
4. Sam
5. Miller
6. Willie
7. Sp8s
8. Ivey
9. Marshall
10. Brand
11. Rush
12. Theo
13. Reggie
14. Jason Smith (does IR count as one of the 15?)
15. open
i just did trade machine on espn.com.i entered dali and lou william to bucks for michael redd.our starting lineup is miller,redd,iggy brand a ratliff.what do you think brian and others
I'm not crazy about Redd (one dimensional, and not really a great shooter (36% last season, 34% this season). That being said, he's better than any shooter we have on the team, and while his contract is ridiculously expensive, it's the same length as Sam's.
I don't really see why the Bucks would do it, though. They have Bogut, don't really need a center. I could see them being interested in Lou, though.
what about sam and lou for kenyon martin and luis klais from denver
Why would Denver or Milwaukee make either of those trades?
Iguodalas style is dfferent, never thought of it as ugly (except finishing at the basket - he can dunk but lay ups not his strong suit)
Here's why I think Iguodala's style is ugly/unattractive:
He just seems too stiff most of the time.
Look at his jump shot--he's holding the ball almost directly above his head, as opposed to
slightly to the front. When he's dribbling, he seems to be using only his wrist. Even when he gets up and dunks--possibly his most attractive game--his arms just look as though they are made of iron. I think a good comparison would be VC. Iggy's about as explosive as VC in terms of hops, but VC finishes so much better.
p.s. Hey Brian. Good to see your good work being kept up. I asked your permission to translate one of your posts last season into Chinese for a Taiwanese forum. Not sure if you still remember. It's certainly a tough time to be a Sixers fan, and I'm sure more are joining the ranks of the Depressed.
Iggy's obviously a hard guy to figure out.
Good passer, but bad ball handler.
Good dunker, but bad at lay ups.
Streaky shooter (frankly, I'd call it poor), but apparently shooting a fairly high percentage (44.9%???).
What the hell!?!?