Legend tells us that the morning after the pilgrims and Native Americans finished their bountiful Thanksgiving meal, they awoke, bellies still swollen with food, fetched their laptops, and perused HoopData.com for fun, interesting Knicks statistics. Then everybody yelled a lot about those statistics. In the spirit of tradition, we shall do the same.
- Let me show you how this works with an easy one. First of all, after 16 games, the Knicks rank 9th in offensive efficiency and 21st in defensive efficiency. Top third offensively, bottom third defensively. That sounds about right. Now we yell. Everybody. Top of your lungs. Like this:
Out of breath? Good. That means you're doing it right. Take the jump for more stats and yelling.
- Ronny Turiaf ranks 5th in the NBA in assist rate with an AR of 39.38. If you don't already know what it is, this means that 40% of Ronny's possessions end in assists. The only other big men even remotely close to that output are Earl Barron (who's only played in two games) at 29.59 and Ben Wallace all the way down at 27.01. If you prefer raw numbers, note that Turiaf is tied with Al Horford for most assists per game by a center at 3.2. Now we yell.
- Catch your breath, then look at this: Of individuals playing at least 20 minutes per game, Landry Fields is 17th in field goal percentage and 16th in true shooting percentage. His TS% of 63.3 places him sixth among guards playing more than 20 minutes per. That's worth yelling about!
- After a summer of wondering how much he might improve and whether the previous year's hot shooting (52.5 TS%) was a statistical anomaly, Raymond Felton has posted a TS% of 59.5 so far this season. That's obviously subject to change, but so far, so good. Yell.
- Thus far, Amar'e Stoudemire has his highest usage rate (29.22) in five years. Meanwhile, he's taking fewer attempts at the rim (4.6 per game compared to around 6 or 7 in previous years) and posting his worst TS% in five seasons (56.7). He's also shooting unusually poorly at the free throw line (71.7%), but blocking shots (1.8 BPG) and assisting (8.88 AR) at relatively high rates for him. Overall, Stoudemire's PER of 20.86 isn't that much lower than last year's 22.72. Yell for the good and for the bad. Yell for a new role on a new team.
- After posting a godlike TS% of 65.1 last season, Bill Walker is at 52.6 TS% so far this year, and at a lower usage rate (12.92).
- The Knicks rank third in the NBA in three-point attempts per game. They rank sixth in the NBA in three-point makes per game. They're 19th in three-point field goal percentage. Yell thrice.
- The Knicks are third in the NBA in field goal percentage at the rim. They're 22nd in attempts at the rim. Yell.
- Finally, your New York Knicks are first in the entire NBA in blocks at 7.6 per game, led by Wilson Chandler's 2.21 blocks per contest. New York is third overall in HD's "Defensive Play Rate", which lumps blocks, steals, and charges drawn into one statistic. Yell until you can yell no more.
Take everything presented above as you please, and feel free to snoop around for some other numbers worthy of our attention. Just remember to yell.