SILVERBIRD'S STAT CORNER
New work by FreeDarko's resident statistician, Silverbird5000, coming soon.
In the meantime, here's how some players have reacted to Silverbird5000's groundbreaking work in the The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac.
Rasheed Wallace's Reaction to Graph on Technical Fouls:
(Eternal thanks to Alana G. for providing the interview and video)
Gilbert Arenas's Reaction to Graph on Long Distance Threes:
Arenas takes issue with Silverbird's sample size on this nba.com blog post:
"There's a stat in [The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac] that the further I get from the basket, the higher my shooting precentage goes up. It's true, but it's one of those states where I don't take a lot of shots from that far (I think they say I'm 20-for-46 from wayyyy downtown for my career or something) so it's not like I've taken 100 shots from there."
Silverbird's Rebuttal:
The data in question is actually from the 2006-2007 season - the last before Arenas's injury - but the point about the small sample size (just 46 shot attempts) is well taken. HOWEVER, when we expand our sample to include all four seasons before his injury (2003-2007), it remains the case that Arenas shoots a ridiculously high percentage from Way Down Town. In those four seasons, Arenas took 116 shot attempts from the 28ft-40 foot range and shot 35.34%. That's basically equal to his normal-distance 3pt%, and far more accurate than the other two players who took 100+ shots from that range - Kobe and T-Mac - who clocked in at just 30% and 25%, respectively. Indeed, among players with at least 40 shot attempts, Arenas ranked a impressive 3rd in FG% from 28ft+, with only Mike Miller and Baron Davis ahead of him.
The fact that Arenas has never even cracked the top 50 in overall 3pt% makes his performance from the outer galaxies all the more compelling. 2006-2007 may have been his long-ball high point, but Gil's swag has always been phenomenal.