Drives for Spurs Players Through 14 Games

Analyzing drives from Keldon Johnson, Stephon Castle, Chris Paul, Blake Wesley, Wemby, Harrison Barnes, Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham, and Julian Champagnie this season.

Photo credit: Spurs.com

What are Spurs players doing when they put the ball on the floor and drive through 14 games?

With data from Second Spectrum via NBA.com/stats, we can get a better understanding of this question.

Let’s first begin by looking at the rates for the players on their drives. For this analysis, I focused on players who have totaled at minimum 20 drives this season. I also didn’t include Devin Vassell and Tre Jones in the review, because they’ve played in just a handful of games since returning from injury.

Data from Second Spectrum via NBA.com. I calculated the rates using the data.

Here are the total drives and field goal percentages for each player on their drives.

Data from Second Spectrum via NBA.com. I calculated the points per shot (PPS).

• Keldon Johnson - Johnson’s drives match the eye test. When driving inside, he’s mainly going in to try to score first, then pass second. Johnson’s free throw rate is down a bit compared to last season, when he led the team in free throw attempt rate on drives (10.1%). While being the leader in most drives on the team, Johnson has kept his turnover percentage low, at just 2.1%.

• Stephon Castle - Castle is second on the Spurs in total drives. With Castle having point guard skills, he’s able to pass and find teammates first, but he also uses his physicality to attack the defense near the rim. The rookie is also showing how he can get to the foul line, with a free throw rate of 8% on his drives. Since he is just a rookie, Castle is learning along the way. He’s turning the ball over on 9.1% of his drives and when he does take a shot on a drive attempt, he’s making just 36.7% of those shots.

• Chris Paul - No surprise that on his drives Paul is passing to teammates over 55% of the time, while keeping his turnover percentage relatively low at 6.3%. At 39, he’s not looking to score on his drives unless he absolutely has to, and that’s also reflected in his low free throw rate.