Comparing and contrasting Kyrie Irving and Mike Conley’s surprisingly similar analytics

Pick And Roll (Ball Handler) 

Player A: 0.86 points per possession, 43.3% frequency, 40.9 eFG%, 9.5 TOV%

Player B: 0.89 points per possession, 43.6% frequency, 49.0 eFG%, 13.5 TOV%

Being able to handle the ball in a pick and roll offense is a crucial skill for every point guard in today’s NBA. Yet again, Irving and Conley shared similar numbers. Of players with at least 200 possessions as the ball handler in a PnR set, Irving and Conley were 13th and 15th in frequency. The shooting stats tip you off that player “B” is yet again Irving, but it shouldn’t have been shocking to find out. Both Conley and Irving have similar production in terms of points per possession, but Irving boasts an effective field goal percentage nearly eight percent higher than Conley’s. This tells you that Conley has to rely on ball security (his turnover rate is four percent lower) and passing to the roll man to get points on the board for the Memphis Grizzlies.

So, while they’re generating close to the same number of points in the same type of play, numbers don’t tell the whole story of how those points are put on the board.

Next: Shot Preferences