Study: Draymond, Russ among league's worst at getting back in transition
In an era of NBA basketball in which small lineups are on the rise and speed is a priority, the transition game has become as important as ever.
That applies to both ends of the court, and it's particularly glaring when players don't hustle back. FiveThirtyEight's Chris Herring dug into the data to find out who the most egregious offenders have been this season.
Herring's formula calculates "Lag Rate," based on the number of times a player trailed the ball on defense as it crossed half court, and comparatively, how many of those instances saw the player take three or more seconds to reach half court themselves (traditional big men were excluded, because of their natural speed disadvantage and the longer distance they typically have to cover thanks to their frequent positioning in the post).
The worst offenders, perhaps unsurprisingly, tend to be star players. Draymond Green led the league in Lag Rate, while Russell Westbrook was tops by far in number of transition plays trailed to mid court.
Rounding out the top 10 laggers: LeBron James, John Wall, James Harden, Trevor Ariza, DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, Kyrie Irving, and Bradley Beal.
As Herring notes, there are a number of reasons that a player might trail a play. In the case of guys like Westbrook, Wall, DeRozan, Harden, and Lowry - all of whom ranked in the top 10 in drives per game this season - finishing under the basket, or taking contact and hitting the floor make it tough to catch up to a play going the other way. Ditto for guys like Ariza and Beal, who spent a lot of possessions spotting up in the corners. James has a tendency to cherry-pick for long outlet passes rather than bother trying to disrupt a fast break. And almost all of them are high-usage players, so conserving energy in these situations makes sense.
Another reason so many stars are on this list? They expect to get star calls, and when they don't, they tend to complain - often at the expense of transition defense. To that end, four of these players - Green, Westbrook, Wall, and DeRozan - ranked in the top seven in technical fouls this season, with a fifth (Lowry) ranking top 20. And had big men been included, you can be sure DeMarcus Cousins' name would be all over these leaderboards.