"Taking the Charge" in NBA Basketball
There are some obvious individual measures that should without doubt be part of the official NBA statistics -- with some form of plus/minus data topping the list for us. However an even easier number to introduce would be foul drawing, and fans would relish and indeed have been clamoring to see data on which NBA players draw the most offensive fouls from their opponents.
Now last year we did post an article looking at '05-06 Offensive Fouls Drawn, and to recap, here were the leaders:
2005-06 Regular Season
| Rank |
Team |
Player |
Off.Fouls
Drawn |
| 1 |
PHO |
Bell |
76 |
| 2 |
CHI |
Nocioni |
67 |
| 3 |
MIL |
Bogut |
65 |
| 4 |
UTA |
Collins |
63 |
| 5 |
GSW |
Dunleavy |
63 |
| 6 |
DET |
B.Wallace |
50 |
| 7 |
NJN |
Krstic |
50 |
| 8 |
GSW |
Fisher |
49 |
| 9 |
NOK |
Mason |
49 |
| 10* |
MEM |
Battier |
48 |
| 10* |
SAS |
Ginobili |
48 |
| 10* |
TOR |
Peterson |
48 |
|
Offensive Fouls Drawn per Minute
| Rank |
Team |
Player |
Off.Fouls
Drawn |
Minutes/
Off.Foul |
| 1 |
CLE |
Varejao |
32 |
23.7 |
| 2 |
DAL |
Armstrong |
25 |
24.9 |
| 3 |
UTA |
Collins |
63 |
27.4 |
| 4 |
SEA |
Fortson |
10 |
27.6 |
| 5 |
MIL |
Smith |
29 |
30.5 |
| 6 |
PHI |
Randolph |
15 |
32.5 |
| 7 |
CHI |
Nocioni |
67 |
33.4 |
| 8 |
MIN |
Madsen |
20 |
33.7 |
| 9 |
MIN |
Reed |
20 |
35.2 |
| 10 |
CHI |
Harrington |
23 |
35.8 |
|
So last year's champ was Raja Bell (who certainly garnered a lot of attention for his defense during the Lakers-Suns playoff series). It was Andres Nocioni though who was closing fast in the second half of the season, potentially setting up an exciting '06-07 battle? In addition we did note that Anderson Varejao was the leader in "offensive fouls drawn per minute" and could also enter the fray on the "total for the season" stage.
So who are the leaders this season? The envelope please...
Leading 2006-07 NBA Players in drawing Offensive Fouls
|
Through Feb. 4th
| Rank |
Team |
Player |
Off.Fouls
Drawn |
| 1 |
CLE |
Varejao |
58 |
| 2 |
MIL |
Bogut |
55 |
| 3 |
CHI |
Nocioni |
46 |
| 4 |
DAL |
Harris |
41 |
| 5 |
PHO |
Bell |
41 |
| 6 |
PHO |
Nash |
37 |
| 7 |
IND |
O'Neal |
36 |
| 8 |
HOU |
Battier |
32 |
| 9 |
NJN |
Collins |
28 |
| 10 |
NOK |
Mason |
28 |
| 11 |
GSW |
Ellis |
27 |
| 12 |
GSW |
Dunleavy |
25 |
| 13 |
LAL |
Parker |
25 |
| 14 |
SAC |
Bibby |
25 |
| 15 |
SAC |
Martin |
24 |
| 16 |
CHI |
Wallace |
23 |
| 17 |
MIA |
Posey |
23 |
| 18 |
NJN |
Moore |
23 |
| 19 |
SAS |
Bowen |
23 |
| 20 |
TOR |
Garbajosa |
23 |
| 21 |
CHA |
Wallace |
23 |
| 22 |
CHI |
Hinrich |
22 |
| 23 |
TOR |
Parker |
22 |
| 24 |
UTA |
Fisher |
22 |
| 25 |
NJN |
Nachbar |
21 |
| 26 |
SAS |
Ginobili |
21 |
| 27 |
MIA |
Haslem |
20 |
| 28 |
PHI |
Iverson |
20 |
| 29 |
PHO |
Barbosa |
20 |
| 30 |
ATL |
Claxton |
19 |
|
So it's Varejao the "per minute" champ of 05-06 who is currently sitting on top, and while we won't count out Bell and Nocioni just yet, it's actually last year's number three charge taker Andrew Bogut who looks to be offering the strongest competition.
It's interesting to see how consistent many of the players are, and indeed five of the current top ten were in the top ten last year (actually six if we count Dunleavy who with four fouls drawn already for the Pacers is #9 all told).
Likewise Iverson has 31 total offensive fouls drawn between his two teams this season, good for 9th (and he missed a bunch of games!)
The leaders are fairly evenly distributed across the five positions, although there are more of those speedy point guard types who get in front of a driving player than any other 'type' in this pack.
Now we often get requests for "flop" stats and we're working on something to that end. Certainly some of the players represented here are, ahem, guilty of a little acting now and then, and do sometimes choose the "fall to the ground" defense over trying to actually contest a shot. Still, let's not fault the masters of the trade for being successful.
|
Team by Team Leaders in drawing Offensive Fouls
|
All right, the league leaders are fun, but you want to know who's been getting knocked to the floor most often on a team by team basis, and also whether offensive fouls have any correlation with team success.
Last year the top teams in drawing offensive fouls were:
1. Chicago
2. Utah
3. Phoenix
| Team |
Off.Fouls
Drawn |
Off.Fouls
Committed |
Net
Off.Foul |
Top Three in drawing the Offensive Foul |
| Phoenix |
166 |
102 |
+64 |
Bell 41 - Nash 37 - Barbosa 20 |
| Chicago |
154 |
115 |
+39 |
Nocioni 46 - Wallace 23 - Hinrich 22 |
| New Jersey |
139 |
96 |
+43 |
Collins 28 - Moore 23 - Nachbar 21 |
| Indiana |
135 |
109 |
+26 |
O'Neal 36 - Daniels 17 - Armstrong 16 |
| Utah |
130 |
110 |
+20 |
Fisher 22 - Williams 19 - Collins 18 |
| Toronto |
129 |
93 |
+36 |
Garbajosa 23 - Parker 22 - Bargnani 17 |
| Milwaukee |
126 |
100 |
+26 |
Bogut 55 - Ilyasova 16 - Williams 15 |
| Miami |
125 |
110 |
+15 |
Posey 23 - Haslem 20 - Walker 17 |
| Golden State |
122 |
79 |
+43 |
Ellis 27 - Dunleavy 25 - Davis 16 |
| Philadelphia |
118 |
93 |
+25 |
Iverson 20 - Korver 15 - Joe.Smith 14 |
| Cleveland |
117 |
97 |
+20 |
Varejao 58 - James 14 - Snow 13 |
| Memphis |
116 |
114 |
+2 |
D.Jones 17 - Warrick 14 - Atkins 13 |
| Denver |
115 |
110 |
+5 |
Evans 19 - Najera 17 - Camby 16 |
| Dallas |
113 |
94 |
+19 |
Harris 41 - Howard 17 - Terry 14 |
| San Antonio |
111 |
92 |
+19 |
Bowen 23 - Ginobili 21 - Oberto 19 |
| Sacramento |
102 |
101 |
+1 |
Bibby 25 - Martin 24 - Williamson 13 |
| Atlanta |
100 |
119 |
-19 |
Claxton 19 - Lue 12 - Smith 12 |
| Washington |
100 |
107 |
-7 |
Daniels 19 - Haywood 17 - Arenas 14 |
| L.A. Lakers |
98 |
113 |
-15 |
Parker 25 - Evans 10 - Bryant 10 |
| Charlotte |
97 |
105 |
-8 |
Wallace 23 - Okafor 15 - Felton 12 |
| Orlando |
96 |
105 |
-9 |
Arroyo 15 - Hill 13 - Dooling 10 |
| New Orleans |
92 |
107 |
-15 |
Mason 28 - Pargo 11 - Chandler 11 |
| Houston |
90 |
82 |
+8 |
Battier 32 - Howard 13 - Hayes 12 |
| New York |
88 |
170 |
-82 |
Lee 15 - Frye 12 - Rose 11 |
| Minnesota |
85 |
115 |
-30 |
Davis 15 - Smith 14 - Garnett 8 |
| Boston |
75 |
116 |
-41 |
Pierce 11 - Jefferson 10 - Telfair 7 |
| Seattle |
72 |
112 |
-40 |
Collison 16 - Ridnour 10 - Watson 10 |
| Detroit |
70 |
85 |
-15 |
Prince 12 - Delfino 11 - Maxiell 11 |
| L.A. Clippers |
65 |
120 |
-55 |
Cassell 18 - Maggette 9 - Ross 7 |
| Portland |
65 |
150 |
-85 |
Roy 10 - Jack 9 - Udoka 8 |
So two of last year's top three are right back in the high life, while Utah has dropped only slightly to fifth. Hmmm, seems like there's a pretty strong year to year pattern here!
Now last year there wasn't a huge correlation between charges drawn and wins, but this season it is up some:
.39 Net offensive fouls (drawn minus committed)
.33 Offensive Fouls Drawn
-.31 Offensive Fouls Committed
We'll have more to say about fouls in future articles, but to summarize it looks like this:
- players who are among the leaders in offensive fouls drawn are likely to have positive on court/off court influence
- the correlation between team totals for drawing offensive fouls and net offensive fouls to wins is more significant so far this season than last season
- it takes one bad ass/crazy dude to stand in the way of an NBA superstar driving full speed to the basket!
