Editor’s Note: The following is from Ian Levy (of Hickory High), who has created the NBA Anti-Awards. These are awards for actions that people tend not to focus upon (because often these are actions that don’t earn players much praise and don’t really help teams win games). What follows is his latest update of the front-runners for these awards this season.
Ian Levy is a Third-Grade teacher by day and amateur basketball analyst by afternoon (he usually sleeps at night). Ian suffers from a rare psychological condition known as Anti-Homeritis which renders him incapable of rooting for hometown teams. He grew up in Upstate New York and has therefore been a lifelong Indiana Pacers fan. He writes his own basketball blog, Hickory High, and is a contributor at IndyCornrows and The Two Man Game. Ian currently lives in Boise, Idaho, where he roots against the Boise State Broncos.
The Anti-Awards have been a running feature at Hickory High. These awards recognize some of the most discouraging and disgraceful statistical achievements this season. And with the All-Star Break upon us it’s time for another update.
The Shawn Bradley Award – This award goes to the player 6’10″ or taller who has had the highest percentage of his shot attempts blocked.
Bulls’ rookie, Omer Asik, has led this category almost the entire season. Playing against Asik can make Zaza Pachulia look like Bill Russell. He’s had 22 of shots blocked this season. This works out to 24.2% of his total attempts.
The Shawn Kemp Award – This award goes to the player who has fouled out of the most games. From 1986 up through the present, Shawn Kemp is the NBA’s leader in foul outs with 115, 35 more than his next closest competitor.
Andris Biedrins, DeMarcus Cousins and Serge Ibaka all have fouled out of 6 games this season. Biedrins has come on strong of late but Cousins would seem to have the inside track. He has the highest foul rate (5.3 per 36 minutes) and plays more minutes than any of his competition.
The Jahidi White Award – This award goes to the player with the lowest ratio of Ast/FGA (minimum 300 minutes). The award is named for White who assisted on just 1.7% of his teammates’ baskets over a 334 game career.
Ike Diogu has made a big push and passed Robin Lopez for this award. In 410 minutes Diogu has posted an Ast/FGA ratio of 0.008. If you’re keeping track at home that’s one assist to 129 field goal attempts. With a stunning lack of passing acumen and a single-minded offensive focus Diogu seems like a lock to take this award home.
The Darrick Martin Award – This award goes to the player with the lowest FG% and a minimum of 200 attempts. The award is named for Darrick Martin, a career 38.2% shooter who played 514 games over 13 NBA seasons.
There have been a lot of changes on the leaderboard for this award throughout the season. Players who shot under 40% tend to find themselves outside the playing rotation. Rasual Butler is currently out front, shooting just 32.1% on 215 attempts. His teammate with the Clippers, Randy Foye, is currently 5th, shooting 36.3%.
The Jason Kidd Award – This award goes to the player with the most turnovers in a single game. Jason Kidd has had a Hall of Fame career with many terrific positive statistical contributions. He’s also had 3 career games with more than 12 turnovers.
Amare Stoudemire is out in front and looks like a lock to take this award home. His 11 turnover game against Washington on December 10th is currently the highest in the league. But with Stoudemire contributing 3 of the top 10 turnover games this season don’t discount the possibility of him topping his personal “best.”
The Matt Bullard Award – This award goes to the player 6’10″ or taller with the lowest Total Rebound Percentage. (Minimum 300 minutes)
There are several strong candidates for this award and the list reads like a who’s who of soft, fluffy, squishy, finesse players. Danilo Gallinari, Donte Greene, Hedo Turkoglu, Matt Bonner, Rashard Lewis, Andrea Bargnani, Brook Lopez and Vlad Radmanovic are all in the running. Gallinari currently has the lead grabbing just 7.7% of the available rebounds while he’s on the floor. However, this race just has too many big names to project a winner at this point.
The Kobe Bryant Award – This award goes to the player who has missed the most shot attempts in a single game. The award is inspired by Kobe’s performance in Game 7 of the Finals last season.
Kobe’s 21 missed field goals on November 11th against Denver are still in the lead. In a Herculean effort to lock up the award, Kobe also missed 19 shots on November 28th against Indiana, December 28th against San Antonio and November 19th against Minnesota. Derrick Rose appears willing to fight Kobe tooth and nail for this award. Rose has also missed 19 field goals on three separate occasions. Nick Young would have to be considered a dark horse candidate. He demonstrated he was for real, missing 20 shots January 28th against the Thunder.
The Nick Anderson Award – This award goes to the player who missed the most free throws in a single game. Anderson was actually a decent free throw shooter. But his four missed free throw attempts in the 1995 Finals against Houston kind of stand out in my memory.
Dwight Howard is really just competing with himself in this category. This season he has missed 12 free throws in a game once, 11 free throws once, 10 free throws twice and 8 free throws twice. There are other candidates out there, but this is really Howard’s award to lose.
The Chris Childs Award – This award goes to the player who has posted the highest Turnover Percentage so far this season. It’s named after former New York Knick Chris Childs, who retired with a career Turnover Percentage of 22.8%. (Minimum 300 minutes)
Chris Duhon continues to lead the league, with a Turnover Percentage of 32.9%. Joel Pryzbilla has returned from injury and is sneaking up on Duhon. He now trails by just .2 percentage points. A few months ago this seemed like a foregone conclusion but now it seems like it will be sloppy, cringe-inducing race to the finish.
The Darius Songaila Award – This award goes to the player who has provided his team with the least overall production. I use Wins Produced to determine the winner here. (Minimum 300 minutes)
Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani has this award all but locked up. With a WP48 of -0.106 he’s “contributed” -4.0 wins in 1795 minutes. The next closest competitor is Aaron Brooks with -2.0 wins. Barring a significant injury, Bargnani will finish the season as the least productive player in the league. One more season like this and we’ll be renaming this award after him.
Wages of Wins Journal 
marparker
February 20, 2011
Loved this post.
However, for once can we stop talking about negative wins. It is impossible for an nba team to have a negative number in the win column.
arturogalletti
February 20, 2011
Loved it as well.
I do think Bargnani deserves to have the last award named for him.
Blake
February 20, 2011
If a player is unproductive enough, he is costing his team wins. That’s why negative wins occur.
Italian Stallion
February 20, 2011
“However, for once can we stop talking about negative wins. It is impossible for an nba team to have a negative number in the win column.”
It’s tricky because a player can have a negative impact on a team, but only to the point where the net for the team is zero wins.
If I played PG for 48 minutes on the 90s Bulls, I might be worth -60 wins, but on the current Timberwolves I’d be much more valuable (only -15 or -20 wins) :-)
ian
February 20, 2011
I still love it. Kobe produces a shooting performance like Jordan in 1996 but Kobe grabbed 15 rebounds that night. I love stat analysts that preach about the importance of other stats besides scoring and shooting and then forget about everything else the moment Kobe’s name comes up…there’s lies, there’s damned lies and then there’s statistics.
Nick
February 20, 2011
@marparker:
Think of it this way, let’s use Italian Stallion’s concept.
So let’s make a couple of assumptions, let’s say I am a -20 Win Produced player, over 3,000 mins.
And let’s say for some reason they took the minutes from Dennis Rodamn. Who was accountable for about 18 wins.
And I’m assuming the Bulls were somewhere in the ballpark of 72 wins produced as a team. So 72 – 18 = 56 wins + (-20 Wins) = 36 wins.
So putting me on the 95-96 Bulls, would mean the team would be estimated to win about 36 games.
However, if you put Bargnani on the Bulls, he’s going to get something like -8 wins over the course of the season. Meaning that him taking Rodman’s minutes, would result in 72 – 18 = 56 wins + (-8 Wins) = 48 wins. Meaning that with Bargnani instead of me, the Bulls are still a playoff team.
On the extreme, a team cannot win less than 0 games, but a team, can be less mathematically possible to win even 1 game, than another. A team with an estimated -50 wins, would be less likely to win even 1 game, than a team with an estimated 0 wins.
Italian Stallion
February 20, 2011
Nick
“A team with an estimated -50 wins, would be less likely to win even 1 game, than a team with an estimated 0 wins.”
Excellent.
I (many people?) never think in terms of less than zero wins because it can’t literally happen, but in terms of the probability of a team getting a single win negative wins can exist.
My example was not really correct. I’d be worth worth -60 wins in either case, but in the case of the Timberwolves the actual impact would be less than 60 because we can’t literally go below zero wins.
stephanieg
February 20, 2011
Love this post. Basketbawful will like it too I bet.
1. The Bulls are 5 pts/100 poss. better on defense than last year. What’s coach Thibodeau’s wins produced? Or maybe a hot dog vendor or new cheerleader caused it.
2. People look at specific individual cases to bust Berri’s chops (I’ve done it too, it’s fun). So here’s a specific case that does the opposite: WP says the Mavs missing Caron Butler wouldn’t mean much, mainstream analysts thought they might miss his scoring. So far WP is right.
Jason
February 20, 2011
He’s not at the bottom of the list of pathetic rebounders, but if Vlad Radmanovic can get his dishonorable mention among the tall and inept, teammate Ekpe Udoh’s incompetence on the glass should not go unrecognized. With enough minutes to qualify (422) he’s been less effective on the glass than Radman.
Westy
February 21, 2011
Hey, that’s a little tough on Nick Anderson. As you note, he was a good FT shooter. Four inopportune misses should not taint his career.
Maybe name it for Shaq or Biedrins (or whoever’s the worst FT shooter past a minimum of attempts). Great stuff, though.
Italian Stallion
February 21, 2011
>>WP says the Mavs missing Caron Butler wouldn’t mean much, mainstream analysts thought they might miss his scoring. So far WP is right.<<
IMO mainstream analysis clearly overrates scoring (especially high usage low efficiency scoring). There are probably cases where a team that already struggles offensively would be hurt by the loss of a player like Butler, but Dallas in not one of them.
IMO, (and I suspect many here do not agree), even though players tend to be consistent from team to team, that is partly because teams are mostly managed by people that acquire players to fill specific needs and then they keep them in similar roles.
However, the values can change a lot when a player goes to a new team or is lost depending on the makeup of the rest of the team .
kevin
February 23, 2011
I think you should give the Bullard award to Lopez. He’s a center, while the other guys are power forwards or very tall small forwards.
Is there any player out there, ever, who qualified for more than one of these awards? Like a tall guy who couldn’t rebound AND got his shot blocked a lot? Or a guard who jacked up a ton of misses AND turned the ball over a lot? I can’t imagine too many because guys who combine these “skills” probably aren’t good enough even to make a roster. But I bet Pearl Washington qualified for a latter. And he got his shot blocked a ton too, though unfortunately he doesn’t qualify because he isn’t 6:10.
P4p3rDr4g0n
March 11, 2011
Not be able to recommend someone with a good book on the basketball connection? Preferably, so should you have been issued in the Hungarian language. I looked at some bookstore (www.konyv-konyvek.hu), but I found none. Everywhere only in soccer and Formula-1 are in books.