NotW #2: 1 (of a kind)

In what was a week unlike most others the Pacers franchise has ever played–just six players were active in the first game of the week and the final game of the week played at over 7000’ elevation in Mexico City–the only player who started every game was, incredibly, the Pacers only rookie.

Braden Smith not only started every game in the Pacers second full week of the season; he also began to assemble a profile of an NBA player as unique to the league as his 5 foot 11 inch stature. The statistical profile of his play in his early NBA career is one-of-a-kind. 

More than 300 NBA players have appeared in at least five games and played at least ten minutes per game in those appearances. Only 1 player out of more than 300 ranks in the top 10 in the league in both speed on court and passing efficiency per minute: Braden Smith. 

No other player in the league combines such extreme speed of play with such a high degree of ball movement. 

Potential assists capture every instance where a player passes to someone who takes zero to one dribbles and shoots, regardless of whether the ball goes in the basket. Regrettably for Smith and the Pacers, the ball has rarely gone in the basket. Smith has amassed just 17 “real” assists to his 38 potential assists, a conversion rate (45%) that ranks in the bottom 15 of all players who pass as often as he does. 

Still, for a sub-six-foot player drafted in the second round, “potential” anything is about the best the Pacers could be asking for at this point in the season.

-#31-