Dwight Howard and Marc Gasol, a young teenager, a late bloomer, were the league’s top insiders at their peak, entered the All-Star, won the best defensive player, and was selected for the best team . However, the back waves of the Yangtze River pushed the front waves. Born in 1985, they have now entered the final stage of their careers and have withdrawn from the ranks of first-line stars.
Old Ji Fufu, aspirational. This season, Gasol continued to play his heat in the Raptors, while Howard entered the Lakers to pursue his championship dream. Both of them have helped the team to achieve an outstanding record, so which one of them performed better this season? This article will explore this issue in conjunction with their performance on both offense and defense.
Howard
Offensive performance
Although both Howard and Gasol have good offensive abilities, they are not the kind of players with super scoring ability. Looking at his entire career, Howard has averaged 20 points per game in only four seasons. Gasol is even more shabby, with the highest scoring season only 19.5 points. So how are the two offensive performances this season?
-offensive efficiency. Howard's offensive efficiency value this season is 129, which means he can score 129 points per 100 offensive possessions. This is a very high offensive efficiency. Not only does rank second in the Lakers (ranking first among players with more than 100 minutes of playing time), it can also be ranked tenth among all centers in the league. Gasol’s offensive efficiency is 96, scores 33 points less than Howard per 100 offensive rounds. ranks third from the bottom in the Raptors and is the offensive efficiency of all players in the team who have played more than 100 minutes. The lowest one. If the comparison sample is expanded to all the fifth players in the league, Gasol's offensive efficiency can only be ranked 66th.
Therefore, in terms of offensive efficiency for , Howard is far ahead of Gasol. There is a huge difference between the two.
-offensive method. Gasol’s main offensive methods this season include pick-and-rolls (26.5%), fixed-point shooting (19.1%), conversion offenses (14%), back-up singles (13.2%) and air cuts (8.1%), while Howard The main offensive methods are air cuts (33%) and tippings (31.1%). Obviously, in the choice of offensive methods, Gasol is far more diverse than Howard. Gasol has eighteen martial arts, so you can show everything, and Howard is "two tricks, eat it all." day".
Mark Gasol
But in terms of scoring efficiency, Gasol is far from Howard. Gasol scored 0.69 points, 1 point, 1.42 points, 0.44 points and 0.91 points per round using pick-and-rolls, fixed-point shots, conversion offenses, his own singles, and air cuts, respectively. In addition to the conversion offense, the scoring efficiency is relatively high and fixed-point. Shooting can be surprising, and the low scoring efficiency of other offensive methods is unbearable. In contrast, Howard's data is much better. He can get 1.59 points per round using air cuts, which is better than 89.1% of the league's players, and using tippings can get 1.38 points per round, which is better than 87.3% of the league's players.
From the above data, it can be seen that Huo Ward's offensive options are not as diverse as Gasol, but his scoring efficiency far exceeds Gasol. So, in this one, Howard's performance is better than Gasol.
adds a few more words. In fact, Howard is not good at other offensive methods. He just doesn’t use it. The offensive methods such as back-up singles and pick-and-rolls that he often used last season have been rarely seen this season because the team has James and In the case of Brother Nongmei, he does not need to do this. Howard really set his position this season and completed the transition.
-shooting distance and hit rate. The following table is the shooting distance and shooting rate of the two people I have compiled:
Note: "-" means no.
can be seen from the table, Gasol's shooting distance is much longer than Howard. Howard's shots are mainly concentrated around the rim, especially under the basket, while Gasol is shooting inside and outside, and more emphasis on outside shots, especially three-pointers. but in terms of hit rate,Gasol is far inferior to Howard. As an inside player, Gasol’s shooting percentage from the basket is not even as good as many outside players, with a total shooting percentage of 31.7% that is really not available. Howard's rim field goal percentage is very high, reaching a terrifying 80.0%, and his 75.0% total field goal percentage ranks second among all five players in the league, which is amazing. Therefore, in this one, Howard still performed better.
-assists . We all know that Gasol is a big man with a very good passing ability, and Howard is not good at passing. This season, Gasol averaged 3.5 assists per game, ranking third among all centers in the league, second only to Jokic and Vucevic, and comparable to Towns. in. Howard averaged only 0.9 assists per game, ranking 45th among all centers in the league, a far cry from Gasol.
Some people may say that Howard played less time than Gasol, so he lowered his assists per game. Then we look at another data- assist ratio . This is a data used to describe how many assists a player can send per hundred rounds. The higher the value, the more likely the player is to pass and the stronger the assist ability. Obviously, this data is related to the player's playing time. Irrelevant. This season, Howard's assist rate is 12.7, ranking 194th in the league, while Gasol's assist rate is 30.4, ranking 17th in the league. Every 100 rounds, Gasol sent 17.7 more assists than Howard, more than double the number. is obvious that Gasol is much better than Howard in assists.
-the impact of going on and off on the team's overall offense . First look at a table:
. It can be seen that when Howard is on the court, the Lakers get 6.6 points more per 100 offensive possessions than when he is off the court; when Gasol is on the court, the Raptors only score per 100 offensive possessions. He scored 2.3 points more in the end. Therefore, we can draw the conclusion that Howard's on-court and off-court influence on the Lakers' overall offense is greater than the influence of Gasol on the Raptors' overall offensive. In this data, Howard once again dominates.
Based on the above offensive data, I think Howard performs better than Gasol on the offensive end.
defensive performance
Howard and Gasol are both defensive players. Howard has won the best defensive player award three times and was selected to the season's best defensive team five times; Gasol also won the best defensive player award in the 2012-13 season and was selected as the second best defensive player of the season Array. Who is better on the defensive end of the two heroes now? Let's look at data analysis.
-Defensive efficiency. Howard's defensive efficiency this season is 99, that is, under his defense, the opponent can only score 99 points per 100 possessions. Such excellent defensive efficiency can be ranked third in the Lakers, second only to Big Eyebrows and McGee, can be ranked fourteenth among all five players in the league. ; Gasol this season The defensive efficiency is 103, that is, 103 points per 100 are scored by opponents, 4 points more than Howard, sixth in the Raptors, and 23rd among all five players in the league. Therefore, in terms of defensive efficiency, Howard is better than Gasol.
-single defense capability. Please see the picture below:
The picture reflects the influence of Howard or Gasol's defense on the opponent's shooting percentage. This data can reflect the single-defense ability of Howard and Gasol to a certain extent. The change in defensive margin in the figure refers to the difference between the opponent's shooting percentage when facing Howard or Gasol defense and its usual shooting percentage. For example, under Howard's defense, the opponent's overall shooting percentage is 44.2%, and his usual shooting percentage is 46.0%, so the difference is -1.8%. In general, the smaller the difference, the better the defense of the defensive player.
We can see from the picture that, except for defensive two-pointers, Howard's defense is better than Gasol. On the overall defense, Howard can reduce the opponent's shooting percentage by 1.8 percentage points, while Gasol can only reduce the opponent by 1.2 percentage points . ThisIn other words, Howard's single defense performance is slightly better than Gasol, but the gap between the two is not big.
-the impact of going on and off on the team's overall defense. first look at the following table:
As can be seen from the table, Howard's impact on the team's overall defense is less than Gasol, but the gap is not big. When Howard was on the court, the Lakers' overall defensive efficiency was 103. When he was off the court, the Lakers' overall defensive efficiency was 102.5. That is to say, Howard was on the court. The Lakers had to score 0.5 more points per 100 possessions. The overall defensive level of the team has dropped. Gasol is on the contrary. When he is on the court, the Raptors' overall defensive level has improved to a certain extent, conceding 1.7 points less per 100 possessions.
Synthesizing these three defensive data, we can draw the conclusion that Howard's single defense ability is slightly better than Gasol this season, but he is not as good as Gasol on the defensive end. Z11z players come on the court to make a contribution to the team. If they can't help the team, no matter how good the single defense ability is, it doesn't make much sense. Therefore, in terms of defensive performance, Gasol is slightly better than Howard.
Howard and McGee
Conclusion
Although Gasol's performance on the defensive end is slightly dominant, but Howard's performance on the offensive end far exceeds Gasol. Therefore, considering the performance of the two on offense and defense, I personally think that Howard is the overall better this season.
As a veteran who has struggled for more than a decade in the league, Howard and Gasol are both players worthy of the respect of the fans. The setting sun still has an aftertaste, and the energy of the veterans still exists, paying tribute to the veterans in the alliance who are still struggling.
