Mapping the West: Mid-Season Update

Jokić is good at everything, Shai is the Thunder, and the Warriors are weird

We recently passed the halfway mark of the NBA season, so I wanted to take a step back and explore how teams have distributed their production so far, as well as look forward to the Playoffs, which will be here before we know it.

I’m repurposing my Mapping the NBA framework from the start of the season to visualize the entire league in one (well, one per conference) image that shows players’ minutes, points, assists, rebounds, three point percentage, and career playoff games.¹

I’ve used the most common lineup for every team by minutes played. These aren’t necessarily a team’s “best” possible lineup, given the numerous injuries that have kept teammates from playing together (e.g., Ja Morant isn’t in the Grizzlies most common group) and will change lineups going forward (e.g., Jimmy Butler was in the Warriors most common group, but will be out the rest of the season after tearing his ACL last week).

There’s a lot going on here, so I’ll give my top observations but I’d love to hear what stands out to you! Let me know in the comments.

If you prefer a more passive viewing experience, I’ll be sharing these in video form throughout the week on my Instagram. Let’s dive in.

• The Timberwolves have been one of the healthiest teams this season, which has allowed their starting five to play significant minutes together. That’s especially helpful given that five - Donte DiVencenzo, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, and Rudy Gobert - has been the single best lineup in the NBA.

• Every one of those five Wolves have played more minutes than any player in Golden State. Steph Curry is playing fewer than 32 minutes per game, the lowest mark in any healthy season of his career, and he still leads the (very old Warriors) in minutes.

• The best player on both the Kings and Mavericks is a Center. The Centers on the Kings and Mavericks (Domantas Sabonis and Anthony Davis) have only played about 500 total minutes this season … as they wait to be traded. That about sums up the season for the Kings and Mavericks.

• There are a lot of high scorers in the West, especially in the Northwest and Pacific divisions. Every team (except the Kings²) has at least one guy averaging 25+, and the Nuggets and Clippers have two each.

• Shai Gilgeous Alexander is second in the conference (and the league) in scoring with just over 32 points per game. That’s 14 more than the next highest scorer on the Thunder (Chet Holmgren) which is by far the biggest gap between first and second of any team in the league.

• The Thunder and Warriors each have two guys under 10 points per game. One of those is Draymond Green, even though he almost always takes the first shot for the Warriors.

• Only three guys in the entire conference are averaging more than eight assists per game. Nikola Jokić is averaging 11.

• That’s more than double the highest assist man on 40% of teams in the conference, namely the Timberwolves, Warriors, Rockets, Grizzlies, Mavericks, and Pelicans. Oh and Jokić’s teammate, Jamal Murray, is fourth in the conference in assists. The Nuggets offense is pretty good.

• The “Point Guard”³ for the most common lineup in Houston, Josh Okogie, averages fewer than one assist per game.

• If you’ve been following closely you’ll have noticed that the Jokić bubble is blue (best of the best) in points, assists, and now rebounds.

• His 12.2 rebounds per game is, again, over double the number for anyone in Golden State. The Warriors don’t have a single player averaging even six boards per game.⁴ Yet somehow they still average more team rebounds than Jokić’s Nuggets.

• There are a lot of scary Centers in the West. I can’t even begin to imagine how I (a 6’3” human) would attempt to grab a rebound against any of the nine Centers averaging 10+ rebounds: Jokić, Gobert (Wolves), Donovan Clingan (Trail Blazers), Jusuf Nurkić (Jazz), Ivica Zubac (Clippers), Sabonis (Kings), Davis (Mavericks), Jaren Jackson Jr. (Grizzlies), and Victor Wembanyama (Spurs).⁵ Maybe I could grab one over Draymond.⁶

• Mark Williams of the Suns has been perfect from beyond the three point line this season! He made his one and only attempt.

• Among those who actually meet the minimum threshold (one made three per game) Williams’ Suns teammate, Devin Booker, has the worst percentage in the conference. Max Christie of the Mavericks leads with a 46% success rate.

• Four players on the Nuggets are shooting threes at a 42%+ clip. Murray, Jokić, Cam Johnson, and Peyton Watson are all top-20 in the league in three point percentage.

• The Warriors Big-3 (Curry, Green, and Butler) have played more playoff games (454) than the entire Southwest Division (416). That will likely change when this season wraps, as the Warriors may not add any Playoff games now that Butler is out for the season.

• Most of the playoff experience is concentrated in the Warriors’ Pacific Division: eight players in that division have played over 100 playoff games. Kevin Durant, now of the Rockets, is the only player outside the division to clear that threshold, and he spent six years in the Pacific with the Warriors and Suns.

• The rest of the players in the Rockets most common lineup have only played two or three Playoff series. That’s still much more than the Spurs or Trail Blazers, most of whom will (likely) get their first taste of playoff basketball this season.⁷ The Pelicans and Jazz will continue not getting playoff experience.⁸

That’s the West! Stay tuned for the Eastern Conference breakdown soon.

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1. Thanks to Butterflies for this suggestion!

2. Obviously.

3. I realize Josh Okogie is not a Point Guard, but also the Rockets don’t have a Point Guard - unless you count Reed Sheppard or Amen Thompson - so someone’s gotta do it.

4. It makes sense when you remember they can’t play two bigs at once.

5. Especially Victor Wembanyama.

6. Assuming Draymond plays fair, which is not a good assumption to make.

7. Notably excepting Jrue Holiday and Harrison Barnes, who have each won a championship.

8. It’s sad that Lauri Markkanen, in his ninth NBA season, has never made the Playoffs.