Statistical Exploration – Morris Almond

Posted by Andy Larsen on December 15, 2008

This is the second in a 15 part series which will examine the statistical performance of each player on the Utah Jazz.

Morris Almond is actually a very interesting player, statistically. He is known as a shooter and scorer, and yet everyone knows that the rest of his game will have to develop in order to see significant NBA playing time. Jerry Sloan said this, on October 18th:

“Well he scored points but I’m disappointed in the way [that Almond] runs the floor. It looks like he’s not concerned with running the floor and helping defensively. We can’t afford to have that, especially out of the mid-sized people. I mean, everybody likes to score but if that’s all you’re going to do then it’s hard to play. To win: numbers are one thing, but I believe you can win with less numbers [and] more effort on [defense]. He’s got to rebound the ball, pass the basketball, learn to do some other things rather than just be a one-dimensional player.

If they put a guy on you, and he’s determined to stop you, and he makes you take tough shots every time you get it — which they did tonight — [Morris] took the tough shots  . . .when you try to take tough shots when they are guarding you, you gotta go somewhere else: pass the ball, and play within what we are trying to do. If you try to do it on your own then I’ve got four guys watching.

He’s got to learn to compete. I don’t think he’s competed hard enough.”

Is this statement backed up by the statistical record during Morris’ career? Let’s take a look.

Scoring: Yes, Morris Almond can score. In the RMR this summer, he averaged 18.5 PPG in 28.7 minutes. He averaged 25.6 PPG in the D-League last year, and famously scored 50 points in a game twice. In the NBA this season, he’s averaged 5.2 PPG in 13.5 minutes. That’s less impressive, but to be expected with the leap in competition. In the NBA, usually everyone on the court is more established, in the D-League, he can play as Kobe Bryant.

Shooting: It’s not really clear that Morris is being intimidated by NBA defenders more than he was by D-league ones. His shooting percentage has dropped, .446 in the D-League compared to .439 in the NBA this season, but that entire difference could be made up by one shot. Beyond the 3-pt line, this season he’s shot 2-9, for a percentage of .222. In the D-League, he shot .354, but I’ll suggest that 9 shots is too small of a sample size. Again, nearly the entire difference would be recovered by one more made 3.

One thing that J-Sloan would point out, though, is that Morris has been taking more of his fair share of early shots without running the offense, and the stats show this clearly. In the first 15 seconds of the shot clock, Almond takes 71% of his shots.  Even C.J. Miles, also regarded as a early-shot guy, takes only 54% of his shots before 15 seconds have been used on the shot clock. Ideally, Almond would pass the ball out of those situations.

Passing: Then again, Almond has shown no real ability to pass the ball at any level of professional basketball. In the 6 RMR games this summer, he had a grand total of 3 assists. In the D-League last season, he did better, with 1.6 assists per game, but unfortunately with 3.26 turnovers per game, a 1:2 assist-to-turnover ratio. In the NBA this year, he has 4 assists in 13 games, for a 0.3 APG average. Again, he’s turned the ball over more than that, 0.85 turnovers per game, for nearly a 1:3 A-T ratio.

Conceivably, those turnovers could just be because of poor ball-handling or offensive fouls, rather than bad passes. Luckily, 82games.com breaks down turnovers into those categories, and Almond isn’t helped by the analysis. He has committed 2 offensive fouls, 3 ball-handling turnovers, and 3 bad pass turnovers. The ratio between assists and bad passes, especially, points to the idea that Almond doesn’t keep the ball out of selfishness, he keeps it because he is afraid of another turnover.

Rebounding: His rebounding skill is consistent with other NBA players with his size and position. He has averaged 2 RPG this season, and averaged 3.6 in the D-League. Conceivably, he could improve, but this is a somewhat unfair criticism by Sloan.

Defense: Again, probably an unfair criticism. All statistics point to an average defensive performance from Almond. Defensive statistics are difficult to explain, but let’s just say Almond is a slightly above average defensive player. For those of you who know what PER is, he limited opponents to about a 13 PER rather than the average of 15. This is a little bit problematic just because Almond is playing against opposing bench guys, usually worse than the average player, but he hasn’t allowed opposing bench players to explode against him.

So, in conclusion, Morris Almond is a fantastic scoring talent when he has the ball in his hands. Unfortunately, once he has the ball, its difficult for him to pass the ball again. His rebounding and defense are approximately average. Should Morris get regular playing time once again, we may see opponents bring a second defender from off the ball to trap Almond. This would take away his best skill – scoring, and make him rely on his worst – passing, to continue the offensive set.

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1 Comment

JayRay on December 15, 2008 said:

i’d like to see korver and almond become interchangeable, run mo-al off of screens like they do korver and see if he matches up to korver’s productivity level.

when i watch mo-al play, he seems so fluid, but then he looks like he hasn’t played enough by not moving within the offense; i say due to a lack of playing time confidence.

go mo-al!

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