Chris Copeland, Damjan Rudez Given Awards for Their Bad Play
By Ben Gibson
Our friends over at Nylon Calculus put together their Anti-Awards at (Near) the All-Star Break, and unfortunately a few Indiana Pacers have found their way on to that list.
Damjan Rudez and his rebounding are their first victim recipient . While some of this has to do with his role as a shooter on offense, there is no denying he isn’t dragging down rebounds at a very high rate. The Pacers as a team don’t rebound as well when he’s on the floor, but he isn’t an offensive or defensive liability when you look at some of the on-off numbers.
"The Matt Bullard Award – This award goes to the player 6’10″ or taller with the lowest Total Rebound Percentage. (Minimum 500 minutes)From the aether, a new contender has emerged. 28-year old rookie, Damjan Rudez, has secured just 3.0 percent of available rebounds when he’s been on the floor. That is less than half the rebound rate of his next closest competitors, Perry Jones and Matt Bonner. Whether Rudez is able to hang on or not, this season appears to be the end of Steve Novak’s stranglehold on this award. Novak, who has won this award three of the four seasons it’s been handed out, has played just 75 minutes for the Utah Jazz this season. His absurdly high 10.2 total rebound rate is certainly a product of small sample size, but it seems extremely unlikely that he will be able to meet the minimum minute requirement. All good things must come to an end."
The next anti-award winner is Chris Copeland and his struggling jump shot. After a few weeks early in the season it was clear he wasn’t the caliber of player who could serve as a starter of an extended period, but he hasn’t settled into his specialist role as a 3-point shooter since then either. When you combine that with his matador defense, you win the Andrea Bargnani Award.
"The Andrea Bargnani Award (Formerly 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 500 minutes)There are so many different templates for being a negative contributor, but Chris Copeland, our current leader at -1.4 wins, has settled into one of our old favorites—the perimeter shooting specialist who doesn’t rebound or play defense and also isn’t actually a very good shooter. The most well-defined skill he has to offer is his jump shot, of which he has made just 29.5 percent this season. If the Pacers keep him on the floor, he should win this going away."
Copeland’s spot is a bit more concerning on this list than Rudez because Rudez is at least filling his role where Copeland isn’t. Where Rudez is coming in and knocking down shots at a decent clip (41.7%), Copeland is only shooting 36.3% from the field. Part of Damjan’s lack of rebounds can partially be explained by playing at times with Lavoy Allen and Ian Mahinimi, but Copeland’s shooting woes mostly fall on him.
It is only halfway through the season and plenty of time for either of the guys to improve on these stats. With George Hill back in the fold, the Pacers style of play is finding an equilibrium that hasn’t been there this year due to the injuries Indiana has dealt with.
Godspeed to both men and hopefully for Pacers fans there name’s aren’t on this list at the end of the season.