Center Fridays: The NBA’s new “box outs” stat

The NBA recently released a new stat that shows something interesting about the Pacers. Let’s take a look at box outs.

The NBA does a great job being at the forefront of using analytics to improve their product. The MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is currently underway, and the smartest statistical minds from around the league are all meeting in one place to improve the use of stats in the sport. Just before the conference began, the league announced that they are making a few new tracking statistics public information. One of these new stats is the “box-out”.

Most of you know what a box-out is, but for some of you basketball fans less in-tune with the vernacular, here is an explanation. Boxing out is when a player positions himself in such a way that allows them to gain superior position on their matchup in order to gain an advantage when trying to grab a rebound.

Rather than listening to me try to explain it, why not just watch and learn from Golden State Warriors center JaVale McGee:

Boxing out (or blocking out) is something the best rebounders do every possession. Steven Adams, Andre Drummond, Marcin Gortat, and Dwight Howard are some of the best in the league when it comes to doing this on a possession-by-possession basis.

Now, we have the stats to prove it.

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Adams, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s monster on the glass, leads the league in this statistic. All of the players just mentioned are in the top 10 of the NBA’s newest statistical adventure. But what does it tell us about the Pacers?

Well, first of all, it tells us that they stink at boxing out. In the entire league, they rank 27th in box-outs per game. This is surely part of the reason that they are 22nd in rebounds per game and why they consistently lose the rebounding battle.

Individually, you can probably guess who leads the team in this stat: It’s Domantas Sabonis. Centers have an advantage in this area, and the way that the Pacers play really helps their big men. The Pacers like to get out and run in transition, so often they have only their centers go for defensive rebounds while everyone else leaks up the court.

It shows in the stats. The teams top 5 in box-outs are Sabonis, Myles Turner, Thaddeus Young, Al Jefferson, and TJ Leaf. In essence, the big men. The highest non-big is Bojan Bogdanovic, and even he himself has spent some time at the power forward position.

What is interesting is looking at box-outs per minute. Myles Turner surprisingly averages more box-outs per minute than anyone else on the team, with Sabonis and Jefferson falling close behind.

What can we learn from this? Well, the fact that Sabonis has a higher rebound percentage than Turner despite having fewer box-outs shows us that Sabonis has better anticipation skills and instincts on the glass than Turner does.

What else does it tell us? That with a bit of time and some bulking up, Turner will be pulling down rebounds with the best of ’em, since he is clearly giving the effort.

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As the NBA continues to release more and more stats, we as fans will continue to gain a better understanding of the game. The box-out is just another of those stats. As the season goes on, hopefully, we can make more inferences about the importance of box-outs, but for now, we can infer two things.

The Pacers aren’t great at boxing out, but they are showing good signs of improvement in that area. Once the improvement comes, they could be a force on the glass.