It’s still early in the season, but not too early where stats aren’t starting to reveal some truths about the league. The cream is rising to the top, as they say. For example, after tonight, Julius Randle is leading the league in my proprietary advance stat, TIP/36.
For those who aren’t subscribed to the “DTB’s Advanced Stats for Less Advanced People” newsletter, let me explain. TIP stands for Thumbnail Images Produced, and the 36 means it’s displayed as a per 36 minute stat. Simple!
Randle put in a really gutsy performance tonight, making a whole bunch of layups as well as delivering some nice passes for teammates. But his real accomplishment was how many potential thumbnails he generated. At one point in the first quarter, he was generating several of them per second, his face contorting this way and that in an intimidating display. Some players are happy to get 1 TIP/36, or even less, but Randle can often sit in the 70-80 range.
The Lakers will regret moving on from him, if the rumors are true. There is no one else on his team who can pick up the slack in that area, unless they start finding a lot more minutes for that Caruso fellow.