https://youtu.be/ibxjAJj6qtA
While desperately sifting through basketball-reference’s treasure trove of stats, searching for any scrap of statistical insight that I could use as a seed to germinate a full-length video description, I found out this marginally interesting fact about Darius Bazley:
He is 21st in the league in total rebounds this season. He’s got two more than John Collins but four fewer than Dwight Howard.
Bazley benefited from not missing many games due to injury. He also benefited from the Thunder not having too many games cancelled due to COVID-related issues, and from not having very much competition for those rebounds (old-ass Al Horford and young-ass Isaiah Roby, mainly). His seven rebounds per game isn’t that much when you’ve got a dozen players in the league averaging double-digit rebounds, but it’s alright. He’s an adequate rebounder.
Bazley’s scoring efficiency, however, is far from adequate. He’s approaching the dreaded “Jordan Crawford” territory, where he averages more shot attempts than points scored (11.2 vs. 11.9 at the moment), which is especially bad since he is a power forward who should be getting plenty of easier shots at the rim. I’m not going to spend too much time ragging on him since he’s only twenty years old and his role this season is way bigger than it should be due to the Thunder’s tankerific roster construction, but if he’s still doing this in year five, I’m gonna call him out. He’s gonna get called out BIG TIME.