Over the weekend I watched two basketball games in which the announcers each made comments about changing what constitutes an assist in a basketball game. After hearing this, I began to think of how these two changes to stat tracking would help to further quantify the contributions of basketball players.
The first game I watched was the Saturday MAAC quarterfinal match up between Siena and Iona. During the game, after a nice pass led to a player being intentionally fouled to prevent an easy layup, the announced mentioned that at any point when a direct pass leads to a player being fouled the player who passed the ball should be credited with an assist. After hearing this, the first thing I thought of was Chris Paul. I've seen plenty of Clipper games these last few years in which CP3 has got the ball to either Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan within five feet of the rim where they are then intentionally fouled to prevent a dunk or layup. CP3 could easily average 15 assists per game if these were credited as assists. The second game that I watched was Sunday's NBA match up between the Warriors and the Clippers. At one point during the game, Jeff Van Gundy made a point that I had heard several times before but resonated more due to the thoughts from the previous days game. He mentioned that the basketball should incorporate the "hockey assist" to reward the player who made the first pass that eventually led to an easy score. I believe he made this point in reference to Stephen Curry making a pass to Draymond Green in the high post after getting doubled teamed and then Green making a quick pass before the defense could rotate to a cutting wing player for an easy dunk.
With both of these points floating around in my head, I started thinking about another way to further differentiate between assists while watching the Warriors vs. Clippers game. What I came up with is this; Shouldn't an assist that leads to a higher percentage shot be worth more than one to a lower percentage shot? Basically after assists leading to lay ups or dunks should be valued higher than assists leading to a three point basket.
I know in todays NBA the three point shot is an integral aspect of the game and is more valued than long two point baskets at this point by most teams. The reason for this is that the difference between the percentage between a 20 foot 2 point jump shot and a 24 foot 3 point jump shot is, I'm assuming here, less than five percent which makes the five percent drop in shooting percentage worth it due to the inclusion of the extra point rewarded for making said 3 point attempt. I totally understand and agree with the logic there.
With all that being said, here is how I would quantify adjusted assists:
| TYPE OF ASSIST | DISTANCE | VALUE |
| REGULAR | 0 FT to 5 FT | 4 |
| REGULAR | 5 FT to 15 FT | 3 |
| REGULAR | 15 FT to 3 POINT LINE | 2 |
| REGULAR | 3 POINT FT | 1 |
| HOCKEY | 0 FT to 5 FT | 2 |
| HOCKEY | 5 FT to 15 FT | 1.5 |
| HOCKEY | 15 FT to 3 POINT LINE | 1 |
| HOCKEY | 3 POINT FT | 0.5 |
| LEADS TO FOUL | 0 FT to 5 FT | 3 |
| LEADS TO FOUL | 5 FT to 15 FT | 2.25 |
| LEADS TO FOUL | 15 FT to 3 POINT LINE | 1.5 |
| LEADS TO FOUL | 3 POINT FT | 0.75 |
When considering this attempt to value assists, the one thing I didn't include was contested versus an open shot. While I'd love to incorporate that into the tally, I couldn't think of a good way to quantify that at this point.
I plan on attempting to use this new value system at some point in the next week or so while watching the likes of Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, John Wall, and Kyle Lowry. Since Chris Paul is widely considered the best point guard in the NBA, I'm curious to see if he consistently puts up the highest number and by how much. We'll see what happens.
