Victor (Ballbrains)
Here are some ideas that can help you guess who the player is, hopefully faster. Remember – It’s a game, so please have fun!
1 | Determine if the Player was a Star, Starter or Role Player.
Usually the Points, Rebounds and Assists tell you a lot about the player’s contribution to their team. What is the feeling you get when you gloss over these statistics? Does it strike you as a player you would remember, or have no clue on?
For example, Rajon Rondo’s career stats were quite memorable in that he was a double-double threat (in Points and Assists) with solid rebound numbers for a Point Guard for most, if not all of his career. His stats would likely be remembered as those of an All-Star in his Prime.
2 | Follow the Player’s Career Path
With how tough the NBA is, players don’t often always have long, lasting careers.
Players can at times be lumped into either being journeymen or being a one or two team player for their career. If you can identify long spurts of being on the same team, you can get a feeling of what their team relied on them for. Or alternatively, if they had moved around the league, typically they bring something of value to that team.
Looking back at J.J. Redick, he had a career spanning the 2006-07 Season to the 2020-21 Season, where he made contributions firstly in Orlando, then Milwaukee for one Season (which I like to joking call, a ‘rental’), Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New Orleans and finally Dallas – Overall a fairly long and productive NBA career.
Looking at his 3PT% and FT%, he was evidently a fantastic shooter. However, this was his primary contribution to the team he was playing for – he did very little in terms of rebounds and assists, typical for an old school shooting guard.
3 | Were they Efficient?
If you are playing on either Rookie or Veteran Game Modes, you will have access to many more statistical categories which help to paint a picture of the player’s strengths and weaknesses. We often remember players by what they are really-really good at, or really-really bad at.
Let’s take a look at a lesser known player, one who we the name of, but probably don’t know too much about – Kirk Hinrich. He spent most of his career in Chicago, but had a few years in other teams.
His statistics don’t really jump out, but you could draw some conclusions – he could shoot 3 pointers, in his better playing years he contributed quite a lot of points (16.6 PPG in 2006-07) and was fairly average in Field Goal Percentage (Hovering around the low to mid 40%). I would be thinking – well he managed to stay on a Chicago team as the Starting Point Guard with those stats – and maybe I would have gotten it right.
It’s inevitable that we will come across a player we have no clue on, but it can be fun learning players who you did not think had such an impactful career, truly have some good Seasons.
Let me know your thooughts!