It’s been nearly a week since Carmelo Anthony had 62 points and zero assists against the Charlotte Bobcats. The amazement over his scoring and giggling over his passing has begun to fade.
But the deep-seated belief that Melo is a one-dimensional chucks who doesn’t make his teammates better persists, as strong as ever.
The perception just isn’t accurate, though
The New York Knicks’ offensive rating with Melo on the court is 105.4 (equivalent of ninth in the NBA) and 97.0 (equivalent of 30th in the league). Melo’s singular offensive brilliance somewhat explains the disparity – just not all of it.
As Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal explains in great depth, Melo is a very effective passer. A couple examples:
Per Synergy, Melo's passes to spot-up shooters out of double-teams have led to an 77.3% effective field-goal rate -- best in the NBA.
— Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) January 26, 2014
But Melo doesn’t even need to pass to help his teammates score more efficiently. Simply being on the floor is enough.
Nate Silver researched the phenomenon a few years ago, and he found Nuggets players scored more efficiently in seasons they spent with Melo relative to seasons they spent on other teams. Back then though, Silver’s results were limited by the data available. He couldn’t separate how well players shot within a given season when playing with Melo and when not, and comparing a player across multiple seasons brings in many other unwanted variables.
Now we can easily smooth those rough edges, and Silver’s conclusions still appear true.
Eleven of Melo’s teammates this season have taken both 30 shots with him on the floor and 30 shots with him on the bench. Of those 11, nine are shooting a higher effective field-goal percentage when Melo plays (Tyson Chandler and Pablo Prigioni being the exceptions).
Here’s how the effective field-goal percentages compare for all 11, with Melo on (orange) and off (blue), via nbawowy:
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Why does this happen?
A few reasons stand out:
1. If Melo is a black hole on offense, he not only sucks in the ball, but the defense too. Few players attract as much defensive attention as Melo, and that obviously frees space for his floormates.
2. Most opponents guard Melo with their best wing defender. That means Melo’s teammates are guarded by relatively lesser defenders.
3. Every time the shot clock is on the verge on expiring – a common occurrence for even the best-run offenses – the Knicks try to get the ball to Melo. As they should. He’s more likely to score in those situations than any other Knick. By accepting all those necessary low-efficiency shots, Melo protects the efficiency of his teammates.
Measures of efficiency that look only at the common box score when capture this nuance. They’ll just see Melo’s relative modest shooting percentages and low assist totals.
But dig deeper, and Melo’s value to New York’s offense becomes more apparent.
As if the offensive value of someone who can score 62 points in a game needs greater explanation, anyway.