Favors shot selection broke down like this:
39.0% 2 pt jumpers
34.6% inside shots
20.1% dunks
5.9% tip-ins
0.4% 3 pt shots
A higher percentage of his shots were dunks than any other player in the draft, and only Lazar Hayward had relatively more tip-ins. He was also seventh in inside shots, so he took very few shots far from the basket. 60.6% of his shots came from those methods, only 39.4% were jump shots. Only Greg Monroe took fewer jump shots than Favors. He wasn't too bad at those jump shots, though, based on eFG anyway. He was 27th in the draft on eFG on jumpers, but ahead of 18 more, including Wes Johnson, X Henry, Devin Ebanks, Greg Monroe, Elliot Williams, Paul George, Eric Bledsoe, and actually, his teammate, John Wall, as well. He had the fourth highest eFG on inside shots, and was good on his dunks and tip ins as well.
As far as plus/minus stats, that is what really surprised me. The way DX did it, they had the average score differential over 40 minutes, both when the player was on and off the court, then the difference between the two. They also had the team's points scored and allowed per 40 minutes, both when the player was on and off the court, and the difference. They also have the defensive and offensive rebounding % differences, to help see the difference in rebounding made, rather than just raw numbers (I think Dumpy requested them specifically
).Georgia Tech outscored their opponents by 12.9 points per 40 minutes when Favors was on the court. That is the 9th best point differential for when a player is on the floor, and you really get to see that having a great supporting cast is a big benefit, the top 3 are the trio from Kansas, and the next two are Pat Pat and Wall from Kentucky. After that are Turner, and Wes Johnson, and just ahead of Favors is Derrick Caracter. The thing is, every guy ahead of Favors had a team that still outscored teams even when they weren't on the floor. UTEP only outscored opponents without Caracter by about 1 point per 40, and Kentucky only outscored opponents by almost 5 when Wall came off, but Georgia Tech fell apart without Favors, and got outscored by over 7 points per 40 minutes when Derrick wasn't on the court. In fact, only Luke Babbitt and Paul George had a higher net plus/minus than Favors, as Georgia Tech had over a 20 point swing per 40 minutes when Favors came on the court.
It isn't just a defensive impact he had either, Georgia Tech scored 13 more points per 40 minutes when Favors was on the court, only James Anderson had a bigger offensive benefit for his team. His impact on the defensive end wasn't as big, as teams would only score 7 less points per 40 when he was on the court, as opposed to when he was off it. Interestingly, his teammate Gani Lawal was second best in this category, the only player who made a bigger difference to his teams defense was Luke Babbitt, apparently.
As for rebounding, Favors made the seventh biggest difference on the defensive boards, but he made a far bigger difference on the offensive glass than anyone, I'm really curious how Cousins compares in this. But Georgia Tech with Favors was a great offensive rebounding team, and without him they were near the bottom (of these lists).
So, that was a pretty long write up on something I didn't really analyze and may not be of great performance, but its pretty interesting, and shows that maybe, just maybe, Favors may have had a pretty nice freshman year, after being one of the top recruits out of high school. I'm kinda excited again.
