A Look at USA Basketball Productivity

Out of pure curiosity, I calculated performance and productivity ratings (PaP) for individual players on the USA Men’s Basketball Olympic Team through their first six games. The results help evaluate the opinions of visitors who voted on this site’s poll – more importantly, the statistics provide data to support who is “gettin’ it done by goin’ to work” during the Games.

Even the common viewer can postulate that King James is a flat-out star and “Superman” Howard is a beast in the paint. Bosh, as his production shows, has been active and provided stability at both ends of the floor. Besides Bron-Bron, however, nobody has been more multitalented than the man from Miami.

D-Wade has performed like the Energizer bunny on Red Bull, and the ratings demonstrate his versatile play. He has been absolutely everywhere, offensively and defensively and, to the average fan, a heck of a player to be coming off the bench. As many coaches say, though, it’s not who starts – it’s who finishes the game. And in Wade’s case, it’s also what he does every minute he is on the floor.

Here are the ratings for all players who have logged at least 75 minutes. Note that in creating the formula for these ratings, I attempted to attend to the points of emphasis for this USA team, namely defense and rebounding (Coach K priorities), sharing and taking care of the ball, and ability to convert all types of shots: free throws, 2-point field goals and 3-point field goals.

Interestingly, the top five are a solid squad, especially if we think of a more typical lineup with two bigs, two wings, and a point, rather than the 4-out, 1-in trend.