Peachtree Hoops: The Merits Of Zaza

[Hawksquawk]

(The editorial staff has seen fit to promote this post from the FanPosts area due to its relevant content)

Recently there has been some discussion on the value of Zaza versus Collins, much of which was driven by the fact that the Hawks lack sufficient depth at the SF position thus somewhat forcing Larry Drew to go big for the few games Williams and Evans were out  (editor's note: Really? There has? I need to take less vacations).  While I, myself, am in favor of Zaza getting the nod over Collins should we need to go big again, others have stated that Zaza provides nothing on defense or lacks the skills needed to handle the low post effectively.  I wanted to get this up during the discussion, but things (cough, work, cough) conspired against me.

Below are a few numbers I pulled from Basketball Reference and HoopData.  I hope to illustrate the value of Zaza relative to the value of Collins from a purely unbiased data point of view.  Plain and simple, these are the numbers and it's up to the reader to decide what they want to take from them.  Let's jump!

Quickly, Zaza is easily better than Collins in just about every category that exists.  Zaza's PER is 16.7 to Collins' 2.4.  WS has it 10.6 to -.063 in favor of Zaza.  Zaza's ORtg is 123 to Collins' 83.  DRtg is 106 to 112.  eFG%, TS%, STL%, BLK%, TOV%, etc, etc.  The list goes on.  About the only thing Collins has over Zaza is AST% and AR, leading 6.7 - 4.8 and 14.3 - 7.4 respectively.

Rebounding came up in previous discussions so let's look at those.  ORB% is 10.7 - 2, DRB% is 18.3 - 8.7, TRB% is 14.8 - 5.6, all in favor of Zaza.  For those that like things in simple Per Game values, that's 1.5 - 0.2 ORB, 2.8 - 0.8 DRB, and 4.3 - 1 TRB per game.

Essentially, no matter how you like your numbers, served old school with a stout, tempo free with a double shot of whiskey, or advanced with a cool glass of Riesling, there is nothing to justify starting Collins, or even playing him, over or before Zaza.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet that because Zaza's game is so profoundly ugly and that Collins game is so non-existent, that it fools people into thinking that Collins played a great game compared to Zaza.  If it were only a few categories, then maybe there'd be something more to it, but with so many things falling in Zaza's favor, it makes it extremely difficult to argue for Collins.  Well, Collins doesn't foul as often, so I guess there's that...

Here's the numbers I mined from the two sites linked above so you don't have to go anywhere.  Note, view in wide-mode to see full extent of the tables.  Enjoy!

B-Ref
PER GAME
Player	FG%	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Zaza Pachulia	0.639	0.81	1.5	2.8	4.3	0.5	0.4	0.5	1.4	2.8	6.9
Jason Collins	0.545	1	0.2	0.8	1	0.5	0	0.2	1	1.7	2.3
PER 36
Player	FG%	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Zaza Pachulia	0.639	0.81	3	5.9	9	1.1	0.8	1	2.9	5.9	14.5
Jason Collins	0.545	1	0.6	2.8	3.4	1.7	0	0.6	3.4	5.6	7.9
Advanced
Player	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%
Zaza Pachulia	16.3	0.73	0.639	10.7	18.3	14.8	4.8	1.1	1.9	22.3	16.5
Jason Collins	2.4	0.59	0.545	2	8.7	5.6	6.7	0	1.1	33.6	12.9

Player	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS	WS/48
Zaza Pachulia	123	106	0.5	0.2	0.7	0.17
Jason Collins	83	112	-0.1	0	-0.1	-0.04

Hoopdata
PER GAME
League Average	USG	TS%	%Ast	AR	TOR	ORR	DRR	TRR	EFF	WS	AWS	PER	APER
League Average	15.94	53.9	57	10.64	16.89	9.5	19.5	14.5	8.6	3.9	2.12	11.38	11.3
Player Name	USG	TS%	%Ast	AR	TOR	ORR	DRR	TRR	EFF	WS	AWS	PER	APER
Jason Collins	13.04	58.9	83.3	14.37	28.74	2	8.6	5.6	2.17	-0.17	-0.55	2.49	3.35
Zaza Pachulia	16.3	75.8	69.6	7.41	22.22	11.5	18.4	15.2	9.8	4.75	2.58	16.67	16.94
PER 40
League Average	USG	TS%	%Ast	AR	TOR	ORR	DRR	TRR	EFF	WS	AWS	PER	APER
League Average	15.94	53.9	57	10.64	16.89	9.5	19.5	14.5	17.3	7.37	3.4	11.38	11.3
Player	USG	TS%	%Ast	AR	TOR	ORR	DRR	TRR	EFF	WS	AWS	PER	APER
Jason Collins	13.04	58.9	83.3	14.37	28.74	2	8.6	5.6	8.13	-0.63	-2.06	2.49	3.35
Zaza Pachulia	16.3	75.8	69.6	7.41	22.22	11.5	18.4	15.2	21.9	10.61	5.75	16.67	16.94

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