In part three of our series we take a look at the performance of this year’s small forward crop.

Compared to the other four positions, quality on the three suffered most under the departure of the “Lockout”-players in midseason. Sefolosha, Gallinari, Batum, Rudy were all among the top small forwards in the competition. To make matters worse, San Emeterio’s Caja Laboral didn’t make it past the first round, Hairston went down with an injury and Preldzic is playing poorly in what I anticipated to be his breakthrough year. He still is though – see table at the bottom of the post – one of the best creators in the competition.

For more on the various statistical categories, read the opening post (centers) of this series.

The numbers do not include the recent 14th Euroleague gameday.

In Gallinari and Hairston, Milano had a couple of high usage/high efficiency wing players, no surprise to see them struggling to score the basketball in their absence. Nicholas’ completely forgettable scoring numbers and the lack of a serious post threat make matters only worse.

Kirilenko is leading all qualifying small forwards in PPP at a relatively low usage. More on shot creation next.

Kirilenko is second in assisted field goals per minute, behind Hairston and ahead of Sefolosha and Weems. Weems and Hairston are both far away from the rest in terms of unassisted field goals. Hairston combines that with an excellent 1.16 PPP whereas Weems’ 0.91 PPP is just about average in this season’s group of small forwards.

60 percent of Kirilenko’s field goals are created by an assist, fourth in the league (see table at the bottom of this post). Emir Preldzic (20.8%) has the lowest AST’D FG to FG ratio.

Kirilenko is head and shoulders above the competition in offensive rebounding and shotblocking. Sefolosha, with comparable defensive rebounding but less activity on the offensive glass, and Sato, with lesser numbers than Kirilenko in both categories, are still excellent. Surprisingly good numbers for Kostas Papanikolaou as well.

Kirilenko’s 10.0 blocks percentage after Week 13 was league-second behind Mirza Begic. He is fourth in steals among small forwards, behind Kinsey, Sefolosha and Eidson.

Very little contribution in these categories from Jacobsen, Darden and Lucic.

This is where Preldzic’s talent shines through. But he’s not been involved in the Fenerbahce offense as much as he should have been. Fener has little to no creativity on point guard (Ukic, Jerrells) and needs creative input from other positions.

Micov is silently (?) playing an excellent season for Cantu. He’s a point forward who’s well-trained in running the pick and roll through his days with Buducnost, where he was a ballhandler.

Below’s the table with SC = shots created = (unassisted field goals + assists); ASST’D% = assisted field goals / field goals * 100

[table id=30 /]

Minimum: 150 minutes

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¹ USG% = 100 * ((FGA + 0.47 * FTA + TO) * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm FGA + 0.47 * Tm FTA + Tm TO))
² PPP = Pts / ((FGA + 0.47 * FTA + TO)
³ ORB% = 100 * (ORB * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm ORB + Opp DRB)); DRB% = 100 * (DRB * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm DRB + Opp ORB))
⁴ STL% = 100 * (STL * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * Opp Poss)
⁵ BLK% = 100 * (BLK * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Opp FGA – Opp 3PA))
⁶ AST% = 100 * AST / (((MP / (Tm MP / 5)) * Tm FG) – FG)
⁷ TOV% = 100 * TO / (FGA + 0.47 * FTA + TO)