Usage vs efficiency for the new season's top scorers

Of course it's early, but...

Let's take a look at the usage and true shooting percentage for each of the NBA's 20 ppg scorers right now.

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Some takeaways:

• Dear Stephen Curry: if you intend to continue shooting 57% on twos, 41% on threes, and 97% on FT's, can we just time-machine out to May and watch you in the second round of the playoffs? Please?
• Kobe Bryant... look, his true shooting percentage is 48%. The rest of the Lakers: 56%.  Even if you want to argue Kobe's presence frees up space for others, that's an imbalance that simply doesn't mesh with a 38% usage rate.
• Tony Wroten? Tony Wroten! For all of his (and his team's) faults, TW can certainly get to the line (8+ attempts per game). It's a shame he doesn't hit more than 65% of them. That's inexcusable for a guard.
• James Harden is actually tied with Mr. Bryant for the lowest FG% of anyone on the chart. But he's getting to the line an almost comical 10.9 times per game - and hitting 90% of them. Don't let the visceral ugliness of James' game distract from its lethal potency.

Recent scoring margin + schedule strength for every team

When at ESPN, John Hollinger found (not surprisingly) that recent performance mattered more in determining a team's current strength than dated performance from early in the season. He reflected this in his Power Rankings by including both team scoring margin and strength of schedule (SOS) over their most recent 25% of games, as well as season-long margin and SOS.

So how does every team stack up right now in recent performance?

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Some takeaways:

• It's interesting that so much attention has been paid to the Heat's recent malaise, when the Pacers' woes have been both deeper and more sustained. Indiana is 21st in offensive efficiency for the season as a whole, and bottom-five over the past month. And that's despite paying a Charmin-soft schedule. Paul George and Roy Hibbert have both really cratered since the first two months. It's not an exaggeration to say this offense is really only good at one thing right now: getting to the free-throw line (and hitting those freebies at an excellent 78% rate).
• Most of the teams in the top and right sections won't surprise most viewers, but... holy Bobcats! As Zach Lowe detailed this week, the Al Jefferson-fueled offense and a shockingly elite defense have combined to create a real, viable playoff team. This squad won't be an easy out for anyone in the playoffs.
• Hmmm, lots of blue circles in the "good areas", and lots of red circles in the bad areas. The gap between the East and West has actually closed just a teensy bit over the past month or so, but it's still ginormous.
• I don't know what to say about the Sixers. Their recent scoring margin is an entire standard deviation lower than every other team in the NBA. In case you're not well-versed in statistics, that is comically, awe-inspiringly awful. They're the worst offensive team by a mile, and since the calendar turned to 2014, also the worst defense. Someday Michael Carter-Williams is going to be part of a really good team, but I suspect he'll still be haunted by nightmares of 2013-14.

Data source: Hollinger Power Rankings

LaMarcus Aldridge is the Godzilla of mid-range

(Primary data source: NBA.com/stats)

Through the first few games of this season, here are the 25 players who've taken the most mid-range FGA per game, mapped vs their fg% on those attempts.

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Some takeaways:

• LaMarcus Aldridge led the NBA in mid-range attempts last season as well... but that was with 10 attempts per game, and hitting (a still very solid) 43% of them. What he's done early this year in terms of both volume and accuracy is otherworldly. And frankly, unguardable. Pray for regression to the mean, future Blazers opponents.
• Obviously, it's VERY early, so I discount the FG%'s pretty significantly if they're out of whack with what a player has historically done (cough, Monta, cough).
• The number of attempts is probably more meaningful because it may tell us something about the player, their team's offensive scheme, or both. For example, the fact that Charlotte has two players chucking a ton of mid-range shots might be related to their offensive philosophy, and is almost definitely correlated to them being 27th in points / 100 possessions right now. Eh, I'm sure they'll figure it out.