New Orleans Hornets 2012-13 Power Rankings – Week 12 (Mid-Season)

The New Orleans Hornets have officially reached the 2012-13 season’s midway point, winning just 13 of their first 41 games. There were only three this week, but it was another successful one for the Hornets, winning two of them. The team started out with a win very few saw coming, taking down a Celtics team in Boston that was on a six-game winning streak at the time and doing so just one night after beating the 76ers in Philly. They followed it up with a home loss to Jack, Landry and the Warriors on Saturday night, but ended the week with a MLK day victory over the Kings. With 41 out of 82 games in the books, here are your mid-season player power rankings.


Week 12


1) Ryan Anderson, PF - 41 GP, 31.8 MPG, 55.9 TS%, 17.0% DRR, 5.2% TOR, .150 WS/48, 19.4 PER; Last Week: 1

After struggling mightily throughout the month of January from beyond the arc, Anderson finally bounced back in a big way Monday afternoon, making 7 of his 14 three-point attempts. He had made just nine out of his last 37 long-range attempts (24.3%) before that game, so Ryan was long overdue for a change in fortune. Despite his recent 3-point shooting slump, his season as a whole has still been pretty remarkable – he is on pace to become the first player in NBA history with a true shooting percentage over 52%, a turnover rate under 6%, and a usage rate over 20%. He is currently clearing the TS% and USG% categories by a wide margin, so as long as he keeps his turnovers to a minimum, he should be able to do so fairly easily.

2) Greivis Vasquez, PG*– 41 GP, 34.6 MPG, 51.4 TS%, 14.5% DRR, 34.6% AR,* 13.0% TOR, .073 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 3

After calling Vasquez my Hornets MVP so far this season, I couldn’t help but move him to #2 in this week’s power rankings. There is one part of Greivis’ game in particular that I don’t think is getting enough attention, and that is his defensive rebounding ability. This season, his defensive rebounds per 36 minutes average has increased every month – 3.6 in November, 4.4 in December, and now 5.0 so far in January. In fact, if he continues on his current pace, he’ll be just the third different player in NBA history to have a season with a defensive rebound rate over 14% and an assist percentage (different from ESPN’s assist ratio) of over 45%. The other two? Chris Paul and Magic Johnson (five times!). He’s helping the Hornets in more ways than just his scoring and passing ability, and it’s time that everyone noticed.

3) Robin Lopez, C - 41 GP, 25.9 MPG, 58.4 TS%,*11.3% ORR,*10.9% TOR, .141 WS/48, 20.3 PER; Last Week: 2
Lopez provided a huge boost in the Hornets’ upset victory in Boston last Wednesday, scoring 17 points on 11 shots despite being matched up against Kevin Garnett for some of the time. Unfortunately, he didn’t do much in his next two games. He was unable to make much out of match-up advantages against Golden State, and was dominated by DeMarcus Cousins of Sacramento. All things considered, Lopez has done way more than most of us expected for the Hornets this year, but the fact of the matter is that he is averaging just 7.7 rebounds per 36 minutes, tied with Chris Bosh for worst in the NBA among starting centers. Despite his scoring efficiency, it’s tough to argue for him to get more minutes with rebounding numbers like that.

4)*Anthony Davis, PF*–*28 GP, 29.1 MPG, 55.6 TS%, 10.5% ORR, 21.7% DRR, 9.7% TOR, 0.151 WS/48, 21.3 PER; Last Week: 4
Until rolling his ankle at the end of the first half on Monday, Davis was having an excellent week. He played 74 total minutes, scoring 41 points on only 24 shots with 28 rebounds, 9 blocks, and just 2 fouls and 2 turnovers. Those are all-star caliber numbers if extrapolated over the course of an entire season. Hopefully, he’ll be good to go tonight in San Antonio and can continue this impressive play.

5) Eric Gordon, SG - 10 GP, 29.4 MPG, 49.5 TS%, 15.1% AR, 11.3% TOR, .036 WS/48, 16.3 PER; Last Week: 5
Gordon’s sub-40% field goal percentage jumps off of the page in a bad way, but has started to make up for it from an efficiency perspective with improved 3-point shooting (7-14 over his last three games compared to just 5-32 in his first seven). His assist/turnover ratio of 1.33 is a bit troubling as well; in his last season with the Clippers, he had this ratio up at 1.61. Despite all of these negatives, he still possesses an above average PER and has clearly been a major asset for the team thus far. If anything, this should be a sign of encouragement, because we know he is capable of playing at a much higher level.

6) Jason Smith, PF -*34 GP, 17.6 MPG, 53.2 TS%, 16.3% DRR, 12.8% TOR, .077 WS/48, 15.3 PER; Last Week: 6

Smith’s 20 points on 13 shots over the past week’s 3 games (53 minutes played) looks good, but the 10 rebounds, 10 fouls, and 5 turnovers don’t. Regardless, Smith’s place on this list from here on out will likely be confined to the 6th or 7th spot; I can’t see him cracking the top 5, but it would be incredibly difficult for him to fall past Aminu, either.
7) Al-Farouq Aminu, SF -*35 GP, 26.9 MPG, 53.0 TS%, 24.9% DRR, 14.1% AR, 17.0% TOR, .069 WS/48, 14.0 PER; Last Week: 7
Aminu’s past week was far and away his best since week 1, playing at an all-around level that he had never previously reached during any week in his 2 1/2 year career. Aminu scored 46 on 25 shots thanks to 15-18 shooting from the free throw line to go along with 30 rebounds, 5 steals and just 6 turnovers. If Aminu could play like that every game, this Hornets team would be an absolute lock for the playoffs at full strength. Unfortunately, history has shown us that he can’t, so until I see another week or two with similar performance, I’ll remain skeptical. Regardless, Aminu’s improvement ever since returning to Monty’s rotation is impossible to ignore.

8) Brian Roberts, PG - 40 GP, 14.4 MPG, 49.6 TS%, 22.4% AR, 9.1% TOR, .057 WS/48, 14.4 PER; Last Week: 8
Due to a rolled ankle after just five minutes of playing time in Boston, Roberts missed the game against Golden State, but returned to play eleven minutes against Sacramento. Not much notable about Brian’s week; just 2-7 from the field with two assists and one turnover.

9) Roger Mason Jr., SG - 38 GP, 19.2 MPG, 60.2 TS%, 13.3% DRR, 17.0% AR, 12.1% TOR, .072 WS/48, 10.9 PER; Last Week: 10
Mason came back down to Earth this week, but still shot the ball pretty well, making 7 of his 13 attempts (2-6 from beyond the arc). His playing time will likely continue to fluctuate throughout the remainder of this season, which can be tough for a guy who relies on getting in a shooting rhythm like Mason, but he’ll have to do his best to be ready no matter what.

10) Lance Thomas, SF -*34 GP, 13.2 MPG, 52.0 TS%, 8.1% ORR, 8.2% TOR, .067 WS/48, 8.8 PER; Last Week: 9
Thomas’ minutes have been inversely correlated to Henry’s recently, which makes sense because the Hornets have been using both of them as Aminu’s backup at small forward. Thomas is the better option inside, whereas Henry is more ideal on the wing, though each are basically right around replacement level. Thomas logged 16 minutes last week, making 2 out of 3 shots and collecting 3 rebounds while turning the ball over twice.

11) Xavier Henry, SG -*26 GP, 12.3 MPG, 49.2 TS%, 13.8% DRR, 11.0% TOR, .031 WS/48, 9.7 PER; Last Week: 11
Tough week for Henry after appearing to take some positive strides the week before, seeing his minutes go from 18 to 8 to zero in his past 3 games. He failed to make a shot from the field in his 26 minutes, converting one out of two from the free throw line and grabbed three rebounds, turning the ball over once.

12) Austin Rivers, SG - 40 GP, 24.1 MPG, 40.6 TS%, 20.8% AR, 12.0% TOR, -0.051 WS/48, 5.7 PER; Last Week: 12

Rivers’ week was much better than the couple before it, and I’m sure that no one was more relieved than him about that. He averaged just over 16 minutes per game and scored 17 points on 13 shots, also dishing out 7 assists compared to just 3 turnovers. His free throw percentage continues to plummet, though, as he is now a frightening 55.8% on the season after going 4-8 over his past four games. For comparison’s sake, only 13 qualifying guards in NBA history have shot under 56% from the line for a full season; suffice it to say that the vast majority of them are not very notable names. The mountain that Rivers must climb to prove that he can become a useful player in this league seems to continue to grow with each passing day.

13) Darius Miller, SF -*23 GP, 13.6 MPG, 49.90 TS%, 28.2% AR, 14.1% TOR, .038 WS/48, 6.0 PER; Last Week: 13
Miller remained in the D-League over the last week.

All season long, these player power rankings will be presented alongside various*“advanced stats”*in order to more accurately evaluate each Hornets player’s impact (click here for a glossary of the statistic abbreviations). In addition,*we also have created a chart*with the goal of standardizing advanced stat categories to distinguish the good numbers from the bad ones. Hopefully, these tools give each of you the means to comprehend the advanced statistical metrics used in these rankings as well as other columns throughout Hornets247.com.
For historical power rankings,*click here.

All stats were obtained from*ESPN.com*except for WS/48 stats, which are a product of Basketball-Reference.com.


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