I did some research on assist quality this summer, and in their player comments I mentioned that LeBron James and Chris Paul don’t grade out particularly well in this assessment.
But you know who does? Would you believe… Baron Davis????
It’s true. Davis had the most valuable assists in the league last season, and it wasn’t even close. Among players with at least 300 assists, Davis’ average assist was worth .841 points, well ahead of the league average of .667. And lest you think that was all from having Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan slamming down dunks, consider that Davis’ assist value didn’t change at all after the trade to Cleveland. More than half of Davis’ assists were layups or dunks, according to Hoopdata.com, compared to the league average of 38 percent; conversely, only 26.3 percent of his dimes were “bad” assists that led to 2-pointers away from the basket.
— John Hollinger (on Baron Davis)
