June Mar Fajardo ranks second to Pau Gasol as FIBA’s most efficient player
In the local airing of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup on BTV, the commentators have often asked why June Mar Fajardo has played limited minutes for Gilas Pilipinas.
Fajardo, the reigning PBA Most Valuable Player, has done a lot positives for the Philippines in very limited minutes. Recently released advanced statistics support this line of thinking as Fajardo trailed only Spain’s Pau Gasol in player efficiency rating.
PER, as it is usually called, measures a player’s efficiency by adding positive statistics (points, rebounds, assists, etc.) and subtracting by the negatives (fouls, misses, turnovers). This number is then adjusted on a per-minutes basis so as to not punish those who get limited minutes.
In the tally, Gasol had a PER of 48.66 while Fajardo was a 44.92. Slovenia’s Zoran Dragic, United States’ Anthony Davis, and Spain’s Serge Ibaka round our the top five.
According the proponents of the measurement, a PER of 15 is the average. The FIBA results are skewed on the high side because it has a much smaller sample size compared to the NBA’s 82-game season.
Fajardo is also in the top five for total rebound percentage at 28.68%. This means that every time there is a miss, there’s a 28.68% chance that The Kraken will use one of his tentacles to grab the rebound is he’s on the floor.
Naturalized Filipino Andray Blatche is also doing well statistically as he is the tournaments’ fourth leading scorer with 21 points per game. He’s behind fellow NBA players Gasol, Luis Scola, and Gorgui Dieng.
Blatche is also the tournament’s top rebounder with 13.7 a game. He’s the only player to get a double-double in all three games.
