Advanced NBA statistics show how Sixers’ Ben Simmons has a better career playoff true shooting% than His Airness Michael Jordan
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The game of basketball is not something that can be comprehended by looking at a scoreboard. Basketball is much more than what is reflected on the stat sheet. It comprises all the small actions taken by a player on the court and all the things that get affected by the same.
One of the best examples of the same is all Draymond Green does for the Golden State Warriors. The 6’6 forward is the heart of the Warriors and coordinates their defense, and at a lot of times, their offense. However, most of what he does never gets reflected in a stat sheet. This leads the people to doubt how good he truly is. Similarly, here is another case of how stats can be misleading.
Ben Simmons boasts better career-playoff True Shooting% than Michael Jordan
Let’s just compare the two names we put in the same sentence. One is a guy who caused his team to get eliminated in the second round, due to his reluctance to shoot. On the other hand, we possibly have the greatest player who has ever touched a basketball. However, if one is to trust the stats, the former is better than the latter.
According to the playoff stats, Ben Simmons boasts a true-shooting% of 57.5.
Ben Simmons has 57.5% TS in the playoffs.https://t.co/sUrAU78Mic
— Klay ‘Ice-Cold Killer’ Thompson (@warriors4ly) August 25, 2021
Meanwhile, at the same time, Michael Jordan has a career-playoff TS% of 56.8.
Michael Jordan had 56.8% TS in his playoff career.https://t.co/UcnvLL4QpL
— Klay ‘Ice-Cold Killer’ Thompson (@warriors4ly) August 25, 2021
It is worth noting that the sample size of the games taken has a 5x difference. Michael Jordan has 179 playoff games under his belt, while Simmons only has 34. Everyone knows who’s the better player amongst the two, yet stats say otherwise. Hence, its always better to watch a game, than to blindly trust its stats.