I know that many of us Nuggets' faithful were wondering what would happen this past off-season. We all wondered if the Nuggets would bring in any new contributors, and if we were going to bring Dahntay, Bird, and AC back. At the end of the day, we only brought Bird and AC back, we lost Kleiza and Jones, and it seemed as if the Nuggets were declining in the ranks of the Western Conference while the Spurs were moving up the ranks. We finally brought in Lawson and Afflalo (who many of the "experts" considered a poor man Dahntay Jones), but the question that we still had was if this would be enough. Finally, with the amazing additions of Afflalo and Lawson, the answer came. It seems as if it's a definite YES. Although Lawson's addition was very nice, I consider the X-factor being Afflalo.
When you look at Jones and Afflalo, it may appear that Jones is outplaying Afflalo, but the truth is Afflalo is a much better addition than Jones ever was, especially on the defensive end. (refer to BeefySwats post on AFFLALO is an elite defender).
On the offensive end it looks as if Jones is a better player, but lets analyze their games.
Jones: averaging 17 PPG.
Afflalo: averaging 9 PPG.
It seems by these statistics that Jones is outplaying Afflalo on the offensive end, but let's look a little deeper.
Jones: the Pacers SECOND second scoring option, having 156 2-pt attempts (12 attempts per game/ 16.9 attempts per 48 minutes) and 10 3-pt attempts (0.8 attempts per game/ 1.1 attempt per 48 minutes) equaling 166 attempts all together. Jones is just shooting 46% from the field (5.7 makes per game/ 8 makes per 48 minutes) and 30% from beyond the arc (0.2 makes per game/ 0.3 makes per 48 minutes). Jones an 81% FT shooter (6.3 attempts per game/ 8.9 attempts per 48 minutes) (5.1 makes per game/ 7.2 makes per 48 minutes). Jones averages 0.4 offensive rebounds per game. Jones averages 23 points and 0.6 offensive rebounds per 48 minutes. NOTE: Pacers have only played 13 games.
Afflalo: tied for SIXTH on the Nuggets with 69 2-pt attempts (4.6 attempts per game/ 8.7 attempts per 48 minutes) and 31 3-pt attempts (2.1 attempts per game/ 3.9 attempts per 48 minutes) equaling 100 attempts all together. Afflalo is shooting 50% (2.5 makes per game/ 4.6 makes per 48 minutes) from the field and 42% from beyond the arc (0.9 makes per game/ 1.6 makes per 48 minutes). Afflalo a 76% FT shooter 19-25 (1.7 attempts per game/ 3.13 attempts per 48 minutes) (1.3 makes per game/ 2.4 makes per 48 minutes) Afflalo also averages 0.4 offensive rebounds per game. NOTE: Nuggets have played 15 games.
Jones: 22.7 2-pt + 13.1 3-pt + 7.2 FT= 43
Afflalo: 25.4 2-pt + 19.7 3-pt + 2.4 FT= 47.5
That being said, if they both shot the same amount per game, Jones would have 43 points per 48 minutes, while Afflalo would have 47.5 points per 48 minutes. Both are quite efficent, but Afflalo has Jones by just a little bit. Jones makes up for his poor field goal percentage with his FT's.
All in all, it looks as if Afflalo is a much more efficent shooter than Jones, and if they both took the same amount of shots per 48 minutes, Afflalo would outscore Jones by about 4.5 points. Looks like the Nuggets made another genius move during the off-season.
