Best 5 man units in NBA--Mav's on top

[Eman]

The NBA's Top 5-Man Units----from 82games.com
One of the areas where we think 82games can be extremely useful is in understanding how specific 5-man player units work together. Basketball is truly a team game and the conventional player stats don't really tell you much about how effective a player is within a certain group.
Our 5-man unit stats are available for all teams (where we list the top 10 most used units) and players (where we show up to ten different units a player was part of). Now to be sure these numbers taken raw are subject to some criticism since we are listing them without adjusting for the caliber of the opposing five players on the floor. We have adjusted stats too, but for ease of first exposure we have elected to present the raw data.

NOTES: The following table shows the top 25 units, with Percentage of the team's total minutes they've played, the average points scored on offense, and points allowed on defense per 48 minutes, and the "Net48" which is essentially a plus/minus for that unit on a per game basis. Each individual game the unit appears in is also rated as a Win or a Loss.

Top Performing Five-Man Floor Units (as of 12/01, minimum 5% of team minutes)
# Team Unit Min Off Def Net48 W L W%
1 DAL Nash-Finley-Jamison-Walker-Nowitzki 6.94% 130.6 78.9 +52 9 1 90 %
2 MIN Cassell-Hassell-Sprewell-Garnett-Olowokandi 7.12% 119.0 86.7 +32 7 2 77 %
3 DET Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Okur-Wallace 13.26% 100.8 74.3 +27 12 2 85 %
4 MIL Jones-Mason-Kukoc-Thomas-Gadzuric 5.83% 92.0 66.0 +26 7 2 77 %
5 IND Anderson-Miller-Artest-O'Neal-Foster 23.06% 97.4 73.3 +24 11 3 78 %
6 DET Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Williamson-Wallace 7.74% 99.3 76.3 +23 6 3 66 %
7 PHO Marbury-Johnson-Marion-Stoudemire-White 11.94% 99.0 76.5 +23 4 2 66 %
8 BOS James-Pierce-Brown-Baker-Blount 9.62% 97.9 76.9 +21 5 3 62 %
9 WAS Arenas-Hughes-Hayes-Laettner-Brown 11.29% 105.2 85.2 +20 4 3 57 %
10 SEA Murray-Barry-Lewis-Evans-Radmanovic 6.06% 98.9 79.8 +19 5 4 55 %
11 LAL Payton-Bryant-George-Malone-O'Neal 32.05% 107.4 89.3 +18 11 2 84 %
12 NYK Eisley-Houston-Van Horn-Thomas-Mutombo 7.34% 105.2 87.5 +18 4 1 80 %
13 IND Johnson-Artest-Harrington-O'Neal-Foster 5.09% 87.3 71.0 +16 8 4 66 %
14 NJN Kidd-Kittles-Jefferson-Scalabrine-Collins 5.13% 97.4 81.4 +16 1 0 100 %
15 PHI Snow-Iverson-Salmons-Thomas-Coleman 5.50% 92.4 77.2 +15 3 1 75 %
16 SAC Bibby-Christie-Stojakovic-Miller-Divac 39.14% 111.5 97.4 +14 13 3 81 %
17 NJN Kidd-Kittles-Jefferson-Williams-Collins 9.77% 97.9 84.2 +14 4 3 57 %
18 PHO Marbury-Johnson-Jacobsen-Marion-Stoudemire 5.15% 114.7 101.6 +13 3 4 42 %
19 TOR Palacio-Carter-Curry-Bosh-Davis 5.82% 87.8 75.1 +13 7 2 77 %
20 LAL Payton-Bryant-George-Grant-Malone 7.13% 109.4 97.0 +12 4 3 57 %



Dallas has to be liking the trade with Boston right about now! They haven't used the #1 lineup above all that much (it's only the third most used unit for the team), but what performance! If these guys could play together for a whole game without fatigue issues they've been on pace to win by 52 points per game!

The Lakers Experiment is working fine too, as their top five unit is #11 on a per 48 minute basis, but running neck and neck with the Sacramento pre-Webber top five for best cumulative plus/minus.

Top Five-Man Floor Units, Details
# Unit eFG eFGA FTA Close dClose Reb T/O
1 Nash-Finley-Jamison-Walker-Nowitzki .600 .353 +3.4 36% 32% 95% +6%
2 Cassell-Hassell-Sprewell-Garnett-Olowokandi .612 .430 +0.8 18% 33% 96% 0%
3 Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Okur-Wallace .440 .380 +8.4 32% 38% 115% +7%
4 Jones-Mason-Kukoc-Thomas-Gadzuric .486 .341 +3.2 39% 30% 102% +2%
5 Anderson-Miller-Artest-O'Neal-Foster .511 .419 +8.2 34% 37% 109% +3%
6 Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Williamson-Wallace .487 .378 +3.6 34% 28% 100% -1%
7 Marbury-Johnson-Marion-Stoudemire-White .507 .412 +3.9 42% 25% 97% +3%
8 James-Pierce-Brown-Baker-Blount .523 .418 +5.9 33% 34% 86% +6%
9 Arenas-Hughes-Hayes-Laettner-Brown .598 .429 -5.0 30% 34% 95% -3%
10 Murray-Barry-Lewis-Evans-Radmanovic .550 .447 +14.3 32% 36% 89% +9%
11 Payton-Bryant-George-Malone-O'Neal .542 .448 +15.4 50% 31% 104% +1%
12 Eisley-Houston-Van Horn-Thomas-Mutombo .519 .439 +8.0 24% 28% 103% -1%
13 Johnson-Artest-Harrington-O'Neal-Foster .475 .353 +4.7 34% 35% 103% -2%
14 Kidd-Kittles-Jefferson-Scalabrine-Collins .455 .545 +13.6 24% 35% 96% +16%
15 Snow-Iverson-Salmons-Thomas-Coleman .513 .457 +4.1 36% 38% 104% +6%
16 Bibby-Christie-Stojakovic-Miller-Divac .559 .490 +5.6 39% 29% 100% 0%
17 Kidd-Kittles-Jefferson-Williams-Collins .500 .495 -3.9 39% 30% 109% +5%
18 Marbury-Johnson-Jacobsen-Marion-Stoudemire .531 .516 -1.3 42% 43% 101% 0%
19 Palacio-Carter-Curry-Bosh-Davis .457 .365 +3.2 34% 35% 98% 0%
20 Payton-Bryant-George-Grant-Malone .505 .515 +16.4 33% 39% 95% +10%


Legend:

Min = the percentage of the team's total minutes the unit was on the floor.

Net = the team net points per 48 minutes of playing time for the unit.

W = number of games a unit outscored its opponents while on the court.

L = number of games a unit was outscored by its opponents while on the court.

Win% = the winning percentage for the unit based on Wins versus Losses.

eFG = the effective shooting percentage, adjusted for the value of 3-point shots.
eFGA = the effective shooting percentage allowed to opponents.
FTA = net free throw attempts per 48 minutes.
Close = the percentage of shots taken from close range.
dClose = the percentage of opponents' shots taken from close range.
Reb = the rebound percentage for the unit, based on chances.
T/O = the net turnover percentage for the unit based on opponent turnovers minus unit turnovers.


If we only played that 5 a little more!

[Simon2]

Boston, Washington and Seattle ahead of the Lakers? Lol!

[Chiwas]

If I'm not wrong, I'm seeing the Lakers with TWO 5 units in the list. Malone and Grant make this possible.

Wonder what place would have the 5 with Delk instead of Jamison.