New York’s Nate Robinson is a slam dunk champion, a fan favorite and one of the league’s most energetic players. But his bad habits have drawn the ire of several coaches, and for the last few games, they’ve earned him a spot on the Knicks’ bench. Krypto-Nate is expected to earn his fifth straight “DNP-CD” — that’s box score shorthand for “Did not play – Coach’s Decision — when the Knicks play Friday night in New Orleans.
Ordinarily, a benching of this sort wouldn’t be that big a story. But this one has coincided with the Knicks’ best play of the season; they’re 3-1 since Robinson last got out of his warmups.
Which leads to the question: are the Knicks winning because Robinson isn’t playing?
Howard Beck of the New York Times and Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus ran the numbers to find out. What they learned seems to contradict the conventional wisdom, as plus-minus statistics seem to indicate that the Knicks are better off with Robinson on the floor. So why are they winning? Pelton concludes:
That seems much more attributable to the fact that New York has made 44.6 percent of its 3-pointers in that span after hitting them at a 31.8 percent clip previously than it does to Robinson sitting on the bench.
The string of DNPs is also leading to conjecture that Robinson could be traded. Two problems there. First, as a restricted free agent that signed a one-year offer, Robinson gets the right to veto any trade. Second — Robinson was a restricted free agent over the summer and didn’t get a single offer, so interest in L’il Him isn’t particularly high.
The best-case scenario for the Knicks might be to include Robinson in a deal that moves either Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries off the books, which would give Donnie Walsh much more flexibility when approaching the 2010 Free Agent class.
Nate Robinson’s DNPs and the Numbers Behind Them originally appeared on About.com Basketball on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 20:27:06.
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