Player Review Part Two: Centers

The Hornets weren't too deep in the frontcourt, but they definitely had good size in their centers. A quick game-by-game look at how Tyson Chandler and Hilton Armstrong did this year using John Hollinger's Game Score (essentially an individual game version of PER). Included on top are Chandler and Armstrong's best game, worst game, average Game Score, and standard deviation. The yellow line is a 5-game moving average to give you a feel for how segments of the player's season went. As always, click the graphs for larger images.

Best Game: January 4th @ Golden State. TC went off for a huge 20-20 (22 and 22 to be precise) and missed just two field goals as the Hornets defeated the Warriors by 12. Andris Biedrins and the rest of the starved-for-size Dubs stood no chance against the rampaging Chandler. He fueled the first half of an impressive sweep of a road back-to-back versus the Dubs and Suns. 

Trends: Chandler recovered nicely from an early season slump and probably played his best basketball in the month leading up to the All Star break. The second half saw him slump a little bit, but he picked up his play for the stretch run.

Best Game: February 6th @ Phoenix. While this game wasn't statistically his best, it was my favorite Hilt game of the year. He showed some flashes, knocking down a mid-range jumper off glass and throwing down a big dunk and one. Oh, and he yelled after the dunk. He finished that game with 6 and 7 and followed it up with a season high 11 his next time out.

Trends: Hilton's graphs are marked by prolonged slumps that just don't seem to end very quickly. Many Hornets fans astutely remarked that Hilton's biggest problem is confidence, and these trends confirm that. Seems like he just gets down on himself and can't break out of slumps (or get the minutes needed to do so). Interesting little detail: Armstrong's best game (9.2) is more than 2 points lower than Tyson's average (11.9). That has to change if Armstrong is going to be the back-up center of the future.