Sacramento Kings: The Curious Case Of Darren Collison

Darren Collison is kind of a strange guy. Well, I don’t actually know him, so I’m not sure if he’s strange in real life. But I do know from watching him play and researching his statistics that basketball-wise, he’s had a strange career thus far.

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Despite playing fairly well for each team he’s been on (Collison has only recorded one season with a PER under the average of 15) and mostly avoiding serious injury (before his first season in Sacramento, he had never missed more than six games in a season) the Kings are Collison’s fifth team–the well-traveled point guard has only logged six NBA seasons.

That’s a lot of teams passing on Collison–are the Kings going to soon realize that he’s a dud, or have they found a diamond in the rough in this California native? I don’t see any especially troubling signs that Collison is going to be suddenly terrible, as aside from a history of shaky defense there aren’t any real warning signs to his game.

His assists per game have fluctuated wildly throughout his time in the NBA. Another weird Darren Collison fact: he recorded his most assists per game (5.7 in 2010, his rookie season) and least assists per game (3.7 in 2014) playing alongside Chris Paul.

For a point guard, Collison tallies very few assists per game. His 5.6 assists a contest would have placed him 16th among point guards, had he qualified. Bringing in Rajon Rondo (ranked fifth among point guards at 7.9 assists per game) to pair with him in a backcourt works well because Collison’s true skills are scoring and stealing the ball–not dishing assists. On a team with a scoring machine in Rudy Gay and an overall monster in DeMarcus Cousins it really shouldn’t be that hard to tally assists.

Jan 19, 2015; Portland, OR, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Darren Collison (7) shoots over Portland Trail Blazers center Meyers Leonard (11) during the second quarter at the Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

If you treat Collison like a shooting guard, then his assist numbers look pretty gaudy actually though. Those same 5.6 assists per game would make Collison third among shooting guards, after only James Harden and Tyreke Evans. Now taking Collison away from the ball more might reduce his assist totals, but it could help his scoring efficiency at the same time.

Assisted shots are far more efficient than unassisted ones, and with a maestro like Rondo running the offense Collison would see a lot of good scoring opportunities should George Karl tap him to play shooting guard sometimes. That’s always been Collison’s true strength anyway, so why not exemplify it?

2015 saw Collison do the best and more efficient scoring of his career, scoring 16.1 points per game on a career-best 52.7 effective field goal percentage. His three-point shooting was solid at 37 percent (although he has touched 40 percent earlier in his career) but Collison’s efficiency really came from shots inside the arc, as he shot a phenomenal 51.4 percent on two-point shots.

Collison shoots at least 37 percent from all areas of the floor, except for (again, this is a weird Collison stat) between three and ten feet from the rim. Why he had trouble there in 2015 is beyond me, but he shot just 21.6 percent from that range in 2015.

To make up for that rough patch in his shot chart, Collison shot 47 percent from ten feet to the three-point line, 37 percent from beyond the arc and a cool 68 percent at the rim. One aspect of his shot chart that makes me think he’d be an ace scorer if paired with Rondo is his percentage of shots assisted.

Aside from three-pointers, Collison barely ever scored assisted buckets–just 22.5 of his two-point shots came off of assists. Compare that to his backcourt mate Ben McLemore, who shot just slightly less efficiently (52.1 effective field goal percentage) but had help on 62.8 percent of two-point shots and 91.4 percent of threes (Collison was only assisted on 65 percent of his long-range shots).

If George Karl is deciding his lineups on skill alone, it may just be the right call to give Collison the nod over McLemore at shooting guard for the time being and have McLemore come off of the bench. That may not be the right call long-term given how young McLemore is and the potential he has, but this Sacramento Kings team seems determined to win now, and Collison should end up being a dynamic scorer if he finally gets some help from a skilled passer like Rondo.

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