Mario Hezonja: The Decision-Making Dilemma (Part 1)
Analyzing the EuroLeague Landscape and Comparing Hezonja's Fit in Real Madrid and Panathinaikos
The EuroLeague regular season is wrapping up, and with it comes the buzz about player transfers. Today, we're focusing on Mario Hezonja, a key player for Real Madrid this season, whose contract is ending. There's a lot of chatter about him heading to Panathinaikos, but Real Madrid doesn't seem ready to let go of the idea of renewing his contract. Looks like he'll be staying in the Spanish capital for another year.
Will he fly off to Athens to don the green jersey again? Or another destination?
In this analysis, we'll compare how he fits into the two teams vying for his signature. The whole analysis is EuroLeague-focused, aiming to see how Hezonja would fit into Panathinaikos's current lineup from a data perspective.
For Spanish speakers, you can find an even more detailed explanation in Sergio Vegas' podcast.
1-Statistical Summary/Profile
We're diving into the player's profile and noticing he's mainly a offensive powerhouse (pretty obvious stuff, but helps set the stage for where to focus). What's interesting is that when we look at percentiles in the Profile chart, his DRtg is also high.
In Top 10 percentile in %3P, %FT, No Turnover % and Defensive Rating.
Also in Top 20 percentile in Point per possession, Usage % and Defensive rebound %.
When we dig into some deeper offensive aspects, we see he's among the top percentiles in PTS, points per shot (PPS), Offensive Production (EOP), etc.
Here, we're comparing against the best in each category.
2-How does RM perform when Hezonja pairs up with different point guards?
Turns out, the team's offensive performance is better when they play at a faster pace, which happens when Mario shares the court with Campazzo. Not so much with Llull and Chacho. This is key when we look into play types because one of his strengths is in transition.
3-Usage and Points Per Possession (PPP) finished
We're checking out how involved he is in Real Madrid's offense (that's not just usage, it's the percentage of possessions ending with Mario) and how efficient he is (PPP).
Anything above 1 PPP is considered noteworthy, and here we see he's got a high USG% (17.1, meaning 1 out of every 6 possessions when he's on the court ends with him - second only to Musa with 20, 1 out of every 5), with a pretty interesting PPP (points per possession) too (1.15).
4-How would he fit into Panathinaikos' current possession distribution and with what efficiency?
Here we see that Mario has a high volume of possessions, which could be a warning sign of how much gameplay revolves around him. He has a PPP (points per possession) on par with Grigonis but with a USG over 50% higher.
We can also discuss Nunn's case and the statements he made, even though when you look at Panathinailos' current roster, he's not the player with the most points per finished possession.
5-Impact from 3P
Real Madrid
We already know he has a considerable USG% and is highly efficient, now we want to see how that looks in terms of shot distribution. In this case, he's the player with the highest 3-Points attempts per game with an accuracy percentage of .447, only surpassed by Yabusele but with half the volume.
Panathinaikos
Similar to what we saw with USG% and PPP, we're looking at how he would fit into Panathinaikos' lineup with the current values. He shoots slightly more 3s than Grigonis, but on par with a similar accuracy percentage, and it could also be a challenge to find him shooting options.
6-Impact from 2P
Real Madrid
Similar case as 3P but with 2-pointers. He has one of the highest volumes of 2-Points Attempts with a very good 2P%.
Panathinaikos
When we look at him in Panathinaikos, he ranks above most of the perimeter players (excluding Nunn) - with almost double the 2PA/G of Grigonis and with a similar shooting percentage.
In the next chapter dropping tomorrow, we'll dive deeper into his impact on the boards and play styles.
Stay tuned!