Thank the lord for Roland Beech and 82games.com. Otherwise, I really don't know what I would do with my free time.
I went treasure hunting for some obscure Rockets statistics and found the following three to be particularly compelling.
1. Hayes/Scola tandem has much higher effective field goal percentage than Landry/Scola
Really? We actually produce better on offense with the Chuckwagon instead of Carl Landry? That's odd. Perhaps it's due to usage, but you'd still think that Luis Landry, accompanied by Brooks, Battier, and Ariza, would have a higher eFG than .364.
2. The second-most used unit is significantly worse than all the others.
Maybe we shouldn't play our worst unit so often. Clearly, our defense struggles when Brooks, Hayes, and Ariza are all off of the floor. Also: collectively, Rockets are better defensively with Dave Andersen on floor than Chuck Hayes. Weird...
3. Shane Battier has the worst plus/minus on the team, as well as the third-worst Def rating (opponents points per possession while on the floor).
Well, Battier does play a good chunk of minutes and guards the opponent's best player. But wow - this is pretty stunning. Then again, +/- is a pretty flawed statistic in many, many ways.
There - your Wednesday fun post is finished.