Statistical Analysis That Could Help 'Free Amir'

I don't mess with advanced stats much, largely out of sheer laziness. But boy is my day brightened when their conclusions collide with my personal prejudices.

For instance, as much as I like Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey, forward Amir Johnson is even more awesome to me. You know the problems Maxiell is giving Boston? Amir's got that same quality, but with more height and a higher skill level. So I was positively delighted to read this post from Count the Basket, which pulls together every conceivable esoteric measure of player performance to find out who's really good.

And look who warranted his own special mention:

Another eye-popper is seeing Amir Johnson, the 21-year-old Detroit power forward who's been riding the pine in the playoffs, ranked first in the league in Adjusted Plus/Minus. This actually isn't as great an anomaly as might be expected - Johnson rated rather well across the board. His consensus ranking was 15th. He was rated lowest by PER (64th), but he ranked 11th in Win Shares and 20th in Statistical Plus/Minus. Obviously one has to use some caution considering he played under 800 minutes on the season, but the fact that he rated well in several metrics could be a good sign for the future.

Me and others have been hollering "FREE AMIR" since last season. At times, my interest in the Pistons has consisted of following the uneasy relationship between Johnson and Saunders. So to say that this is vindicating is the understatement of the year.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.