Nylon Calculus: Presenting the 2017-18 NBA Anti-Awards

Welcome to the eighth edition of the annual NBA Anti-Awards, a playful way of recognizing some of the worst and most discouraging statistical achievements of the season. These awards originally lived on my personal blog, the now-defunct Hickory-High, and found a home on Nylon Calculus the past few seasons. If you’re curious about the history of these awards, you can find the full list of previous winners here.

The Shawn Bradley Award

This award goes to the player 6-foot-10 or taller who has had the highest percentage of his own shot attempts blocked (minimum 500 minutes played).

This was an incredibly close race, with Cody Zeller edging out Zaza Pachulia by merely a half a percentage point. Zeller was hurt for a good portion of the year but saw 14.3 percent of his 147 field goal attempts blocked by an opponent. It was mostly a lost season for Zeller and the Hornets, but hopefully this award helps salve the wounds somewhat.

The Shawn Kemp Award

This award goes to the player who has fouled out of the most games. From 1986 up through 2011, Shawn Kemp was the NBA’s leader in foul outs with 115, 35 more than his next closest competitor.

For the first time in four years, DeMarcus Cousins will not win all or a share of this award. Cousins was robbed of a chance to four-peat by a torn Achilles’ at the end of January. It’s almost as though the Basketball Gods couldn’t decide who they wanted to stand in for him, so they gave us a three-way tie between Taj Gibson, Marquese Chriss and Julius Randle. Each player in that group fouled out six times this season. If you want to draw some sort of dividing line through this hard-fouling trio, Chriss played in the lowest number of games and about 500 fewer minutes than Randle and about 1000 fewer minutes than Gibson. Chriss looks like he could be right back here next year to challenge a healthy Cousins.

The Jahidi White Award

This award goes to the player with the lowest ratio of Ast/FGA (minimum 500 minutes played). The award is named for White who assisted on just 1.7% of his teammates’ baskets over a 334 game career.

This award typically goes to big men whose primary responsibility is to catch and dunk the ball at the rim. Previous winners include Hassan Whiteside, JaVale McGree and Andre Drummond. For the first time in its history though, The Jahidi White Award belongs to a wing. Gerald Green joined the Houston Rockets near the end of the season and totaled 20 assists against 413 shot attempts in just under 1000 minutes, a ratio of 0.06. The Rockets offense is special in that it asks everyone not named Chris Paul or James Harden to pretty much shoot the ball whenever they touch it, turning wings into big men in this regard. Green walked into the perfect situation and now he’s walking away with a postseason award.

The Darrick Martin Award

This award goes to the player with the lowest FG% and a minimum of 350 attempts. The award is named for Darrick Martin, a career 38.2% shooter who played 514 games over 13 NBA seasons.

The way this award ended up is heartbreaking. Robbed of fascinating storylines like Lonzo Ball winning (he finished second), or Isaiah Thomas (seventh), the award instead goes to all-around good guy Quincy Acy of the Brooklyn Nets. Acy finished the season shooting 35.6 percent. Part of the reason is that he was a 34.9 percent 3-point shooter and an even 80 percent of his shot attempts came from behind the arc. Acy’s award-winning mark is also the highest to clinch this award in the past four seasons. What’s next for Acy? Hopefully not a repeat performance.

The Jason Kidd Award

This award goes to the player with the most turnovers in a single game. Jason Kidd had a Hall of Fame career with many terrific positive statistical contributions. He’s also had three career games with 12 or more turnovers.

LeBron James’ trophy case is full to bursting but here, in his 15th season, he has finally won his first Anti-Award. LeBron takes home the hardware for his 11-turnover performance against the Indiana Pacers on Jan. 26. In true LeBron fashion, his peak turnover game came alongside a triple-double where he scored 26 points 11-of-17 shooting from the field, in a seven-point win for his team. Even LeBron’s lows are high enough to destroy a lesser team.

The Matt Bullard Award

This award goes to the player 6-foot-10 or taller with the lowest total rebound percentage. (Minimum 500 minutes)

I had to look at this one twice. Previous winners of this award, Davis Bertans and Danilo Gallinari, finished second and third, respectively, behind Chandler Parsons of the Memphis Grizzlies. I was surprised to see Parsons there because he’d never had that strong a finish and this category and because I don’t think of him as 6-foot-10. But both NBA.com and Basketball-Reference list him as a robust 82 inches and thus he gets some glittery hardware to mark the passage of another NBA season.

The Kobe Bryant Award

This award goes to the player who has missed the most shot attempts in a single game. The award is inspired by Kobe’s performance in Game 7 of the 2009-10 Finals.

Russell Westbrook has fully assumed the mantle of high-volume inaccuracy from this award’s namesake, Kobe Bryant. Westbrook locked it up early, missing 23 shots on Dec. 15 against the Philadelphia 76ers — the third time he’s won this award in the past four seasons. He was absolutely challenged though, right through the end of the season. James Harden missed 20 shots on Dec. 28. Bradley Beal came out firing and missed 20 on Feb. 8. Even rookie sensation Donovan Mitchell took his best shot, putting up 22 misses on Mar. 23. In the end though, nobody missed like The Brodie.

The Nick Anderson Award

This award goes to the player who missed the most free throws in a single game. Anderson was actually a decent free throw shooter. But his four missed free throw attempts in the 1995 Finals against Houston stand out in my memory.

The league’s efforts to reduce intentional fouling have made this award a lot more competitive in the past two seasons. Until this year, the only players to ever win the award were Dwight Howard, Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan. This season saw a new player reach the top of the mountain. In a game on Nov. 29, the Wizards decided to test Ben Simmons’ free throw shooting and he responded by missing 14 of his 29 attempts. With Drummond, Jordan and Howard aging, Simmons could potentially dominate this category for years to come.

The Chris Childs Award

This award goes to the player who has posted the highest Turnover Percentage so far this season. It’s named after former New York Knick Chris Childs, who retired with a career Turnover Percentage of 22.8 percent (minimum 500 minutes).

Although Earl Watson took this award twice (2012 and 2013), it has otherwise always found its way into the hands of a low-usage big man with questionable passing and dribbling skills. Ian Mahinmi certainly fits the template and while his 24.7 turnover percentage is the lowest to ever win this award, he brought it home nonetheless. Mahinmi had nearly twice as many turnovers as assists and nearly as many turnovers (100) as made baskets (138). Offensive fouls were his most frequent turnover type. This was a somewhat surprising finish — Mahinmi’s turnover percentage was more than five percentage points higher than any other season in his career.

Next: Looking for an NBA Defensive Player of the Year

The Andrea Bargnani Award

This award goes to the player who has provided his team with the least overall production. I use VORP to determine the winner here. (Minimum 500 minutes)

It takes a special set of circumstances to win The Andrea Bargnani Award. A player has to be incredibly unproductive, but also play for a team starved enough for warm bodies that the lack of productivity doesn’t hamper their minutes. I was really excited about the possibility of Carmelo Anthony winning, but he ultimately finished third. Our winner this year is Tyler Ulis of the Phoenix Suns, who produced a VORP of -1.3 in just over 1600 minutes. The diminutive Ulis shot 38.8 percent from the field and 28.8 percent on 3s. There’s more to his than scoring but the mountain of bricks were more than enough to wipe away any of his positive contributions in other areas.

A huge congratulations to all our winners. Cherish these awards and may they serve as an enduring reminder of an incredible season.