via msg.com
On Wednesday night, the Knicks host the surprising 5-2 Golden State Warriors and a familiar face: New Warriors forward David Lee.
Though Knicks fans seem excited about the team’s new era, Lee’s departure remains bittersweet. He was a fan favorite in his five seasons in New York and unquestionably the team’s top performer for at least the last two, earning his first All-Star Game appearance in 2009-10.
Substituting statistics for sentiment though, Lee has clearly struggled with his new team, at least offensively. Over his last two seasons with the Knicks, Lee averaged 18.1 points per game and 24.1 points per 48 minutes. So far, those numbers are down to 12.3 and 17.4, respectively. This is hardly surprising since Lee was usually expected to be the primary scoring option for the Knicks, whereas in Golden State, Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry bear most of the offensive burden. But while Lee’s drop in per-game and per-minute production is predictable, his diminished percentage and rate stats are not.
Lee has always been a highly efficient offensive player, with a career field-goal percentage of .554, a true shooting percentage of .597 and an Offensive Rating of 119. (Year-to-year, a 119 Offensive Rating usually is good for top 15 in the league.) In the early going of the 2010-11 campaign, those numbers are down dramatically. Lee is shooting just .425 from the field, with a true shooting percentage of .473 and an Offensive Rating of 102. His career lows in those respective categories are .545, .584 and 116.
It’s likely these poor numbers are largely a product of a small sample set, but if they don’t improve it will be alarming for the Warriors, who certainly didn’t spend $80 million on a .425-shooting big man.
Where Lee has remained consistent is his rebounding -- an area in which he has long been one of the league’s top players. His rebound percentage for the season is 18.4%, which is right around his career mark of 18.2%. A particularly welcome sight for Golden State is his offensive rebound percentage of 13.7%. Lee’s offensive rebounding has declined in the last two seasons, dipping to the 8-9% range after he was consistently in the 11-13% range in his first three seasons. That’s key for the Warriors, who desperately need to improve their brutal rebounding stats -- a year ago they were dead last in both offensive and defensive rebound percentage.
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