It’s commonly agreed that Darko was horrible this season. It’s been a matter for debate if, when, and how much he’ll improve. I don’t think he’s played quite as badly as most believe however. Is he raw? Does he make too many mistakes? Yes, and yes, absolutely. However, despite often being in the wrong spot on the floor, displaying a dismaying case of butterfingers and generally looking lost, Darko some managed to do a lot right. His season’s end stats are as follows:
34 games, 4.7 mpg, .21 spg, .4 bpg, 1.3 rpg, .2 apg, and 1.4 ppg.
Horrible, right? Actually, no. Averaged over 48 minutes for ease of comparison, those statistics come out to 2.11 spg, 4.5 bpg (!), 13.0 rpg (!), 2.1 apg, and 14.5 ppg. That’s not half bad. If we add up all of the positive stats Darko racked up each 40 minutes, we get a total of 36.21. We’ve heard a lot about how much worse Darko is than other rookies. How did they do by this metric?
1. Lebron James 42
2. Darko Milicic 36.21
3. Carmello Anthony 41.45
4. Chris Bosh 31.85
5. Dwyane Wade 36.94
6. Chris Kaman 29.7
7. Kirk Hinrich 32.19
8. TJ Ford 32.26
9. Mike Sweetney 37.15
10. Jarvis Hayes 26.47
11. Mickael Pietrus 30.05
12. Nick Collison NA
13. Marcus Banks 30.85
14. Luke Ridnour 30.74
15. Reece Gaines 21.25
16. Troy Bell 18.11
17. Zarko Cabarkapa 30.74
18. David West 35.29
19. Aleksander Pavlovic 27.62
20. Dahntay Jones 25.56
21. Boris Diaw 24.18
22. Zoran Planicic 29.62
23. Travis Outlaw 35.33 (sample size 19.2 minutes total)
24. Brian Cook 33.44
25. Carlos Delfino NA
26. Ndudi Ebi 34.5 (sample size 32 minutes total)
27. Kendrick Perkins 56.2 (sample size 35 minutes total)
28. Leandro Barbosa 29.98
29. Josh Howard 35.08
Out of the 24 first round draft picks with at least 48 minutes of playing time over the course of the season, Darko ranks fifth in statistical positives per 48 minutes. Unimpressive? Meaningless, because it was all garbage time? Maybe. But consider this: Darko achieved that level of production despite countless mental errors. He was often out of rebounding position, he was tentative going to the hoop, he had a horrible start to the year from the free throw line. Overall, he mostly looked lost. His production came from raw talent rather than from refined skill. If he did that many things right without knowing what he was doing, what might he do once he gets some experience and starts to figure things out?
The mistakes he made this season are of a correctable nature and are directly attributable to youth (youngest NBA player ever actually) and lack of experience. He still managed to put up decent numbers simply because he is 7’1’’, insanely quick and reasonably coordinated. Most people feel that Darko has proven nothing and shown little to this point. I disagree. The numbers he put up basically in spite of himself show that he has terrific potential. Let’s just wait a couple more years and see what we have then
