it definitely should be considered so. a charge IS a steal. and you can't
say that it's more about the fault of the person with the ball than the way
his defender positioned himself. on that logic, if a player makes a bad pass
that goes straight to an opponent's chest who then takes it - that wouldn't be
considered a steal. of course, it IS considered a steal.
there are many flaws in the way statistics are taken.
for instance: if you pass to an open man down low, and he gets fouled from behind
as he tries to lay it in and inevitably misses, and now has 2 free throws, for every
free throw he makes, you should be awarded half an assist. to put it simpler: if you pass
to a player who then shoots but gets fouled, for every free throw he makes you should
get half an assist.
also there needs to be statistics that calculate a player's defense. steals are a horrible way
to do that, as a high number of those may be a result of gambling defense. players' value
for their contracts are heavily based on their statistics, meaning they're motivated to only
try hard on offense as defending well won't necessarily give them a better contract.
the field goal percentage from the 2 and the 3 needs to be completely seperated (i believe
when they tell you what the fg% is they include both). as 50 percent from the 2 is EXACTLY equal
to 33 percent from the 3. if you make 3 out of 6 shots from below the arc you score 6
points. if you make 2 out of 6 shots from beyond the arc you score 6 points. meaning that if you
had 40 percent success in a certain game, many would think that's bad, but if half your shots
were 3's it actually could be pretty good.
there are many other problems, but I'm too lazy to remember them at 9 in the morning.