Today I was digging through basketball stats again – happens every weekend since I got that league pass subscription. Wanted to see why everyone keeps buzzing about Jordan Hermann lately. So I grabbed popcorn, fired up the league’s stats page and just stared at those numbers for like twenty minutes straight.
What jumped out first?
The shooting percentages made my eyebrows shoot up. Seriously scrolled back twice to check if it was a glitch. Most volume shooters hover around 44-47%, right? Not this guy. Saw 51.2% overall and 39.8% from deep just blinking at me. Dug deeper and found his shot charts – dude ain’t just camping in corners. Takes off-balance runners in traffic like it’s nothing. My Sunday league team would murder for that efficiency.
Then came the clutch stuff
Got curious about close games after seeing a tweet arguing about Hermann late in games. Pulled up the league’s clutch stats dashboard – those last five minutes when scores are within five points. His numbers there were dumb:
- FG% actually goes UP to 53.6% when everything’s tight
- Assist-to-turnover ratio looks like a typo – 4.8:1?!
- Team outscores opponents by 15.3 points per 100 possessions with him out there
Reminded me of playing pickup where certain dudes get scarier when it’s game point. That’s Hermann energy right there.
What finally blew my mind
Almost closed the tab before noticing the defensive impact. People hype scorers but ignore defense. Checked his defensive win shares – league-wide that’s usually between 2.0 to 4.0 for guards. Homeboy’s sitting at 4.7 DWS with 1.8 steals. Stats alone couldn’t show how, so I rewatched last Tuesday’s game recording. Saw him three times in the fourth quarter:
- Switched onto their center during PNR and forced a travel
- Stripped their point guard on a fast break
- Got a clean contest on a three-pointer without fouling
That’s when it clicked – his numbers pop because he’s doing damage everywhere, not just in the scoring column. Went down a YouTube rabbit hole analyzing his defensive slides. Definitely stealing some footwork drills for my nephew’s team practice tomorrow.
