Is Ginebra too reliant on Justin Brownlee this 2019 PBA Com. Cup?

(c) PBA Media Bureau

Coach Tim Cone was not happy about the local players of Ginebra. He repeated his cry of not relying too much on their elite import, Justin Brownlee. 

Coach Tim said that Brownlee worked too much again in their loss against TNT Ka Tropa, as shown by his statline of 29 points, 17 rebounds, 0 assist, 5 turnovers, 9/22 FG, 1/5 3FG and 2 blocks. 

So, are the local players of Ginebra really relying too much on Justin Brownlee?

Let us see the statistics. An offensive possession in basketball will only end in three ways, either by taking a shot, getting fouled and sent to the free-throw line or incurring a turnover. Let us see the usage rate then of Justin.

By using the team stats of PBA.ph, the average total possessions per game of Ginebra is 109.3. How many of those possessions were utilized by Justin?

By taking the sum of his field-goal attempts, free-throw attempts divided by 2 and turnovers, I came up with 29.7. 29.7 is 27.2% of 109.3.

So, Brownlee is using 27.2% of the possessions of Ginebra, per game.

Is that high?

How about comparing his rate to Terrence Jones, who led TNT to a 6-1 start. 

TNT averaged 112.7 possessions per game. Jones used 35.3 possessions per game. The rate is 31.3%. In short, Terrence is using more of his team's offensive possessions than Brownlee.

Although, the point of coach Tim is not only about the end of the possession but the overall workload of Justin. Although, the coaching staff should look at themselves too because they have increased the minutes per game of Brownlee from 38.0 last 2018 Commissioner's Cup to 45.5 this conference.