Greg Stiemsma proves why the backup center position matters.
After trading Robin Lopez in the 2013 offseason to acquire the services of Tyreke Evans, the Pelicans needed to add some depth to the center position.
To aid in this crusade, the team signed at the time third-year big man Greg Stiemsma to a one-year, 2.7-million dollar deal.
The money on this deal wasn’t really that bad relative to typical NBA salaries for backup big men. The problem is how much negative impact he had on the team when he was on the floor.
His traditional numbers of 2.9 PPG/4.9 RPG/1.0 BPG in 18.3 minutes per contest were largely unspectacular. But even more detrimental, the team was hemorrhaging value when he was on the floor. According to Cleaning the Glass, New Orleans was 7.2 points per 100 possessions worse when he was on the floor in 2013-14 (18th percentile).
The Pelicans’ analytics staff must have caught wind of this on/off split with Stiemsma, as the team cut ties with him with two games left in the season to sign veteran journeyman Melvin Ely.