The 2015 NBA finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors has been one of the most exciting series in recent years. The underdog Cleveland Cavaliers are up 2-1 and game four is scheduled for tonight. In this write-up, chart-it looks at each player’s share of their team’s total points scored and total salary. You can find the data used in this write-up here and here. The source code for the data analysis can be found here.
LeBron’s importance to the Cavs has been widely discussed, particularly in light of injuries that will force three of the Cavs starters to miss the finals. The 2015 NBA finals are essentially LeBron James versus the Warriors. But just how important is he? Let’s look at points scored by each player in Figure 1 below. LeBron has scored more than 42 percent of the team’s points during the first three games of the series. The next highest is Timofey Mozgov, who’s scored just over 13 percent of the team’s points. Mathew Dellavedova, a key player for the Cavs during the series, has scored 10 percent of the team’s total points.
The Warriors points are more evenly distributed with both Steph Curry and Klay Thompson each scoring about a quarter of the team’s points. Andre Iguodala is in third place with 12.7 percent.
Figure 1. Points Scored
| Cavaliers | Pts | % Team Total | Warriors | Pts | % Team Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Team Points | 291 | 292 | |||
| LeBron James | 123 | 42.3 | Stephen Curry | 72 | 24.7 |
| Timofey Mozgov | 39 | 13.4 | Klay Thompson | 69 | 23.6 |
| J.R. Smith | 32 | 11.0 | Andre Iguodala | 37 | 12.7 |
| Matthew Dellavedova | 29 | 10.0 | Draymond Green | 29 | 9.9 |
| Kyrie Irving | 23 | 7.9 | Harrison Barnes | 22 | 7.5 |
| Iman Shumpert | 16 | 5.5 | Festus Ezeli | 12 | 4.1 |
| James Jones | 15 | 5.2 | Leandro Barbosa | 11 | 3.8 |
| Tristan Thompson | 14 | 4.8 | David Lee | 11 | 3.8 |
| Mike Miller | 0 | 0.0 | Shaun Livingston | 11 | 3.8 |
| Andrew Bogut | 10 | 3.4 | |||
| Marreese Speights | 10 | 3.4 |
Points scored understates LeBron’s contribution to team scoring as he’s also leading the Cavs in assists, averaging more than eight per game during the finals. Looking at points scored directly by LeBron and points scored because of LeBron’s assists, he’s been involved in close to 60 percent of the team’s total points. Curry is responsible for close to 38 percent of the Warrior’s points. Klay Thompson, with just four assists all series, has not contributed much by way of assist points. In general, the Warriors have lagged the Cavs in assists, with the entire team logging about 48 assists compared to the Cavs’ 61.
Figure 2. Points Scored and Assist Points
| Cavaliers | Pts | % Team Total | Warriors | Pts | % Team Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Team Points | 291 | 292 | |||
| LeBron James | 173 | 59.5 | Stephen Curry | 110 | 37.7 |
| Timofey Mozgov | 45 | 15.5 | Klay Thompson | 77 | 26.4 |
| J.R. Smith | 34 | 11.5 | Andre Iguodala | 61 | 20.9 |
| Matthew Dellavedova | 45 | 15.5 | Draymond Green | 45 | 15.4 |
| Kyrie Irving | 35 | 12.0 | Harrison Barnes | 24 | 8.2 |
| Iman Shumpert | 18 | 6.2 | Festus Ezeli | 16 | 5.5 |
| James Jones | 19 | 6.5 | Leandro Barbosa | 13 | 4.5 |
| Tristan Thompson | 18 | 6.2 | David Lee | 15 | 5.1 |
| Mike Miller | 0 | 0.0 | Shaun Livingston | 23 | 7.9 |
| Andrew Bogut | 20 | 6.8 | |||
| Marreese Speights | 10 | 3.4 |
For fun, we also looked at each player’s share of their respective team’s total salary. The Cavs are currently fielding players who make up just 62.5 percent of their team’s total salary, which helps put into perspective the magnitude of the team’s injuries. In fact, the 62.5 percent includes Kyrie Irving, who was injured in Game 1 of the finals. Without Kyrie, the Cavs players make up about 54 percent of the team’s total salary. By comparison, the Warriors players comprise 94.4 percent of the team’s salary.
Also interesting is that David Lee (who sat on the bench for most of the season and playoffs) is currently the highest paid player on the Warriors roster, earning 50 percent more than Steph Curry, the league MVP. In fact, Curry isn’t even the second (Andrew Bogut) or third (Andre Iguodala) highest earner on the team. Curry’s $10.6 million salary, about half of what LeBron earns, ranks him fourth among his teammates. Curry is clearly underpaid. But Klay Thompson, who’s scored as many points as Curry during the finals, may be even more underpaid. His $3.1 million salary puts him near the bottom of the team’s salary ranking. Don’t feel bad for Klay though. Under his new contract, he’ll be making upwards of $15 million a year starting next year, making him the team’s highest paid player, at least until 2017, when Curry’s contract expires. The Warriors salary distribution is relatively even, with four players each accounting for 14-20 percent of the team’s total salary.
The Cavs have a more lopsided salary distribution with LeBron earning 40 percent of the total salary among players fielded by the Cavs in the finals (46 percent excluding Kyrie and 25 percent of the total Cavs salary). Dellavedova’s salary is just under a million dollars, the lowest salary among all of the players who have played this series.
Figure 3. Player Salaries **
| Cavaliers | Salary ($mn) | % Total | Warriors | Salary ($ mn) | % Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selected Players Total | 51.6 | 0.625 | 69.5 | 0.944 | ||
| LeBron James | 20.6 | 40% / 25% | Stephen Curry | 10.6 | 15% / 14% | |
| Timofey Mozgov | 4.7 | 9% / 5% | Klay Thompson | 3.1 | 4% / 4% | |
| J.R. Smith | 6.5 | 13% / 8% | Andre Iguodala | 12.3 | 18% / 17% | |
| Matthew Dellavedova | 0.8 | 2% / 1% | Draymond Green | 0.9 | 1% / 1% | |
| Kyrie Irving | 7.1 | 14% / 9% | Harrison Barnes | 3 | 4% / 4% | |
| Iman Shumpert | 2.6 | 5% / 3% | Festus Ezeli | 1.1 | 2% / 2% | |
| James Jones | 1.4 | 3% / 2% | Leandro Barbosa | 1.4 | 2% / 2% | |
| Tristan Thompson | 5.1 | 10% / 6% | David Lee | 15 | 22% / 20% | |
| Mike Miller | 2.7 | 5% / 3% | Shaun Livingston | 5.3 | 8% / 7% | |
| Andrew Bogut | 13 | 19% / 18% | ||||
| Marreese Speights | 3.7 | 5% / 5% | ||||
| Team Total | 82.6 | 100% | 73.6 | 100% |