Looking at how Prince compares to other players in the NBA at his position (from
cleaningtheglass.com) is interesting.
Offensively, his points per shot attempt (PSA) was only in the 19th percentile as a rookie, then improved to the 53rd and 87th percentiles his next two seasons. He showed amazing progress his three years with Atlanta.
Last season, his fourth, he moved to Brooklyn and dropped to the 8th percentile, possibly because they were playing him as a power forward 91% of the time.
Looking at Prince’s numbers since coming to the Cavs, he’s played power forward 67% of his minutes and small forward 33%. With Prince at the 4, the Cavs have been outscored by 13.6 points per 100 possessions. When playing the 3 on the other hand, the Cavs have outscored their opponents by 5.8 points per 100. So the Cavs are a whopping 19.6 points better when Prince plays small forward instead of the 4.
To put real numbers on it, the Cavs average 120.3 points per 100 with Prince at the 3 and 108.1 when he’s a 4. That 120.3 number puts the Cavs in the 90th percentile in the league in scoring. In other words, when Prince has been at small forward this year the Cavs’ offense is in the top 10%. Their defense, however, ranks only in the 36th percentile. Put them together and the Cavs have been in the 77th percentile in +/- in the 200 minutes when Prince was on the floor at small forward. They’ve been a well above average team with Prince at the 3.
Defensively the Cavs give up 114.4 points when Prince is a 3 compared to 121.7 points when he’s a 4. Clearly, Prince is a pretty bad power forward, but the Cavs have played him there two-thirds of the time due to injuries to Love and Nance plus they were overstocked at the 3 with Okoro, Cedi, and Windler.
The last eight games he’s been playing small forward exclusively now that Love and Wade are both available and now Nance is also back. He’s shooting 48.6% on 3’s, which puts him right at the top of his position group, or any position group for that matter. He won’t continue to shoot nearly 50% on 3’s, but it’s clear that small forward is his best position and he needs to play on the perimeter.
Now that Prince is back to his natural position he is playing by far his best basketball of the year. It will be interesting to see if Prince can continue to score at a high level over the next 17 games if he gets regular minutes and plays exclusively at the 3. Barring more injuries to Love and Nance, that should happen.