It’s award season in the NBA. If you needed any reminder of this, look no further than Gregg Popovich.

San Antonio has wisely punted its remote chance at catching Golden State for a two-week stint at the Popovich relaxation ranch. It’s a sure sign that the season is winding down.

So in honour of Pop signalling commencement of the NBA’s final stretch, let’s start award season, beginning with my favourite annual tradition: the Good Stat, Bad Team All-Stars. Here is a quick explanation of what we’re talking about.

What is the premise? Every NBA team needs somebody to score, somebody to collect rebounds and somebody to handle the ball. Regardless of how inept a squad may be somebody has to collect stats, that’s the inevitability of basketball.

According to Basketball Reference, the average NBA team will produce a box score that looks like this every night: 102 points, 44 rebounds, 22 assists, eight steals and five blocks. Even NBA sides without top end talent need somebody to collect these numbers.

Every team won’t achieve these averages but in the main they should get pretty close. Take points per game for example, 25 of the 30 franchises average within eight per cent of the 102 points benchmark.

Any savvy basketball mind knows that using counting stats such as these to determine impact is largely fools gold, but it does allow us to have some fun!

Take the New Orleans Pelicans box score from their contest with the Toronto Raptors last week. With Anthony Davis shut down for the season, the Pels started a mash unit consisting of Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, Alonso Gee, Tony Douglas and Dante Cunningham. Rounding out the nine-man rotation from hell was Luke Babnitt, Tim Frazier, Justin Hamilton and the evergreen Kendrick Perkins.

Oh the humanity!

Beyond the obvious tanking jokes that come with starting Asik and Ajinca – for those wondering Ben Simmons’ college team plays just down the road from New Orleans – my biggest takeaway from this line-up is to think who could possibly score?

Despite questionable talent the Pels still managed 91 points, 36 rebounds, 22 assists, six steals and one block. Down on our NBA averages but still decent given the nine superstars (insert sarcasm here) thrown out on the court.

Our biggest Good Stat, Bad Team All-Star candidate from this game was Alonso Gee and his stat line: 17 points, eight rebounds, two assists and a minus 27 point differential in 41 minutes.

Nice counting stats but no impact on winning basketball. This isn’t to pile on Gee, he’s the one of the rare Pelicans players I actually like and a long time NBA 2k favourite of mine, but he was no more effective than you or me in deciding this game.

What are the rules? To be eligible a player must meet the following criteria.

Number 1. Your team must be bad, and by bad we mean one of two things
Firstly, if your side doesn’t have a winning record they are bad. Plain and simple. The very definition of good is to be desired, and no losing side is desirable.

Now is also a good time to remind everyone that we are only looking through the prism of this season. From an upside point of view the Minnesota Timberwolves are awesome, but the 2015-16 version is not a great basketball side.

Secondly, if your side doesn’t make the playoffs they are bad. 16 out of 30 NBA franchises make the playoffs. This means any good side will generally make it. There are certain exceptions to this rule, say the 2014 Phoenix Suns who missed the playoffs despite winning 49 games, but none exist this season.

Number 2. Stats must inflate what a player would realistically achieve on a good playoffside My favourite historic example is the 2011-12 statistical campaign of Andrea Bargnani.

Everybody’s favourite Italian finished with averages of 19.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.5 blocks and 0.6 steals on 43 per cent shooting. Not bad until you remember he was playing alongside a Canadian D league team.

Two years later Bargnani couldn’t get minutes for the sorry New York Knicks and was out of the league. His first Knicks season ended with this viral highlight, nicely put to R. Kelly’s Space Jam anthem. Thank you internet!

Number 3. Being bad isn’t the only thing to consider
Another way of looking at this is to ask the following – does team X perform better with player Y? If yes, then they will generally not be considered

Take Brook Lopez for example. He is putting up monster numbers for a Brooklyn side that is currently battling Phoenix for the third worst record in basketball. Brooklyn is clearly a bad basketball team but they crater without Lopez.

With Lopez on the floor Brooklyn has been outscored by 3.2 points per 100 possessions. Not a great figure but much better than their overall record would otherwise indicate.

But without Lopez the Nets are being outscored by 12.4 points per 100 possessions, a full nine points worse off. Brooklyn hasn’t won much this season but the little success they achieved is largely attributable to Lopez.

Number 4. Player stats must be empty
Above all else we are looking for those players whose numbers/stats don’t have any correlation to winning basketball games. Recent mainstays of this squad have been Kevin Martin, Rudy Gay and Enes Kanter – I think you get the jist.

Let’s get to the team!

Guard – Rajon Rondo
Traditional stats: 11.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 11.7 apg, 1.9 spg, 45.2 fg%

In addition to being the first picked, Rondo is the captain, coach and general manager of our 2016 side. Rondo has spent an entire season padding his statistical profile.

Rondo was this decade’s first ‘Mr Triple Double’ and although he has now been overtaken by Russell Westbrook, the Kings’ guard is virtually a lock for a double-double every night. But does Rondo and his gaudy stat line facilitate good NBA offense?

Despite Rondo leading the NBA in assist percentage, the Kings offence scores at a better rate without him. To simplify things even further, Sacramento is a better team with Rondo on the bench – the Kings’ net rating is 1.5 points better with Rondo off the court.

While Rondo’s passing ability has helped the Kings in spurts, his ability to feed Demarcus Cousins effective entry passes in post being the occasional highlight here, he has a propensity of over dribbling the ball and torpedoing George Karl’s faced paced, ball movement system. The marriage of Rondo and Karl was never a good idea.

Rondo is still a capable point guard but he is a volume player, not a high impact one. For players getting at least 15 minutes per game he is in the bottom ten for points per touch.

This is especially alarming given he generates the second most touches per game of all NBA players.

Just remember that this man was once the best player in a playoff series featuring LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. And it happened this decade. Now he is chasing stats with Boogie in the NBA’s wasteland!

Guard – Kobe Bryant
Traditional stats: 16.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.0 apg, 0.9 spg, 35.7 fg%

That shooting percentage tells you everything about the Kobe Bryant farewell tour. Bryant has been jacking up shots all around America and I hope everyone has enjoyed seeing his bricks one last time.

Of all players averaging 20 minutes a game Bryant ranks in the bottom ten effective shooting and true shooting percentages. Now I will readily admit Bryant has earned the opportunity to do whatever as he wants during his final lap around the league but this Lakers campaign has turned into basketball comedy.

A case in point being their 48 point defeat to Utah yesterday – so nice of Utah to honour Bryant by beating his side by 24, twice.

With Bryant on the court Los Angeles’ defensive rating is 8.4 points worse off, with the offence regularly becoming an equally inept four on one affair. Four youngsters standing around to watch Kobe shoot just like every fan in the arena.

But you know what the funny thing is though? In true Kobe fashion every missed jumpshot is doing the Lakers a favour.

Each misguided attempt to recapture those Mamba abilities circa 2005 edges his squad closer to keeping its 2016 draft pick – the Lakers are now virtually guaranteed of finishing with the NBA’s second worst record and second largest lottery odds.

The classic Kobe assist still exists in 2016!

Forward – Michael Beasley
Traditional stats: 14.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 0.5 apg, 0.6 bpg, 54.1 fg%

May the long two live on!

Beasley has only been back in the NBA for a month but his outstanding campaign was too good to overlook, however brief it’s been. In the 13 games Beasley has been on the Houston roster his on / off splits are incredible:

With Beasley on court: net rating of minus 11.7. Without Beasley on court: net rating of plus 9.4.

That means Houston is 21.1 points per 100 possessions worse with Beasley. Let me repeat that – 21.1 points!

Despite shooting a very good 54 per cent from the field, the former number two draft pick has torpedoed an already flawed side with a lethal combination of long two point jumpers and defensive lapses.

A small sample size would ordinarily relegate him to the bench but such impact cannot be ignored.

Forward – Julius Randle
Traditional stats: 11.6 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 1.7 apg, 0.4 bpg, 43.5 fg%

Another Laker, Byron Scott must be so proud!

As for Randle, let’s start with the good. In what virtually equates to his rookie campaign Randle’s performance has been extremely promising at times this season.

His full game was on display last week as he totalled 13 points, 18 rebounds, and 10 assists in a contest against the Memphis Grizzlies – being the youngest Laker to achieve triple double since Magic Johnson.

His combination of strength, ball-handling, and playmaking is something very few young players possess, and this provides the greatest opportunity for him to separate from him from other power forwards.

The stats and pedigree are present, there is no question about this. But Randle must begin producing in the confines of a team system, and this applies mainly to the defensive end of the floor.

Randle has a tendency of standing flat footed and ball watching as opposition sides rotate the ball around the Lakers defence. This was the crux of his benching in early January. If Randle can improve his defensive awareness he will become a centrepiece of the Lakers reboot.

The Lakers defensive rating drops 8.6 points when Randle is on the court. Overall, Los Angeles is 9.6 points per 100 possessions better without Randle. Individual production is fine but winning basketball must come.

Now would no Kobe Bryant and a real NBA coach help? No doubt. For his sake let’s hope the Bryon Scott ordeal ends very soon.

Centre -Jahlil Okafor
Traditional stats: 17.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.2 bpg, 50.8 fg%

To be fair, every member of the Sixers has been putting up empty stats for three seasons. But the advanced analytics are not a fan of Okafor’s 2015-16 campaign.

Okafor finished his season with a minus 16.6 net rating, being the worst for any Sixer playing 10 minutes a game. In fact, Philadelphia has been 11.2 points per 100 possessions better without Okafor this season.

The Sixers played at a much slower place with their number three pick in the game, not that Okafor can be blamed for all of his. His offensive game is build around post ups and deliberate ball movement, representing a juxtaposition to the new age NBA, and the Sixers surely knew as much when drafting him back in June.

These are expected growing pains for a young player who doesn’t fit the bill as a modern day big man. Okafor’s offensive talents will allow him to sustain a long NBA career, but his defence must improve if he is to one day contribute as a starting quality player to a championship contender.

Bench
Evan Fournier
Traditional stats: 14.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.6 apg, 1.2 spg, 45.3 fg%

Despite being a very good three point shooter the Magic have been much better with the Frenchman on the bench. It will be interesting to see what type of contract Fournier gets in free agency this winter.

J.J. Barea
Traditional stats: 10.2 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 4.0 apg, 0.3 spg, 44.0 fg%

The diminutive little point guard just kills the Dallas defence. The Mavericks are 8.4 points per 100 possessions worse when J.J. is on the court.

Ish Smith
Traditional stats: 12.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 6.6 apg, 1.2 spg, 40.9 fg%

There’s been a narrative going around that Smith has been a saviour for the Sixers since coming across from New Orleans in December. But want to know a dirty little secret?

Philadelphia’s offence has performed better with Smith off the court since his acquisition, to the tune of 4.8 points per 100 possessions to be accurate. Any boost Smith has given this squad speaks more about what came before him than any miracles worked on his behalf.

Surprisingly Smith hasn’t really impacted the Sixers defence, not that it could of got much worse.

Tyson Chandler
Traditional stats: 6.4 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.6 bpg, 50.8 fg%

Talk about an offseason regret. The worst decision made in free agency last season was that of Chandler’s – his Phoenix experiment has failed miserably.

The Suns’ have plateaued with Chandler – their net rating drops eight points with their big name off season recruit on the court.

Chandler was spared a starting spot because of Phoenix’s distain for winning games since the new year began.

Jordan Clarkson
Traditional stats: 15.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.1 spg, 43.3 fg%

Clarkson probably belongs in the starting line-up but a third Laker would be too much!