[Left: Bryan Fuller | Right: Joseph Dressler]
Brian brought up Derrick Walton's unusual statistical profile in his Maryland column today. It's not the first time we've noted Walton is far from a traditional point guard. He rebounds like a center, snipes spot-up three-pointers, lets his teammates handle much of the distribution, and generally makes himself impossible to compare to other players his size.
As we discussed Walton's lack of comparable players in the MGoSlack chat, our own Alex Cook decided to harness the power of Excel to find other recent Big Ten players with Walton's combination of rebounding and outside shooting acumen. The results are of the "holy $#^%" variety:
Parameters: >30% min, >15% usage, >20% 3PA/FGA
Walton is the only player to post even a 10% defensive rebound rate while making over half his three-point attempts—and he's at 21.6%. The other players in similar rebounding/shooting territory:
- 6'9", 232-pound Christian Watford, the stretch four on Indiana's outstanding 2013 squad.
- 6'10", 245-pound Goran Suton, the center on MSU's 2009 Final Four squad. Walton has already attempted more threes than Suton did that season.
- 7'0", 242-pound Frank Kaminsky, center of last year's Wisconsin team that knocked off then-undefeated Kentucky.
- 6'7", 230-pound Draymond Green, the KenPom Player of the Year that season who's now helping revolutionize the game for Golden State due to his versatility and ability to play bigger than his size.
Derrick Walton, it should be noted, is 6'1", 190. He's not a normal point guard, and that sometimes hurts Michigan, but he's quite literally a unique talent, and Michigan has been able to surround him with players who mitigate his lack of point-guardness, if you'll allow me to make up a word. While it would be nice to see him finish more at the rim, Walton's shooting is taking pressure off the wings, and his rebounding is a huge help to the bigs; there's not another player in the country like him.