[1] Howard's 2.77 blocks per ranked first in the league. He also had a charge rate .04 (well below league average) giving him the widest margin of blocked shots to charges taken
[2] Collison is the leader of pack when it comes to big men that are almost exclusively charge takers. He is one of only 3 players that protect the paint with their bodies more than with the blocked shot. Collison's .76 charges per game and .65 blocks per game set the standard of sacrificing your body. And he does this all in under 21 minutes per game! Another interesting case study was Ersan Ilyasova. A horrendous shot blocker (.27 a game) and fairly good charge taker (.58). I'm not convinced that he is as good at taking charges as the stats appear. My theory is that the other players just try to run him over as hard as they can because he resembles the serial killer Richard Ramirez [A] so damn much! You be the judge...
Another player of note that has such a unbalanced ratio of charges to blocks is Luis Scola, although his margin between charges and blocks is not on Ilyasova's level. He does have one advantage – players just don't have the same animosity toward him on their drive as they do when they are penetrating at the serial rapist Richard Ramirez's twin. They get one glimpse out of their peripherals at this retarded-looking version of Johnny Depp from Pirates of Caribbean and the contact becomes more sympathetic than of punishment delivered.
[3] Boozer implores the Zach Randolph defensive strategy. Go for the strip down low, never contest the jump shot, and then run to the defensive glass as fast as possible to collect the board. And this behavior is being rewarded in form a massive contracts! Boozer is terrible at both blocking shots and taking charges. There are certainly plenty of big men that are either bad shot blockers or bad charge takers. It's not their fault, they just don't do it well. But very few of the big men that are as deficient as Boozer in either of those areas feel the need to not even attempt to do the other. With the exception of David Lee... Yes, the same David Lee who got an all-defensive team vote this season (This is a mockery to the selection process!). Both players show a disgraceful effort of around .1 charges per and .45 blocks per. But don't forget about that quick ball swipe before they run to the glass for the defensive rebound. They are equally efficient at this technique, leading to about 1.05 steals per.
And if you were wondering about Randolph, he sits at .06 charges taken per, .42 blocks per, and .99 steals per. His proteges Lee and Boozer have surpassed his level of laziness and selfishness.
[4] Andrew Bogut should have been an all-star. He should have made it over David "I'm not going to stop you from shooting but let me get the defensive rebound if you miss" Lee and Al Horford, for sure. Bogut's .76 charges per game were good for 4th in the league out of players who played significant minutes. His 2.54 blocks per was second only to Dwight Howard.
The next closest player with rim protection balance was Marc Gasol. Gasol was in the top 20 in the NBA for blocks and was right behind Bogut in charges taken. He also added 1 steal per game which is rather impressive. Can we get some love for the non-American bigs who do whatever it takes to protect the paint?
Bonus material
The hybrid fouler and shot blocker has come to life. If there are any modern day Frankensteins out there, see if you make this happen:
If Dwight Howard and Carlos Boozer spawned a child, and that child grew up to take pictures of its reproductive organ, then posted those pictures on the internet, what would you get? You guessed it, GREG ODEN (Search for these pics on the net at your own discretion!)! Oden led the league in fouls per game by by a fairly wide margin despite playing between 6-8 less minutes per game than his closest competition for the crown of "Least Body Control By A Big Man [B]."
[A] This look-a-like is not an original thought of mine. I read it somewhere on the net but I can't remember where.
[B] Oden competes for this crown like he agreed to an incentive based pay raise in his contract for taking home this prize. His main competition for it are Jason Thompson, Marc Gasol, Dwight Howard, and Andris Biedrins. I really hope Oden can get healthy for next season so none of these other big men encroach on his territory (for their own sake because he will foul them hard if they do).
