Wizards forward Rui Hachimura has a statistical doppelganger, and you’re not going to like it. Technically, he has several, and...well...you probably won’t like any of them much.
Running players through my statistical doppelganger machine is often useful. While the past isn’t always predictive — and sometimes the results just don’t mean much (like when I took a look at Thomas Bryant a few days ago) — it’s sometimes a decent guide to a player’s likely career trajectory.
The doppelganger machine compares a player across 14 categories (production categories are per possession):
- age
- minutes per game
- FGA
- 3FGA
- FTA
- offensive rebounding
- defensive rebounding
- assists
- steals
- blocks
- turnovers
- fouls
- points
- PPA
I don’t include factors like size and position, but players of similar size, position and role tend to cluster together if their production is similar.