Charges should be counted

[bballer22]

I was watchin a old game tape and i thougt.. they should put chargs taken in the box score!! they count weird things like dunks although not in the box score, but a charge realy shows player's fearlesness.
sometimes its a refs mistake to call the charge but sometimes assists are given for acidental plays!!

[Colin]

I believe they do count charges, at least for some games. I'm pretty sure they do in college, because Shane Battier apparently "led the nation in charges taken.' Whether they just said it because he probably did or not I'm not sure.

[benji]

They should make it public...along with deflections...and should keep track of performance against individual defenders...that way ESPN.com wouldn't keep displaying rebounds, blocks and steals with their "dockers defensive player of the week", i mean if you follow that, Ben Wallace is the best defender in the league...and while he's good, even great...he's no Eric Snow or Tim Duncan...

[scubilete]

True, that also would tell us who is the most dramatic player we have in the league, the leader is Vlade Divac, what I can't say is how many charges per game he got,

[Colin]

Vlade doesn't get very many charges per game, although is flops per game is through the roof

[bballer22]

i think in general that stats are full of crap!!!
they dont tell anything about the player!!
look at MJs stats and some other players stats who gets near 27ppg. how he scores, how he passses. especialy assists, some assists are so good its hard to belive its only one!!

[Soul Glo]

I was watchin a old game tape and i thougt.. they should put chargs taken in the box score!! they count weird things like dunks although not in the box score, but a charge realy shows player's fearlesness.
sometimes its a refs mistake to call the charge but sometimes assists are given for acidental plays!!

They put charges taken and deflections that have an effect on the game under Defensive Assists.

Many leagues don't worry about counting these much anymore. I know in Australia that we dont' use them any more - including national league.

[MaD_hAND1e]

They do count thm~!
i think the blazers are the leagues leaders in charges, stoudemires got a couple of thm for marijuana, sheed has a few, kemp had some whn he was in portland

[Andrew]

i think in general that stats are full of crap!!!
they dont tell anything about the player!!
look at MJs stats and some other players stats who gets near 27ppg. how he scores, how he passses. especialy assists, some assists are so good its hard to belive its only one!!

Well, boxscores aren't really meant to describe the way someone plays, rather display their performance in various statistical categories. How many points they scored, how many shots they made and missed...boxscores don't need to take into account how many shots were banked in or how many passes were behind the back. Such statistics are interesting but superfluous.

For the most part, boxscores indicate the general performance of a player. If a player gets 2 assists but 20 turnovers, then it's obvious he wasn't really effective as a ballhandler/distributor. Or it might say a lot about the other team's defense. If a player consisently shoots 4/12 from the free throw line, safe to say he isn't a reliable free throw shooter.

In my opinion, charges taken is one of those "unofficial" statistics. It doesn't show up in the boxscore, but is interesting to note - the same as the player who wins the most jumpballs, the team that has won the most overtime games, etc.

[bballer22]

i know this.. but that is waht box scores have become... i hate it when anouncers say the antwaine walker doesnt tke the ball inside enouph just coz he leads the leuge in 3pt AT... he does take it inside, and he's more mobile thn most PF, but thats not the point... box scores now represent the way players play... even is the double double was a easy one its still is a double double...

but mainly charges should be made an official stat.

[Andrew]

I don't think that's the boxscores truly representing the style of a player's game - with the possible exception of the three pointers made/attempted column. Even then, it's used as evidence that a player takes a certain amount of threes - the assertion that Antoine Walker doesn't play inside enough would have to be made after watching several Celtics games, since there could be times when he does try to play inside but does not attempt a shot (elects to pass, loses the ball, etc).

Boxscores have always represented what kind of game a player has had, and to a certain extent how they play (whether they get a lot of rebounds, or whatnot). But there's some things that don't necessarily need to be measured in exact numbers - say, the number of times a player drives to the basket - thus there's no need for them in the boxscores.