Simply Statistics A statistics blog by Rafa Irizarry, Roger Peng, and Jeff Leek

Professional statisticians agree: the knicks should start Steve Novak over Carmelo Anthony

A week ago, Nate Silver tweeted this:

Since Lin became starting PG, Knicks have outscored opponents by 63 with Novak on the floor. Been outscored by 8 when he isn’t.

In a previous post we showed the plot below. Note that Carmelo Anthony is in ball hog territory. Novak plays the same position as Anthony but is a three point specialist. His career three point FG% of 42% (253-603) puts him 10th all time! It seems that with Lin in the lineup he is getting more open shots and helping his team. Should the Knicks start Novak? 

Hat tip to David Santiago.