Scottie Barnes and Jalen Suggs have made considerable improvements in their games this season. Evan Mobley has been consistently good since day 1. Even Jalen Green has seemingly turned the corner after a rough start to the season. And all of them are doing it on pretty decent teams. Meanwhile Cade is looking like he regressed from his rookie season, playing on the worst team in the league. Is he the worst of the bunch right now?
Using EPM after 20% of the season feels like a weird choice given how much sample size matters for these kind of stats even compared to raw stats. As well as how they’re so situation-dependent, as in Cade in Barnes situation would obviously not be putting up half the shots that he’s putting up in Detroit given the other talents on the team.