Tones & Definition TBL Power Rankings Week 1: Like Clockwork

Welcome to the Tones & Definition’s Thailand Basketball League Power Rankings!

This is undeniably the most powerful ranking of the Thailand Basketball League. Why is it the most powerful ranking of the Thailand Basketball League? Well…frankly, that’s because it’s the only one we have up to date. If you don’t have anyone to compete with, by default you are the best.

Yay!

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Seriously though. I will try to do this power ranking week by week to capture and rank the performance of teams in each weekend.

You could argue about the purpose of this ranking, as we already have the win-loss record to determine who is the best. The thing is that this power ranking isn’t here to figure out who is the best overall. Teams performances fluctuate as the season goes and the purpose is to be able to capture who is doing well at this instance.

All of these selections and rankings will be supported by statistics and data, but in the end, it will be MY ranking and MY opinion so if you don’t like the order of what you see here, by all means, make your own ranking so I can have some competition here.

It gets a bit lonely at the top.

No more joking around, here is our Ranking for the first weekend of the Thailand Basketball League 2015!

We kick the list off with the Samyan Ravens. They started the TBL2015 with a 0-0 record, which is not too shabby but not impressive either. It is great to be able to say that you are undefeated, but if you are also winless…that kind of defeats the purpose.

The Ravens are ranked dead last at 7th here because their Owner was hungry and he ate the registration forms on the final date of entry. This ultimately cost the Ravens a delayed debut into the league, but the owner was no longer hungry so no harm done.

I would have totally ranked them higher for being a good sport and participating in the league at the last second…but things don’t work that way at Thailand Basketball League’s Most Powerful Power Ranking. The Raptors currently share the league’s worst record with Thai General Equipment at 0-2 and aside from Dalron Lamar Johnson’s performance, they have been a bit underwhelming.

Among players who are playing more than 10 minutes per game, Johnson has the third highest usage rate at 30.6% and he very well should be using those possessions. He leads the league with percentage of total team points at 36.0% and that 55% eFG clip is quite impressive. Those numbers are bound to drop at some point, but until then enjoy his dominance. After Johnson, the performance drop-off is quite steep.

The Raptors are rebounding at the second worst rate in the league (43.9 TRB%) and they are turning the ball over at a league high 23.7% rate. The latter figure meaning, for almost every 4 times the Raptors get possession, they turn the ball over. Yikes.

The Young Guns might have a 0-2 record, but they haven’t actually been completely bad. They have been one of the best rebounding teams in the TBL. They are very good on the offensive glass (39.4 ORB%, 2nd in TBL) and the defensive glass (69.2 DRB%, 2nd in TBL). The trio of Evan Brock, Channathip Jukrawan, and Chattapon Jeungyampin have done well at doing the dirty work. They have been one of the better defensive teams in the league as well, limiting opposing offenses to only 36.4% shooting (2nd best) and allowing a league low 27 Free Throw Attempts. Not bad indeed.

Their offense is still a bit off a mess though. They might be shooting a league high 30.4% from the three-point area and they are doing well to get to the line and finish there (21.5 FTA/G,69.8 FT%), but they have lacked to finished at the hoop. They are still depending a lot of their offense on their import, Evan Brock, who is using up a league-high 32.7% of their possessions. They average the league’s second least amount of assists (14.5) and they are turning the ball over at a 19.8% rate.

These are mistakes that a young team like this would be prone to make, so it’s not like we should be surprised. Their development throughout the season is something we should keep an eye on.

PEA was one of the busier teams in the off-season (along with Mono Vampires) and they had a curveball to throw in their opening clash. They revamped more than half their roster with the loan of three ex-Madgoats (Suchon Maitampitak, Watcharaphong Thongsri, Chalormdech Limsuwan) and the signing of one ex-Raptor (Richard Latham). But that wasn’t what got people buzzing about PEA. Their signing of Jordan Collins as their import flew under the radar and he had a monster 28-10 double-double to debut and that STILL wasn’t what got people buzzing.

What got people talking about PEA was Moses Morgan, who in our preview was primed to be PEA’s import. Imagine the shock when we saw Morgan and Collins both starting the game together (going against our understanding of the one foreigner on the court rule).

It was then later explained that Morgan is indeed of Thai descent, which made him eligible to be registered as a local player and not an import. I don’t speak for anyone else, but personally I was excited.

Then the buzz died off and PEA couldn’t keep up with the Mono Vampires. Morgan didn’t exactly shine, struggling from long range and at the line and they didn’t get much else from the other locals.

They actually did pretty well at putting the ball through the basket, shooting 39.2% in total Field goals and 29.8% form three-point range. But aside from that, they were pretty bad. They had the league’s lowest total rebounding rate at 41.5% which I find pretty curious considering that they have pretty athletic wings and aren’t in lack of long big bodies. This is a team filled with good shooters, but for those shooters to shoot confidently, the big men have to clean those boards.

PEA were also nailed to the bottom in terms of assist rate as well at only 40%. No other team went as low as 50%. This is kind of expected for a team that just changed over half of its entire team, but there are only 10 games in a season and you won’t get many more chances to improve in terms of teamwork.

PEA split this weekend’s games. They caught a break with a game against the offensively struggling Thai General Equipment, but their form wasn’t completely convincing yet. PEA is a team with very high potential if they figure things out which is something that they haven’t done yet.

Another team that split their games were Mono-Thew. Getting their season opener with a win over the Dunkin’ Raptors was certainly nice. Chitchai Ananti and Darunphong Apiromwilaichai had really good debut games. Their import, TJ Cummings, had two impressive outings including a monster 17 point, 16 rebound game. The talent within this team is pretty obvious and they are doing a lot of things well…but there’s not much that they are doing great yet.

They are 3rd in Total Rebounds Percentage (50%) and 4th in Assist Rate (58.3%). They handle the ball pretty well (3rd in Turnover Percentage at 16.2%). The bright side of this is that they lead the league in forced turnovers (23.5 per game) with a steal rate of 20.7% which is really good.

The dark side of all of this is that they are the worst scoring team by quite a margin (38 eFG%) and allowed the highest field goal percentage among all teams (46.8%). It’s obviously a problem when you aren’t scoring effectively and allowing your opponents to score a lot.

At least they got out of the weekend with a win over the Raptors and the weren’t completely blown away by the Vampires, but the numbers don’t look so good going into next weekend.

It would have been easier to place Hi-Tech Assumption at the top spot if their performance weren’t coming off the two winless teams of the league, but that’s exactly what happened. If we didn’t look at the strength of schedule and went purely by the numbers, Hi-Tech stands out a lot. They are tied up with Mono Vampires for the most efficient scoring team at 45% because veteran players take good veteran shots (except for Piyapong Piroon who has been shooting only 9.1% on 5.5 shots per game). They are the league’s best rebounding team and it isn’t even close with a 42.4 ORB%, 73.8 DRB%, and 57.5 TRB%. This is pretty incredible considering that their top big man, Sukdave Ghogar, and most athletic player, Wuttipong Dasom, have still yet to play a single minute to nurse injuries. They handle the ball really well (12.7 TOV%, 2nd in the League) and they share the ball (68.6 AST%). They also balance out their scoring among their players, right now leading the league with 7 players to have hit double digit scoring.

What might be a slight concerning point is that they are allowing teams like the Raptors and TGE to score against them with a 40% field goal percentage. It’s not exactly alarming but it’s something they might need to look out for as they face better shooting teams.

Again, Hi-Tech’s numbers are really good but it sort of pales in comparison when you account in the context of opponents strength when you compare to…

…the number one ranked team in the first edition of the most powerful power rankings of the Thailand Basketball League 2015! The Mono Vampires!

The Vampires were the stars of the weekend. They debuted the transfer of 3 players who were SEA Games Cadets and the top players from last year’s Madgoats Championship squad. They debuted their second import, Cadarian Raines, who played impressively in his debut. And they won both of their games against two teams that have a .500 record.

Life as a Vampire now is bliss.

They are the best offensive team, spearheaded by Darongphun Apiromwilaichai’s ever efficient offensive game (59 eFG% off 8.5 shots per game is crazy level efficient for a slashing wing/guard). They have the second highest assist rate at 69.0% which means a lot of people are getting the ball.

They are the best defensive team as well, by a wideeeee margin. Opponents are only shooting 30.1% against the Vampires and a lot of that has to do with having Anthony McClain and Cadarian Raines. Cadarian Raines is leading the league with 3 block shots per game and 9.4 BLK%. Anthony McClain is second in the league with 2 Blocks per game and 6.4 BLK%. They might not be forcing turnovers at the same rate as of sister team Mono-Thew, but when your team can disrupt and block shots at a 2.2 BLK% rate like the Vampires…you don’t need to.

The Vampires will have to be a bit more weary with their ball handling though, because the 19.4 TOV% can’t be good considering your team has two of the best point guards in the country on your team.

But then again, the Mono Vampires are atop the Thailand Basketball League’s most powerful power rankings for an entire week. Maybe they do deserve a little bit of chill time.

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So there you have it, the power rankings for the first week of the Thailand Basketball League!

In terms of predictability, it’s been pretty dull as teams pretty much finished where I had placed them in my preview. But in terms of basketball, there is never a dull moment.

Stay tuned for Next weeks matchup of TBL Basketball this weekend!

Pictures courtesy of Onvisa Thewphaingarm, PEA Basketball Fanclub Facebook Page, Mono-Thewphaingarm Facebook Page, and Mono Vampires Facebook Page.